John Sculley

"Sculley" redirects here. For others with the surname, see Sculley (surname). For other uses, see Scully and Skully.
For other people with similar names, see John Scully (disambiguation).

John Sculley
John Sculley, January 2014
Sculley in January 2014
Born
John Sculley III[1]

(1939-04-06) April 6, 1939 (age 85)
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationBrown University
University of Pennsylvania
Occupations
Spouses
Ruth Sculley
​
​
(m. 1960; div. 1965)​
"Leezy" Sculley née Carol Lee Adams
​
​
(m. 1978; div. 2011)​
Diane Sculley
​
(m. 2013)​
Children2

John Sculley III (born April 6, 1939) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and investor in high-tech startups. Sculley was vice-president (1970–1977) and president of PepsiCo (1977–1983), until he became chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc. on April 8, 1983, a position he held until leaving on October 15, 1993. In 1987, Sculley was named Silicon Valley's top-paid executive, with an annual salary of US$10.2 million.[3]: 412 

While Sculley was at Apple, Apple's sales increased tenfold from $800 million to $8 billion. However, many attribute his success to the fact that he joined the company just when co-founders Steve Jobs's visions and Steve Wozniak's creations had become highly lucrative.[4] His stint at Apple remains controversial due to his departure from Jobs's sales structure, particularly regarding Sculley's decision to compete with IBM in selling computers to the same types of customers.[5] Others say that the "two clashed over management styles and priorities, Jobs focusing on future innovation and Sculley more on current product lines and profitability".[6] But Sculley ultimately was forced to step down as Apple CEO because he was opposed to licensing Macintosh software and was talking to Goldman Sachs about splitting Apple into two companies. When Sculley left in May 1993, Apple had $2 billion in cash and $200 million in debt.

Sculley is recognized as an expert in marketing, in part because of his early successes at PepsiCo, notably his introduction of the Pepsi Challenge, which allowed the company to gain market share from primary rival Coca-Cola.[7] He used similar marketing strategies throughout the 1980s and 1990s at Apple to mass-market Macintosh personal computers, and today he continues to speak and write about disruptive marketing strategies.[8] In more recent times,[when?] Sculley has invested in and has been involved with a number of high-tech start-up companies,[9][a] and as of 2016 serves as Chairman of the PeopleTicker and SkillsVillage.[10][11]

  1. ^ Beverage Industry. Magazines for Industry. 1980.
  2. ^ "Trouble brews for Obi Mobiles, company 'founded' by former Apple CEO John Sculley". The Hindu BusinessLine. January 10, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Infinite Loop was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Markoff, John (October 16, 1993). "COMPANY NEWS; Visionary Apple Chairman Moves On". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  5. ^ "New Strategy Set by Apple". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
  6. ^ "Sculley quic bio at end of article". MacRumors. March 18, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  7. ^ Isaacson, Walter (2011). Steve Jobs. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-4516-4853-9.
  8. ^ "Rising to the challenge of truly disruptive innovation". Paris Innovation Review. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  9. ^ "January 2014". Zeta Interactive. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  10. ^ "Homepage - PeopleTicker". Archived from the original on October 7, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  11. ^ "Welcome | Skills Village". Archived from the original on October 8, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.


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