Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley: Forcing Steve Jobs Out Was a 'Mistake'

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
66,365
35,440



Former Apple CEO John Sculley states that he now regrets his decision to remove Steve Jobs from the company in 1985 and that the move to force the co-founder out was a "mistake," according to a new report from the Times of India.

jobs_and_sculley.jpg
Steve Jobs (left) and John Sculley (right) in 1984​
​
Sculley, who recently launched Obi, a low-cost smartphone brand for India, added that differences between he and Jobs began over the founder's desire to subsidize the Macintosh. Sculley said that he ultimately opposed the idea, feeling that there was no "merit" in lowering the cost of the computer.
However, he still feels that some way would have been found to have them both work for the company and this could have been facilitated by Apple's board then. "I think there could have been a way, in hindsight, where Steve and I did not need to have a confrontation, and we could have worked it out. And, perhaps the board could have played a bigger role in that. But you can't change history."
Click to expand...
Jobs hired Sculley from beverage company Pepsi in 1983, however the two clashed over management styles and conflicting visions for the future of Apple. After his departure from Apple, Sculley went on to remain involved with a number of companies, including his role as a founding investor in Metro PCS. The former CEO also stated last March that Apple was experiencing a temporary lull in innovation, and that an iWatch smart watch from the company would be a key product going forward.

Article Link: Former Apple CEO John Sculley: Forcing Steve Jobs Out Was a 'Mistake'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/18/sculley-forcing-jobs-out-mistake/
Actually it was for the best. Jobs' experience at NeXT and Pixar were essential and without that Apple would not be where it is today. Obviously this is by accident and certainly no design of Sculley.

----------
thenightwatcher said:
He's just now getting around to this?
Click to expand...
No, he has confessed several times in the past. It's how he gets his name out there these days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: allpar
But then we wouldn't have had NeXT and Mac OS X.

Things might've been different for the better had Jobs not been ousted, but things still turned out pretty well.
 
Last edited:
I disagree, I think it gave him the chance to nurture himself.

Its like Dragon Ball Z when Gohan left home to train with Piccolo for the battle against the saiyans.

EDIT: Plus they never would have found Johny Ives if they thought Steve was a keeper. No Johny no Apple imo
 
MacFather said:
Being fired from Apple was one of the best things that could have happened to him. Forcing Scott Forstall out was a mistake.
Click to expand...

It seems like it may have been a mistake due to the rushed bug filled ios7 but if he was going to cause other execs to leave then maybe it wasn't a mistake. I want forstall to do something great on his own and show that he has great ideas independent of apple.
 
MacFather said:
Being fired from Apple was one of the best things that could have happened to him. Forcing Scott Forstall out was a mistake.
Click to expand...

brendu said:
It seems like it may have been a mistake due to the rushed bug filled ios7 but if he was going to cause other execs to leave then maybe it wasn't a mistake. I want forstall to do something great on his own and show that he has great ideas independent of apple.
Click to expand...

Wow, that was fast. From Scully in 1983 to iOS7 sucks in 2 easy steps. Great job, guys. :roll eyes:

Back on topic, I think that Scully is once again showing why hiring him was a mistake. He doesn't see the obvious fact that SJ leaving Apple and experiencing NeXT was ultimately the savior of Apple.
 
proline said:
Actually it was for the best. Jobs' experience at NeXT and Pixar were essential and without that Apple would not be where it is today. Obviously this is by accident and certainly no design of Sculley.

----------


No, he has confessed several times in the past. It's how he gets his name out there these days.
Click to expand...

Sculley has established a dubious place in corporate history. Pre-Apple he was famous for his brilliance at Pepsi. Post-Apple, he'll always been known as the idiot who fired Steve Jobs.
 
rdlink said:
Wow, that was fast. From Scully in 1983 to iOS7 sucks in 2 easy steps. Great job, guys. :roll eyes:

Back on topic, I think that Scully is once again showing why hiring him was a mistake. He doesn't see the obvious fact that SJ leaving Apple and experiencing NeXT was ultimately the savior of Apple.
Click to expand...

Yeah you'd think it would be more of a 12-step program:D. The guy sometimes fishes for attention.
 
Will this guy EVER shut up? And when will Apple blogs stop paying attention to him? This is almost as bad as how Steve Wozniak keeps popping up and saying dumb things.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0989383
Things turned out great regardless. If Steve wasn't forced out we might not have the advancements we have to today. Things might have went in a different direction. Everything happens for a reason. I am sure Steve would say he doesn't regret anything. Still sad to know Steve is not with us anymore.
 
MacFather said:
Being fired from Apple was one of the best things that could have happened to him. Forcing Scott Forstall out was a mistake.
Click to expand...

Forestall probably was manageable when Steve was around but uncontrollable afterwards. It probably came down to Ive vs Forstall. Whoever left would have had a noticeable impact and people who preferred that person would be complaining.
 
output555 said:
Sculley has established a dubious place in corporate history. Pre-Apple he was famous for his brilliance at Pepsi. Post-Apple, he'll always been known as the idiot who fired Steve Jobs.
Click to expand...

The above quote is good.
Firing Jobs never should have been allowed. Is sculley living in India, I hope they kick him out of the country.
 
proline said:
Actually it was for the best. Jobs' experience at NeXT and Pixar were essential and without that Apple would not be where it is today. Obviously this is by accident and certainly no design of Sculley.

----------
Click to expand...
I have to agree here. The web was literally conceived on Next hardware and Pixar changed an entire industry. People seem to downplay Steve's involve leant in these companies but they both made significant marks on the world at large. Further they helped mold Steve into a person that could take charge at Apple when it only had a couple of months to go before bankruptcy. Apple was in tough shape when Steve returned, causing him to cut things with a broad axe. It saved the company even if it did piss a few people off.
No, he has confessed several times in the past. It's how he gets his name out there these days.
Click to expand...

Well I'm not sure about that, getting his name out there. There seems to be a cult of investigators/authors/whatever that have an un satisfied need to research every bit of Apple history asking the same damn questions over and over again. I'm not sure Sculley needs to even get his name out there anymore. Honestly all this grave digging (gold digging) has become a bit unseemly and a bit offensive. The past is the past there isn't much value in raking over the coals to many times, eventually they get spread out so thin that no heat of value comes from them.

----------
ugp said:
Things turned out great regardless. If Steve wasn't forced out we might not have the advancements we have to today. Things might have went in a different direction. Everything happens for a reason. I am sure Steve would say he doesn't regret anything. Still sad to know Steve is not with us anymore.
Click to expand...

Even Steve himself has said as much. Frankly Steve changed two great industries in ways that will shape them for decades to come. Further if it wasn't for a few Next computers placed at CERN the Internet might never have evolved the way it did.

I'm not sure about your belief at everything has a reason. Rather I see infinite paths humanity can follow, those paths are taken often by chance. The idea that there is a reason for everything would imply that we have no self determination which I find to be highly objectionable.
 
JetLaw said:
In other news, the captain of the Titanic now admits that hitting the iceberg was a 'mistake'.
Click to expand...
Contrary to perception, Apple did not hit an iceberg under Sculley. Sales and profits increased ten fold, and Apple continued to innovate, such as releasing the first PowerBooks. Apple retained great talent throughout the dark years which is how Jobs was able to turn Apple around so fast. Sculley left well before Apple hit bottom under Spindler and Amelio. In short, while Apple wasn't the powerhouse they've been in the 21st century, things were generally pretty good under Sculley.

The downside of that time period is that Appe lost a platform war to Microsoft. That probably would have happened anyways. The only way to avoid that would have been to go the licensing route a lot sooner which would have eventually led to Apple getting pushed out of the hardware market by clones and prevented Apple from making their greatest creations of this century which rely heavily on Apple's hardware expertise.

Long story short, Sculley was no Steve Jobs but he sure as hell wasn't the captain of the titanic either.
 
This doofus reminds me of Robert McNamara.

McNamara left what he was suited for (bean counting) for something he wasn't suited for defense secy, bombs, body bags and politics.

Scully, like McNamara got what he wanted, Jobs out and control of Apple; McN got a vastly expanded killing machine in SE Asia.

Years later, when history proved both their strategic goals to have been vastly mistaken, and their leadership to have been poor, both attempted to atone for their sins via the media.

At least McN had the balls to cry about his failures, but Scully blames the board.

I'm not saying forcing Steve out was same as torching villagers or deploying Agent Orange on your own troops, as the latter is orders of magnitude worse than the former. Rather I'm saying that both these gents lacked the foresight to understand their actions and developed this slowly and years later.

Sculley is not yet to the cry on TV point. For him, he will have to realize that his lust for control robbed us of a portion of 10 years of Steve's creativity by disengaging him from his vehicle that brought him there.

As for Sculley's other post-Apple accomplishments? Meh! He jumped on various bandwagons after the visionaries started them rolling.

Now what does he do? He uses his celebrity as the CEO who chucked Steve plus a mea culpa (but bl-aimed at the board) to promote someone else's products.

Only way I'd ever be interested to hear from him again would be if he wrote an honest account of his days at apple that shines light on how he failed as a leader (and a litmus test for failure: if he tries to sell Newton as ground breaking proto iPad.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Maximara
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back