The case of John Sculley is studied at most of the top business schools to understand the expectations of a modern day business world.....I know that not many of you would recognise this name leave alone know what his achievements were....Clues like Pepsi and Apple related might ring a bell for some....In MBA parlance this would be called as possessing a "dying star's" brand value and is a proof of the overshadowing power of modern day advertising......The people behind the products, advertisement and brand builders are barely known to the man on the streets, so there is no question of forgetting them at a later stage.
Ok, no further beating around the bush.....John sculley was the man behind the Pepsi's campaign of 'blindfold Cola taste' to grab the market share from its rival Coca Cola...At one point of time , he was in line to become the CEO of this global giant ,when he suddenly left and joined Apple...At that point of time, Apple was a tiny blip in the corporate radar......He was the CEO and responsible for Corporate affairs while the eccentric Steve Jobs looked after technical innovations of the company....It was under his regime that Apple was able to ship flagship products like imac, Mac OS and other hardware....
Now I come to my agenda of this article...How come people instantly identify Pepsi, Apple or Steve Jobs but fail to know the critical people like John Sculley, who are the brains behind their modern day success ???? The answer is simple- we all adore our onscreen heroes and try to mimic their heroics.....Sadly, the concepts of heroes is not as simple as Hollywood would want us to believe.....It would be nice to have a real life Rambo destroying the armies of thousands with his bare fists and bulging biceps...It would be nice to have people who just take a bullet when it is raining bombs in the area...
It is important to note that there is a big difference between doing great work anonymously and playing second fiddle just because one is afraid of taking up charges...The difference lies in the amount of publicity one attracts to their tasks...Introvert people prefer to do their work and let their work speak for themselves...Some people understand the criticality of balance between their work and Public relation skills....The third category is abound with people who are famous because they popular and popular because they are famous...The have no good reason to be in the limelight and feel that they wont survive if they do not have people's attention....
Even the most extrovert people have something to hide...All of us have dirty linen and a reputation to live up to, so does this hiding constitute Anonymity....I'll leave this to the psychology guys to debate, but in my opinion it does to a certain extent.....So what extent of anyonymity is suitable....I guess everyone has to answer for himself...
I'll touch the point of playing second fiddle once more, but in a different light. People standing in the line of the fire have to face the firing, but the people just behind them have a strategical advantage. On survival, they taste victory and even on losing they get martyrdom and don't have to share the blame.....These 'backseat drivers' possess a enviable options but at the cost of compromising their ethics.....
In the corporate world, the top dogs get to take the decisions and have to bear the responsibility...The ordinary rung is spared of these catch 22 situations and can catch sleep at night.....
As the catchy line of Spiderman movie goes "With great power comes great responsibility"...I guess , it should be absolutely fine to have a combination of average power, moderate responsibility and a happy life.....Alas ! It is the inherent nature of humans to ask for more without paying more
5 comments:
There is always an advantage to be second but not at the cost of ur dying effort to see it succeed!!!
It is not correct just to worship the forefront ppl leaving behind the actual ones who have set the stage for them to step on....
There is nothing wrong in being second as long as it is by chance rather than by choice.If somebody tries to show that the chance is by way of choice, then it nothing but a true personification of hypocrisy.
Everything is beautifully said Ravi.. Great work..My comment is for both of your Blogs
In your articles you have answered to most of the questions you only raised.. I think it’s all your choice where you want to be. Whether you want a front seat or back seat . it’s not always about getting fame and to be in the lime light.. As you said people standing in the line of the fire have to face the firing. If the team of soldiers win the war offcourse Captain gets the medal and not each member. But we should remember that some time ago captain was also in soldiers place fighting for his captain. There were thousands of people who were walking behind Gandhi and died fighting with him but the world only knows Gandhi, but it would have been impossible to fight without those people. The world knows Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Neil Armstrong because they were on the line of fire. Taking the example of John Sculley; I think most of the people who knows ‘Steve Jobs’ will be knowing ‘John Sculley’ they were known to be ‘dynamic duo’ of that time. What is really important is your work should speak and if that is happening well; you will get your fame in many ways, everyone hates the anonymity and everyone want the reward for the work.
The engineers who were behind the ‘Moon Landing’ by Armstrong must have got good money and better job opportunities at that time. So it was not like, they were not appreciated. Anyways who in the world is interested in knowing their names, they were “engineers”;)
Everything is beautifully said Ravi.. Great work..
In your articles you have answered to most of the questions you only raised.. I think it’s all your choice where you want to be. Whether you want a front seat or back seat . it’s not always about getting fame and to be in the lime light.. As you said people standing in the line of the fire have to face the firing. If the team of soldiers win the war offcourse Captain gets the medal and not each member. But we should remember that some time ago captain was also in soldiers place fighting for his captain. There were thousands of people who were walking behind Gandhi and died fighting with him but the world only knows Gandhi, but it would have been impossible to fight without those people. The world knows Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Neil Armstrong because they were on the line of fire. Taking the example of John Sculley; I think most of the people who knows ‘Steve Jobs’ will be knowing ‘John Sculley’ they were known to be ‘dynamic duo’ of that time. What is really important is your work should speak and if that is happening well; you will get your fame in many ways, everyone hates the anonymity and everyone want the reward for the work.
The engineers who were behind the ‘Moon Landing’ by Armstrong must have got good money and better job opportunities at that time. So it was not like they were not appreciated. Anyways who in the world is interested in knowing their names, they were “engineers”;).
The blog was great man you tried to explain the state of people who have intelligence but their intelligence is never seen by other people or rather not recognized, people only worship or follow famous personalities, that is nice that you have a good grasp of the matter, all the best for future blogs!
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