Executive Decision Making | ByGeorge You Got It

One of the favourite business situations is the much discussed pricing debate between John Sculley and Steve Jobs; about the product pricing strategy for Macintosh Office. Jobs wanted it to have a psychological pricing at $1999 to ensure wide product penetration; while Sculley insisted that marketing cost is inherent to the product like all other line-items and thus $2499 ought to be the launch pricing.

Pricing which will not only maximize consumption opportunities of the product but also safeguard profitability, while remaining competitive in the market.

This intra-departmental pricing debate or rather such a marketing dilemma, is not infrequent in real world of business, and many a time the management has to get into the act – take cognizance of the multitude of factors affecting the product performance, use all the accumulated business acumen at their command – and take a calculated yet strategic call, which will not only maximize consumption opportunities of the product but also safeguard profitability, while remaining competitive in the market.

Not an easy decision to make at any level, indeed a tough one – but one has to bite the bullet and make the executive decision. John Sculley did just that!