Sunday Story:
How Steve Jobs left Apple
“Which tastes better?”
The person would be drinking two samples of a Cola drink.
They would point to one of the bottles.
Then, the revelation would take place.
“Pepsi!”
Coca-Cola had a much better market share. Pepsi was not selling well comparatively.
The people at Pepsico – makers of Pepsi – believed their drink was better.
So they developed and launched a campaign – a blind test.
They went to crowded places like malls and asked people to drink from two unlabeled bottles.
In most cases, people chose the bottle with Pepsi in it.
This campaign was also recorded and launched as TV ads.
It turned Pepsi’s market share around – especially in areas where Pepsi had poor sales.
Driving this campaign was a man named John Sculley – the CEO of Pepsico.
People spoke of the success of this campaign in corporate and marketing circles. They also spoke about the genius behind it – John Sculley.
Around the time this campaign was launched, there was a man who wanted John Sculley to quit and leave Pepsico.
“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” he said to John Sculley.
After 18 months of convincing, John Sculley quit Pepsico.
He joined as the CEO of Apple – after being convinced by Steve Jobs.
Many readers might feel like asking, “Wait, why would Steve Jobs make someone else the CEO of Apple?”
Valid question.
Let’s go back a bit.
Steve Jobs & Apple
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak – the two famous co-founders of Apple – became successful after the launch of their first computer (Apple I) in 1976.
In 1977, an investor named Mike Markulla invested $250,000 in Apple.
You might have heard of startups getting money from investors.
What happens in such cases?
The way this works seems a bit confusing to people who are not familiar with it.
Many people think, when a company takes money from investors, the founders give the investors their shares.
This is not technically true.
Here’s what actually happens: new shares are created. Companies can do that.
So suppose:
Steve Jobs has 50 shares of Apple
Steve Wozniak has 50 shares of Apple
Total shares: 100 shares of Apple.
So,
Jobs: owns 50% of Apple
Wozniak: owns 50% of Apple.
Now, when they go to an investor, they negotiate. The result of this can be anything.
For our understanding, let’s say they agreed that Mike would invest $250,000 for 30 shares of Apple.
Apple will create 30 brand-new shares.
So, now:
Steve Jobs has 50 shares of Apple
Steve Wozniak has 50 shares of Apple
Mike has 30 shares of Apple
Jobs and Wozniak still own the same number of shares. But, their percentage of ownership has reduced.
So,
Jobs: owns 50 out of 130 shares of Apple (~38%)
Wozniak: owns 50 out of 130 shares of Apple (~38%)
Mike: owns 30 out of 130 shares of Apple (~23%)
Every time a new investor invests in the company, the ownership percentage of the older shareholders reduces.
In its first 5 years, Apple sales grew wildly. To continue growing fast, they raised money from investors a couple of times.
In 1980, they went in for an IPO.
After the IPO, the board of directors of Apple grew concerned about the company.
Apple’s board of directors had some concerns about Steve Jobs. They felt he was not ready to be a CEO yet.
They encouraged him to find a CEO for Apple.
Steve Jobs was impressed by John Scully – the CEO of Pepsico.
After 18 months of persuading him, John finally agreed to become the CEO of Apple in 1983.
John knew little about technology and computers.
But he understood people. Apple wanted exactly that – a CEO who understands people.
At this point you might ask, ‘Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple. Why did he have to listen to the board?’
Well, Steve was not in control.
Apple had raised funding multiple times.
And it had done so enough number of times that Steve Jobs was no longer a majority shareholder in Apple.
He owned less than 50% of the company.
Steve Jobs had himself chosen John Sculley. But that, unfortunately, did not work out well.
Read full story