In 1983 John Sculley, then head of Pepsi- Cola Co., was approached by a young Steve Jobs who invited him to join Apple as their CEO. Sculley took the job and would witness Steve Jobs stepping down in 1985, before his own departure in 1993. Today Sculley serves as a mentor to a number of private companies. In this interview with Janet Guyon, Sculley talks about his past experience leading companies like Pepsi and Apple. He also discusses what he thinks it takes to be a great manager. From this interview I will analyze the type of styles, skills and traits that make Sculley the leader/mentor he is today.
Upon his graduation from Wharton, Sculley was hired to Pepsi and thrust into the role of an assigned leader. Sculley states, “I was put into jobs that I wasn't really qualified for because the Pepsi management bench was very thin. It was like a high-wire act experience because I didn't know what I didn't know. But these were great opportunities for me and I managed to succeed.” This demonstrates Sculley’s use of determination. Although he lacked experience in the field, Sculley was dedicated to making Pepsi successful. As part of top management, Sculley demonstrated mostly conceptual skills when it came to his work. When hired at Apple his main task was to keep the Apple II commercially alive versus the competition for three more years. Sculley says, “Keeping the Apple II alive didn't require someone to know much about computer technology, it required someone who knew something about how to market and sell a near end-of-life product.” This demonstrates Sculley’s emphasis on using his conceptual skills over his technical skills. When I compared John Sculley to the Comprehensive Skills model I noticed certain areas in which Sculley excelled. His main competency is his problem-solving skills. When faced with the problem of making a dying product alive versus an emerging competition, Sculley re-marketed the Apple II and kept it selling. When looking at Sculley’s individual attributes, his motivation cannot be ignored. At Pepsi and later Apple, he was thrust into a position of leadership. Sculley demonstrated his willingness to tackle unfamiliar problems, exert his influence, and better his organization. When asked about how he dealt with the problem of marketing the Apple II Sculley says, “There are moments of transformation in one's career. When you seek alignment between your own interest to grow and be transformed and you get the opportunity to play a key role in an industry that is in the process of transforming. This was one of those key transformational moments.” This quote shows Sculley's motivation to make Apple successful under his lead. When evaluating Sculley’s leadership outcome at Apple, his disagreement with Steve Jobs on how to run the company lead to his demise. From his work at Pepsi and Apple Sculley has gained career experiences which he can now share with the companies he mentors.
When asked what it takes to be a good manager Sculley states, “Really good managers want to turn one-off projects into as much of a routine process as they can. I am a project-centric leader. I like to work on projects and solve tough problems. Whereas a really good manager will say, "How do we replicate the processes so that when a problem comes up like this again we can routinely solve it? That is a very different skill set. It takes both to run a successful company.”From Sculley’s point of view, it would seem he agrees with J.P. Kotter’s functions of management and leadership. He also states that it takes both managerial and leadership skills to successfully run a company. Do you agree that both are necessary to successfully run a company? Is it possible to successfully run a company by only performing management or leadership functions? What do you think?
-Clay Gruenwald
