- Not to be confused with former Apple marketing manager John Scull.
John Sculley in an AppleWorld 1987 promotional video.
John Delaney Sculley III (born April 6, 1939) is an American businessman and former CEO of Apple Computer. Sculley was previously vice-president (1970–1977) and then president of PepsiCo (1977–1983).
Career[]
Apple Computer[]
Steve Jobs personally recruited Sculley to become CEO of Apple Computer on April 8, 1983, a position he would hold until June 18, 1993. In May 1987, Sculley was named Silicon Valley's top-paid executive, with an annual salary of US$2.2M.
Sales at Apple increased from $800 million to $8 billion under his management. However, his stint at Apple remains controversial due to his departure from founder Steve Jobs' sales structure, particularly regarding Sculley's decision to compete with IBM by selling its computers to the same types of customers. In a highly-publicized power struggle in 1985, Sculley convinced the Apple Board of Directors to oust Steve Jobs from his role as head of the Macintosh division, leading to his departure from the company. Sculley then also became the chairman of Apple's board in January 1986. However, he was ultimately forced out of Apple in 1993 as the company's margins eroded, sales diminished and stock declined.
After Apple[]
John Sculley in 2017.
Sculley became a partner in Sculley Brothers, a private investment firm formed in 1995. He is best known for his marketing skills, particularly in his introduction of 'the Pepsi Challenge' at PepsiCo, which allowed the company to gain market share from primary rival Coca Cola, having used similar marketing strategies throughout the 1980s and 1990s at Apple to mass market Macintosh personal computers.
Media portrayals[]
Sculley was portrayed by Allan Royal, Matthew Modine, and Jeff Daniels in dramatizations of his relationship with Jobs in the films Pirates of Silicon Valley, Jobs, and Steve Jobs, respectively.[1][2][3]
Interviews[]
References[]
- Sculley Steps Down as Apple Chairman : Widely Expected Move Is One in Series of Shake-ups at PC Maker by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times. 1993-10-16.
- Showdown at Apple: John Sculley vs. Steve Jobs by Christoph Dernbach, Mac History. 2008-10-12.
- Apple History, Apple Computer. Archived 1997-12-10.
- 25 years ago, Apple's board of directors pushed out CEO John Sculley by Stephen Silver, AppleInsider. 2018-06-18.
- ↑ Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), Internet Movie Database. Accessed 2020-02-09.
- ↑ Jobs (2013), Internet Movie Database. Accessed 2020-02-09.
- ↑ Steve Jobs (2015), Internet Movie Database. Accessed 2020-02-09.
External links[]
- John Sculley official site
- John Sculley at All about Steve Jobs
- John Sculley at Folklore
- John Sculley Of Pepsi by Bernard Gotfryd at Getty Images (1981)
- John Sculley at LinkedIn
- John Sculley at Stanford University Collections
- John Sculley III at the Wharton School
- John Sculley at Wikipedia
Articles[]
- 1987: With Apple crumbling, Sculley wanted out by Denis Collins and Evelyn Richards at The Mercury News (2014-08-29)
Books[]
- Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple by John Sculley with John A. Byrne, Fontana. 1989. ISBN: 978-0006372844