“Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley takes a similar look at his stint at the top of Apple, and says the company made a big mistake when it hired him as CEO,” Kahney reports. “It’s the most surprisingly frank admission I’ve ever heard anyone make about their career.”
Interview extract – recommended – here.
Full interview – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mr. Obvious. Frank or not, that sonuvabitchin’ unprepared sugared water salesbozo signed away Apple’s crown jewels via a poorly-written contract with Microsoft and very nearly killed the company. As least he seems to know it and is willing to admit it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Krioni, exactly…. Nobody knows…
For all those here screaming out load…
“It’s easy to comment or criticize history… it’s infinitely difficult daring to make or shape history”
Steve Jobs made and shaped history and for better or worse, Sculley dared to help shape that history. No matter what happened at that point in time, but this guy was there, he took it by the horns and tried it.
People fail only when they try to do what they have in their mind.
You don’t try, you’ll never fail and will never be remembered as well.
Krioni, exactly…. Nobody knows…
For all those here screaming out load…
“It’s easy to comment or criticize history… it’s infinitely difficult daring to make or shape history”
Steve Jobs made and shaped history and for better or worse, Sculley dared to help shape that history. No matter what happened at that point in time, but this guy was there, he took it by the horns and tried it.
People fail only when they try to do what they have in their mind.
You don’t try, you’ll never fail and will never be remembered as well.
David Rockefeller has left us with more systemic disasters than I can name. The world would be a better place without aristocracy-like Rockefellers and Murdochs-setting the rules of the game.
David Rockefeller has left us with more systemic disasters than I can name. The world would be a better place without aristocracy-like Rockefellers and Murdochs-setting the rules of the game.
Sculley was a short term disaster for Apple, but ironically, firing Jobs may have benefitted Apple so much more in the long term. I think Jobs really learned how to be a more valuable executive while in “exile”.
Of course neither Sculley or Jobs knew that at the time.
Sculley was a short term disaster for Apple, but ironically, firing Jobs may have benefitted Apple so much more in the long term. I think Jobs really learned how to be a more valuable executive while in “exile”.
Of course neither Sculley or Jobs knew that at the time.
Bill Gate’s daddy crafted the predatory contract designed to fleece the naive numb-Scullly. Jobs was, what, only 21 when he hired Sculley. Even geniuses make mistakes at that age.
Bill Gate’s daddy crafted the predatory contract designed to fleece the naive numb-Scullly. Jobs was, what, only 21 when he hired Sculley. Even geniuses make mistakes at that age.
Here’s Steve’s take on being fired. It from his 2005? Commencement speech at Stanford.
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy Story,” and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.”
Here’s Steve’s take on being fired. It from his 2005? Commencement speech at Stanford.
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy Story,” and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.”
“”Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley … says the company made a big mistake when it hired him as CEO”
Fascinating. I was just giving a lecture over at another MDN thread about Marketing-As-Management and how it eventually drives companies off a cliff. Thank you Mr. Sculley for once again recognizing this fundamental organizational behavior.
Head over to Is Microsoft’s Windows Phone ‘07 worthy of the two-year commitment? for my free class on the Entrepreneur Vs Marketing Cycle.
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“”Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley … says the company made a big mistake when it hired him as CEO”
Fascinating. I was just giving a lecture over at another MDN thread about Marketing-As-Management and how it eventually drives companies off a cliff. Thank you Mr. Sculley for once again recognizing this fundamental organizational behavior.
Head over to Is Microsoft’s Windows Phone ‘07 worthy of the two-year commitment? for my free class on the Entrepreneur Vs Marketing Cycle.
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Any chance that Billy Gates will admit to his early day sins? No I thought not, too busy buying his way back into heaven.
Any chance that Billy Gates will admit to his early day sins? No I thought not, too busy buying his way back into heaven.
How about returning the hundreds of millions he did not deserve.
How about returning the hundreds of millions he did not deserve.
@gross
The reference is to giving MS derivative rights to the OS with no expiration date on the contract. That was Sculley.
@gross
The reference is to giving MS derivative rights to the OS with no expiration date on the contract. That was Sculley.
@Steve516
Sculley, the “guest”, threw the host out of his own party, his own home. Which IMO, is unforgivable. He should have been the one to leave, since he was invited to the party.
@Mel Gross
Sculley signed an agreement with Microsoft to use Mac technology on 22 November 1985, fifty-nine days after Jobs submitted his letter of resignation.
@Arnold Ziffel
perhaps after twenty-five years have passed, and if he lives that long, we may hear W admit he screwed up.
@Steve516
Sculley, the “guest”, threw the host out of his own party, his own home. Which IMO, is unforgivable. He should have been the one to leave, since he was invited to the party.
@Mel Gross
Sculley signed an agreement with Microsoft to use Mac technology on 22 November 1985, fifty-nine days after Jobs submitted his letter of resignation.
@Arnold Ziffel
perhaps after twenty-five years have passed, and if he lives that long, we may hear W admit he screwed up.
None of you know how to read an article. You only see what you want to see.
“Apple’s big mistake was hiring me” mean’s Apple’s Board of Directors need to apologize.
I read only the extract so maybe I am wrong in my conclusion. But it’s not the sugar water guy that made the original mistake. The original sin goes back to David Rockerfeller and the board. Right?
None of you know how to read an article. You only see what you want to see.
“Apple’s big mistake was hiring me” mean’s Apple’s Board of Directors need to apologize.
I read only the extract so maybe I am wrong in my conclusion. But it’s not the sugar water guy that made the original mistake. The original sin goes back to David Rockerfeller and the board. Right?
Interesting to imagine where Apple could be if they hadn’t had their “dark ages”. It’s a nice, small-scale analogy to imagining where the world could be if we hadn’t had 800 years of technological and intellectual stagnation in the ‘real’ dark (“middle”) ages. Imagine if what we call the renaissance – when science and reason finally gained a foothold over religious insanity – would have happened 600-800 years earlier. Or even just 100! Take the advances of the last 50-100 years and ‘shift’ them back a couple hundred years and try to imagine where we would be today. Flying cars and jet packs could be as old and outdated as an IBM Selectric (sp?). And interplanetary travel could be like commuting to work. Or we could have destroyed ourselves hundreds of years ago. I’m just sayin’, it’s intriguing (and very frustrating) to think about what we could have accomplished by now if scientific advancement hadn’t been stalled for hundreds of years. Shakespeare could have been writing on an iPad. Sigh.
Interesting to imagine where Apple could be if they hadn’t had their “dark ages”. It’s a nice, small-scale analogy to imagining where the world could be if we hadn’t had 800 years of technological and intellectual stagnation in the ‘real’ dark (“middle”) ages. Imagine if what we call the renaissance – when science and reason finally gained a foothold over religious insanity – would have happened 600-800 years earlier. Or even just 100! Take the advances of the last 50-100 years and ‘shift’ them back a couple hundred years and try to imagine where we would be today. Flying cars and jet packs could be as old and outdated as an IBM Selectric (sp?). And interplanetary travel could be like commuting to work. Or we could have destroyed ourselves hundreds of years ago. I’m just sayin’, it’s intriguing (and very frustrating) to think about what we could have accomplished by now if scientific advancement hadn’t been stalled for hundreds of years. Shakespeare could have been writing on an iPad. Sigh.
Scully would’ve done better staying with Pepsi. He was being groomed to be the CEO of PepsiCo (which owned Pepsi along with many other big brands), and was either married to, or engaged to the daughter of the then-current CEO of PepsiCo.
He was a rising star. And to give Scully credit, he was a driving force behind Pepsi’s rise from an also-ran to a top brand in the Cola wars. That’s why Jobs noticed him.
I think, in the end, Scully staying at Pepsi (and moving on to run PepsiCo) wouldn’t have hurt the food industry, and definitely would’ve helped the personal computer industry./