Odyssey :"Pepsi to Apple"

This is a review of the book 'Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple (John Sculley with John O Bryan)'.From the very title of the book, one gets an impression from the word 'odyssey' that the book is going to talk about some journey, travel, etc; Ofcourse yes, it involves some jaunts but this book is all about John Sculley and his transition from 'Pepsi-Co', a tradittional company to 'Apple', a start-up IT products company(in 1980's).


Born and brought up by a father who insists on military discipline and pedantic learning , Sculley becomes a success story in his academics. Rather than becoming a barrister, which was his dad's vision, Sculley went on to pursue MBA in Wharton Business School, one of the top b-schools in the world, which goes without saying. After graduating from Wharton , Sculley happened to be the first MBA to get recruited at Pepsi-Co. To his surprise, he was made to do mean jobs like arranging bottles, gluing Stickers on to the drink bottles ,etc; at the factory in his first six months of recruitment.( guyzzz...think...an MBA from Wharton pasting stickers on bottles of cool drinks)

In his next term , he was made to do better works but none of which required the so-called MBA degree he attained from Wharton. He felt really annoyed and even thought of quitting except for his boss Mr.Kendall who reminded him time and again that its all part of the process and he can't get to the top in a single day.

After sweating it out in the factories and outlets for almost an year, Sculley finally got what he deserved: an air-conditioned cabin and the managerial work for which he was recruited. He also understood one more important fact that at Pepsi-Co, even the top level directors know what it is to work in factories and industrial outlets.

As time passed by pressure creeped up on him since Pepsi-Co would fire people who don't perform. It was almost more than a School for him with weekly targets, assignments, reviews, etc; and only the figures of sales can save him from not getting fired. And for Sculley, his record and his work spoke for himself and he rode up the corporate ladder very fast. It was a time when Pepsi had entered the market and the lone contendor was Coca-Cola. Pepsi had to do something to get to the top and this was the vision and mission inside Pepsi-co. Sculley's marketing gimmicks outperfromed Coke in the US markets. He launched 'Generation Next' campaign in which the local TV would telecast live Pepsi challenge ad( something like you can appear in your local TV for Pepsi's ad. All you need to do is go to the local shop nearby, where you can take a free pepsi challenge. you will provided wit two cups of colas. one pepsi and other coke, names hidden and you should answer which one tastes better. Most of the times people chose pepsi except once when Sculley himself tried this challenge live on TV and chose coke to his embarassment). This turned out to be a great success for Sculley and Pepsi-co and slowly and steadily Pepsi's market share increased and it surpassed coke to become number one.

Sixtenn years went on and Sculley was about to become the next President of Pepsi-co. At this point comes the dynamic young Steve Jobs, roving through the streets of Silicon Valley playing with hardware components making some real computers. Jobs starts Apple with a bunch of guys in their 20's (all college drop-outs).

The story from here goes on to describe how Steve convinces Sculley to join Apple , who leaves behind his 20 year odd tenure at Pepsi-co to join a quite unfamiliar Apple(1980's). Sculley was inspired by Steve and particularly an opportunity to be a part of ''changing the world''. Sculley finds Apple a strange place as all men would work informally in shorts and joggers, unlike Pepsi where business formals is the dress code. Sculley goes on to describe about the difficulties he faced in getting adjusted to an entirely new domain and the experiences he(aged 40 yrs) had with working with a bunch of youngsters(in their 20's).

Sculley, then talks about how he successfully marketed Lisa and Macintosh at Apple. As time fleets, Sculley comes to understand how Apple was internally divided into various divisions, with each charting its own course. Steve was specifically interested only in Macintosh and openly criticised people of other divisions. However the hype and hoopla over Macintosh did not live through the expectation and the downfall of Apple begins. A stage comes when Sculley and the Apple board members sack Steve jobs from Operational role and he eventually goes on to quit Apple.( a man brought into Apple by Steve Jobs sacks him from Apple...oops!!!).

The plot from here on is all about how Sculley takes control of Apple and strategies he adopts to bring back Apple to limelight.In the epilogue of the book, he explains the evolution of the business world and stresses how IT and information management will play a vital role times to come.( i am finishing it short, read the book for lots of other marketing ideas and stuff Sculley had talked about......a must read for a management/marketing freak)