Could 17, 1983: John Sculley takes the helm as Apple’s third president and CEO. The previous Pepsi-Cola boss is brief on tech expertise however lengthy on advertising, which is able to turn out to be more and more essential as the non-public pc revolution ramps up.
Steve Jobs personally lured Sculley to Apple utilizing probably the most well-known strains within the historical past of enterprise. “Do you need to spend the remainder of your life promoting sugared water,” Jobs requested Sculley, “or would you like an opportunity to vary the world?”
John Sculley brings Pepsi advertising to Apple
John Sculley, who adopted earlier Apple CEOs Mike Scott and Mike Markkula, joined the corporate with nearly no information of the tech business. What he did know was find out how to promote merchandise — and notably find out how to promote them as a part of an aspirational life-style.”
He pulled this off at Pepsi, the place he helped create the “Pepsi Technology” adverts that remodeled the comfortable drink from a low-end Coke ripoff to one thing altogether higher. At Apple, he took the helm of an organization going through growing competitors from IBM, which launched the IBM Private Pc in 1981.
“IBM is a formidable competitor,” Sculley mentioned as he moved to Apple. “However so is Coca-Cola.”
How Steve Jobs employed John Sculley
To steer Sculley to go away his $500,000-a-year job at Pepsi, Apple agreed to pay him $1 million per yr, with half coming in wage and half within the type of a bonus. He additionally bought a $1 million signing bonus, a $1 million golden parachute clause in his contract, 350,000 AAPL shares, and cash to purchase a home in California equal to his Connecticut dwelling.
At Apple, the thought was that he would run the corporate alongside co-founder Steve Jobs, who served as chairman on the time. Jobs and Apple’s engineers would handle the cutting-edge expertise, whereas Sculley would use his advertising experience to legitimize the corporate.
Every little thing went properly for Sculley at first. Shortly after arriving at Apple, he introduced again co-founder Steve Wozniak, who had been having fun with a while away from Cupertino. Woz started work on getting the mouse to work on the in-development Apple IIc.
Mayday!
Maybe by coincidence, Could turned out to be a really vital month within the lifetime of John Sculley. In Could 1985, two years after he arrived in Cupertino, he carried out a serious, company-wide reorganization of Apple. This concerned stripping Jobs of his position operating the Mac division and making him head of “new product growth.” The transfer wound up being the primary huge step towards Jobs’ 1985 departure from Apple.
A few years later, in Could 1987, Sculley was named Silicon Valley’s top-paid government, along with his annual wage reaching $2.2 million. Lastly, in Could 1993, Sculley stepped down as Apple CEO, a decade after taking the place. When he stop as CEO, Apple had $2 billion in money, and $200 million in debt.
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