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
