Former Apple CEO says curiosity is crucial
I recently spoke with John Sculley, former CEO of Pepsi and Apple and a legendary figure in marketing for innovations such as lifestyle marketing (think “Pepsi Generation”) and head-on competitive advertising (the “Pepsi Challenge”).
The reason for the interview was, ostensibly, to promote his latest venture, RX Advanced, and book, “Moonshot: Game-Changing Strategies to Build Billion Dollar Businesses.” But after a few minutes, I explained that my column is for Apple enthusiasts and Mac users. We spent the rest of the interview discussing all things Apple. Sculley’s still an Apple fan even though he and Jobs had a fallingout in the mid-1980s over corporate strategy.
Following are edited excerpts.
Q: You once said you’d never been in a better store than an Apple store. Do you still feel that way?
A: I still think it’s spectacular. I think you have to give Steve Jobs the credit for that. He always managed to elevate the expectation beyond what anyone prior to that had focused on, whether it was products or applications or services. Like everything else Steve did, he did it with exceptional talent.
Q: Are you still a Mac /iPhone/iPad user?
A: Yeah. My wife and I have every Apple product, and we love the experience of going in. We know we can buy them online, right, but we just love the experience of the Apple store — the people are so well trained and enthusiastic, and we always learn something new. We love the Genius Bar; we take the mini-courses they have on how to do different things; and it’s great fun. It’s part of the whole Apple experience.
Q: You’re known as a marketing guru. If you could say one thing to a fledgling entrepreneur launching a new product today, what would it be?
A: Start with great curiosity about what’s in it for the customer. The thing I loved about my time working with Steve Jobs was that Steve was not a trained engineer. Neither was I. So, when he was creating the Macintosh, he always said, “What’s in it for the customer?” He started with the customer experience and worked his way back.
Q: You’ve been portrayed by three actors in films or on television — Jeff Daniels in “Steve Jobs,” Matthew Modine in “Jobs” and Allan Royal in “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” Who did you best?
A: I actually became friends with Matthew Modine and Jeff Daniels. I never knew who the other guy was. I didn’t get to see it. But Matthew Modine and Jeff Daniels are terrific actors. I think the story line was much more like what actually happened in the Jeff Daniels movie.
Q: OK, Last question: Did Steve Jobs really have a “reality distortion field?”
A: Are you kidding? Of course. Absolutely. They used to call it the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.