Odyssey : pepsi to apple

Few corporate leaders have led the life John Sculley has. Pepsi-Cola's youngest vice president at the age of thirty, Sculley's creative genius launched the Cola Wars with his now legendary concepts: the Pepsi Generation and the Pepsi Challenge. Why then, after becoming Pepsi's president and CEO at the age of thirty-eight, did he succumb to the persistent entreaties of Steven Jobs, the brilliant college dropout and entrepreneurial force behind the high risk Apple Computer Company? Sculley's decision to leave Pepsi was a soul-wrenching one, but his final resistance gave way when Jobs challenged him: 'Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?'

The story of the relationship between Sculley and Jobs and their eventual break-up over the future of Apple offers unique insights into the emotions and personal drama of life at the top. It is the story of a series of successes and disasters that marked Apple's transformation and journey from entrepreneurial upstart to one of America's best-run Fortune 500 corporations.

Odyssey is John Sculley's vividly told personal account of that journey and of the marketing lessons learned and management insights gained from one of the greatest adventures in modern business. As a leader in both the traditional East Coast corporate world and now the revolutionary world of Apple, Sculley embodies a bridge to the future. He believes business must fuse traditional and radical methods, and his strategies are built on progressive trends that touch on a wide range of human experience.