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Moonshot!: Game-Changing Strategies to Build Billion-Dollar Businesses
The former Apple CEO “delivers a clear message to individuals, entrepreneurs, and change . . . or wither” (Booklist). The future belongs to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious. This is the most exciting time ever to be part of the business world. Throughout history, there are some events that stand out as so groundbreaking that they completely change life as we know it. The Apollo moon landing of 1961 was one of those events—the invention of the Apple personal computer was another. In this book, John Sculley, former CEO of both Pepsi and Apple, discusses an era that is giving birth to numerous groundbreaking events and inventions—moonshots—that will change the way we live and work for generations to come. He offers wisdom for a new breed of innovative entrepreneurs to build businesses across industries that will bring in billions of dollars—while changing people’s lives for the better. Moonshot! lays out a roadmap for building a truly transformative business, beginning with a can’t-fail concept and drawing on clear examples from companies who’ve done innovation right.
215 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2014
60 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 26, 2015
This is a great business book.
Mr. Sculley, the former CEO of Pepsi and Apple, has written an information, up the the minute book on the emerging consumer and business marketplace.
The key takeaways are:
Disruptive pricing and adaptive technology are very, very important.
However, the key to success for great companies is ensuring they continually deliver a Better Customer Experience.
A great read!!!!
Mr. Sculley, the former CEO of Pepsi and Apple, has written an information, up the the minute book on the emerging consumer and business marketplace.
The key takeaways are:
Disruptive pricing and adaptive technology are very, very important.
However, the key to success for great companies is ensuring they continually deliver a Better Customer Experience.
A great read!!!!
November 15, 2014
Moonshot is ok, but didn't break enough new ground to rate more than three stars. Sculley talks about cloud, mobile and sensors, and the centrality of great customer experience, all of which have been well discussed for a while now, and his thoughts on the evolution of the American middle class were unconvincing. I found Part IV the most interesting, which discusses how to prepare for success.
September 2, 2015
Is John Sculley out of touch? "[Millennials] will conserve their spending by economizing where they eat, but will still splurge for a ticket to a hip-hop music event." I rest my case.
September 19, 2019
John Sculley knows a thing or two about business – the man was CEO of both Apple and Pepsi at different times. However, a lot has changed since Sculley left Apple in 1993, and with this book, he shows us that even at age 75 and over, he hasn’t lost his sense of what works and which trends drive the economy.
He has a point when he says that there’s never been a better time to start a business than today, as anyone with access to the web and a laptop can do it, which is a really low entry barrier.
However, one thing you’ll have to consistently understand in order to build a business that’s successful not just today, but tomorrow as well, are the few global trends that drive most of our economic transactions in any given six-month or one-year window.
Helping you identify these trends is exactly what John tries to do with this book. Here are 3 lessons from Moonshot!:
Consumers aren’t stupid. They have a lot more power than they used to and you should act accordingly.
Sharing is caring (and saves money).
The customer experience must be at the center of all businesses.
Ready to build a business that shoots for the moon, not just the local newspaper? Let’s set up one rocket of a business!
Lesson 1: Customers have a lot more power than they used to, so you should act accordingly and respect them.
Here’s how I bought my last TV (which was six years ago, btw, I don’t own one any more): I went into the local electronics store, looked at a few models live and how much I liked the color, design, etc. After I found one that I liked, I took out my smartphone and googled the model name. I saw a price range on a comparison site, looked at the tag of the TV in the store, and instantly realized that there was a difference of at least 10%. I went home, browsed around some more and ordered it online for 25% less than it cost in the store.
Whether you like it or not, that’s just how consumption works today. Nobody in their right mind wouldn’t use this power of all the product information, pricing ranges and online reviews they could ever need, especially when all you have to do is to reach into your pocket.
We go, we look, we compare, we browse…and we buy where it’s cheapest (usually Amazon).
Even back in the 60s, David Ogilvy said “the consumer isn’t a moron,” and it’s just gotten truer since then.
For example, if you sell swimming goggles, telling every customer, who enters your store, that you sell “the cheapest goggles around” is useless – they can verify (or falsify) that information within seconds.
However, if you use the same data to your advantage, for example by finding your customer’s Facebook likes and sending them an ad for a coupon for a specific pair of goggles they’ve showed interest in, then you respect their power and preferences, which changes everything.
Lesson 2: People want to use products more than they want to own them, especially millennials.
Another mega-trend that changes consumer behavior in a big way is the sharing economy. Especially people from the millennial generation (like me), care a lot more about having the lifestyle certain products allow than actually owning them.
For example, being able to go from A to B quickly and independently used to mean you have to own a car. Now you can use public transport or a car-sharing service like Uber in a lot of places and have the exact same benefits, without the hassles that come with owning a car, like insurance, maintenance, parking, etc.
This trend is happening because of two things:
Millennials know that they’re the first generation that’ll likely have worse job prospects than their parents.
Young people are overwhelmed by the consumption culture and less prone to it.
On the other hand, middle class consumption is on the rise in Asian countries, as they can slowly afford more and more and want to reach the levels Western cultures already hit 10-20 years ago.
These things are important to keep in mind when designing your products and services – if they don’t fit your target customers’ mindsets, selling will get really, really tough.
Lesson 3: At the heart of all businesses needs to be a great customer experience.
I love John Sculley’s answer to the question “What’s the most important element in any successful business?” I’m really glad he chose his words the way he did.
In his eyes, it’s all about the customer experience.
Why? Mainly, because it costs 10 to 15 times more to replace profits from a customer you’ve lost by acquiring a new one, than to just keep your previous customers’ profits by keeping them happy.
If you have just one customer, it’s your job to go above and beyond for that single person. That’s what creates trust and trust is what scales a business.
You can do that by using any first purchase an individual makes as a launch pad into a great customer experience. If people order food from you, you keep them up to date during the delivery process, personally greet them when you deliver, follow up with them a day later on how much they liked the food, and ask them what other dishes they’d like to see from you after a week, for example.
Make them feel taken care of at every step of the way.
What makes your customer experience amazing could be a variety of different things, some of the most popular ones are:
Super cheap prices (that’s a rather lame one and hard to pull off)
Very fast delivery (Amazon, anyone?)
Making them feel special (the hardest one, but the best one if you can pull it off, Apple, BMW & Virgin do great at this)
Moonshot! Review
Moonshot! is another one of those books where seeing how the author thinks might be more valuable than the insights themselves (which are great as well, don’t get me wrong!). John Sculley is a business legend, don’t underestimate his ideas. A refreshing read!
He has a point when he says that there’s never been a better time to start a business than today, as anyone with access to the web and a laptop can do it, which is a really low entry barrier.
However, one thing you’ll have to consistently understand in order to build a business that’s successful not just today, but tomorrow as well, are the few global trends that drive most of our economic transactions in any given six-month or one-year window.
Helping you identify these trends is exactly what John tries to do with this book. Here are 3 lessons from Moonshot!:
Consumers aren’t stupid. They have a lot more power than they used to and you should act accordingly.
Sharing is caring (and saves money).
The customer experience must be at the center of all businesses.
Ready to build a business that shoots for the moon, not just the local newspaper? Let’s set up one rocket of a business!
Lesson 1: Customers have a lot more power than they used to, so you should act accordingly and respect them.
Here’s how I bought my last TV (which was six years ago, btw, I don’t own one any more): I went into the local electronics store, looked at a few models live and how much I liked the color, design, etc. After I found one that I liked, I took out my smartphone and googled the model name. I saw a price range on a comparison site, looked at the tag of the TV in the store, and instantly realized that there was a difference of at least 10%. I went home, browsed around some more and ordered it online for 25% less than it cost in the store.
Whether you like it or not, that’s just how consumption works today. Nobody in their right mind wouldn’t use this power of all the product information, pricing ranges and online reviews they could ever need, especially when all you have to do is to reach into your pocket.
We go, we look, we compare, we browse…and we buy where it’s cheapest (usually Amazon).
Even back in the 60s, David Ogilvy said “the consumer isn’t a moron,” and it’s just gotten truer since then.
For example, if you sell swimming goggles, telling every customer, who enters your store, that you sell “the cheapest goggles around” is useless – they can verify (or falsify) that information within seconds.
However, if you use the same data to your advantage, for example by finding your customer’s Facebook likes and sending them an ad for a coupon for a specific pair of goggles they’ve showed interest in, then you respect their power and preferences, which changes everything.
Lesson 2: People want to use products more than they want to own them, especially millennials.
Another mega-trend that changes consumer behavior in a big way is the sharing economy. Especially people from the millennial generation (like me), care a lot more about having the lifestyle certain products allow than actually owning them.
For example, being able to go from A to B quickly and independently used to mean you have to own a car. Now you can use public transport or a car-sharing service like Uber in a lot of places and have the exact same benefits, without the hassles that come with owning a car, like insurance, maintenance, parking, etc.
This trend is happening because of two things:
Millennials know that they’re the first generation that’ll likely have worse job prospects than their parents.
Young people are overwhelmed by the consumption culture and less prone to it.
On the other hand, middle class consumption is on the rise in Asian countries, as they can slowly afford more and more and want to reach the levels Western cultures already hit 10-20 years ago.
These things are important to keep in mind when designing your products and services – if they don’t fit your target customers’ mindsets, selling will get really, really tough.
Lesson 3: At the heart of all businesses needs to be a great customer experience.
I love John Sculley’s answer to the question “What’s the most important element in any successful business?” I’m really glad he chose his words the way he did.
In his eyes, it’s all about the customer experience.
Why? Mainly, because it costs 10 to 15 times more to replace profits from a customer you’ve lost by acquiring a new one, than to just keep your previous customers’ profits by keeping them happy.
If you have just one customer, it’s your job to go above and beyond for that single person. That’s what creates trust and trust is what scales a business.
You can do that by using any first purchase an individual makes as a launch pad into a great customer experience. If people order food from you, you keep them up to date during the delivery process, personally greet them when you deliver, follow up with them a day later on how much they liked the food, and ask them what other dishes they’d like to see from you after a week, for example.
Make them feel taken care of at every step of the way.
What makes your customer experience amazing could be a variety of different things, some of the most popular ones are:
Super cheap prices (that’s a rather lame one and hard to pull off)
Very fast delivery (Amazon, anyone?)
Making them feel special (the hardest one, but the best one if you can pull it off, Apple, BMW & Virgin do great at this)
Moonshot! Review
Moonshot! is another one of those books where seeing how the author thinks might be more valuable than the insights themselves (which are great as well, don’t get me wrong!). John Sculley is a business legend, don’t underestimate his ideas. A refreshing read!
November 5, 2014
Moonshot is a very good book. I only gave 4 stars because I read already many books on the topic and there are 2 other books I consider better: Exponential Organizations and How to Build a Billion dollar app. But as a first book on the subject is great and can open your mind. For me the chapters really different were the ones talink about the changing social and economic parameters like the new middle class. Overall a nice book to understand why to invest in moonshots.
October 7, 2019
Trends:
- Companies going from Production centric to customer centric.
- e.g Walmart to Amazon.
- Growing income of Emerging markets
CUSTOMER focused with disruptive low cost.
Chase the vision, not the money and the money would follow.
Bill and Steve didnt talk about money. They talked about the customers.
Make everything you do support customer experience, from design of product, delivery of the product, treatment of customers aft they use product or service.
Asking the right questions is even more important than the answers
In the startup game, preparation is indispensable
Business planning
Customer plan:
Concise document outlining how company will significantly improve customer expereince to make it the best in industry.
Back from future planning : 4 years in the future
fail fast, fail cheap
- Companies going from Production centric to customer centric.
- e.g Walmart to Amazon.
- Growing income of Emerging markets
CUSTOMER focused with disruptive low cost.
Chase the vision, not the money and the money would follow.
Bill and Steve didnt talk about money. They talked about the customers.
Make everything you do support customer experience, from design of product, delivery of the product, treatment of customers aft they use product or service.
Asking the right questions is even more important than the answers
In the startup game, preparation is indispensable
Business planning
Customer plan:
Concise document outlining how company will significantly improve customer expereince to make it the best in industry.
Back from future planning : 4 years in the future
fail fast, fail cheap
March 8, 2018
"Un emprendedor es alguien que se atreve a soñar los sueños de los ingenuos y luego los hace realidad"
Emprender es un trabajo que requiere precisamente dedicación y no tenerle miedo al fracaso, estamos en una época donde tenemos todo en nuestras manos para dar rienda suelta a esa idea que tenemos en mente o mejorar también ese servicio que ya existe. Uno de los puntos más importantes abarcados en este libro sin duda seria el rodearte del mejor equipo posible porque los grandes proyectos no se construyen por una sola persona.
Emprender es un trabajo que requiere precisamente dedicación y no tenerle miedo al fracaso, estamos en una época donde tenemos todo en nuestras manos para dar rienda suelta a esa idea que tenemos en mente o mejorar también ese servicio que ya existe. Uno de los puntos más importantes abarcados en este libro sin duda seria el rodearte del mejor equipo posible porque los grandes proyectos no se construyen por una sola persona.
January 10, 2019
A Mixed Bag
I must as it this has been a mixed read for me, part brilliant part flat.
Sculley lays the ground work for insights about the future of business & how the power has moved from producers to consumers.
He makes the case for adaptive innovators & what the company of the future should do to be prepared. The most compelling insight for me is around customer-centricity. He argues for an end-to-end customer experience as a winning formula.
Read it to hear from the years of experience from an entrepreneur w/ domain knowledge on several areas.
I must as it this has been a mixed read for me, part brilliant part flat.
Sculley lays the ground work for insights about the future of business & how the power has moved from producers to consumers.
He makes the case for adaptive innovators & what the company of the future should do to be prepared. The most compelling insight for me is around customer-centricity. He argues for an end-to-end customer experience as a winning formula.
Read it to hear from the years of experience from an entrepreneur w/ domain knowledge on several areas.
September 17, 2019
To say its a marketing book for various investments Sculley has across the valley would be an understatement. Though there are few good nit bits to pick from the book comes off as a rattle from a executive trying to make sense of the new technologies changing the world today. There are few good bits like his days at Apple and how stories of few entrepreneurs who did a remarkable turn around. Apart from that not much to pick from.
January 29, 2022
I picked this just because it was written by John Sculley. I have read his first book ( Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple) and I loved it.
This book is a mixed bag -- the first half felt little slow and dragging, where the author takes many pages to explain what the book is about. However he more than made up in part III & Part IV.
He nicely highlights the key points and more importantly draws on his exposure and provides many real life examples. (Ex How he sold the unbreakable Pepsi bottle to Sam Walton.. Google it) .
He stresses beautifully on the merits of asking the right questions again with examples where many leaders failed because they did not ask the right question.
I have always loved the way companies create the customer delight ( again and again) and here too John emphasizes the importance of 'Wow' and the best part -- amazing examples.
Overall a great book -- ( except the first 2 sections ;-))
This book is a mixed bag -- the first half felt little slow and dragging, where the author takes many pages to explain what the book is about. However he more than made up in part III & Part IV.
He nicely highlights the key points and more importantly draws on his exposure and provides many real life examples. (Ex How he sold the unbreakable Pepsi bottle to Sam Walton.. Google it) .
He stresses beautifully on the merits of asking the right questions again with examples where many leaders failed because they did not ask the right question.
I have always loved the way companies create the customer delight ( again and again) and here too John emphasizes the importance of 'Wow' and the best part -- amazing examples.
Overall a great book -- ( except the first 2 sections ;-))
June 19, 2017
It is a very inspiring text for entrepreneurs and business owners. The experiences that John Sculley shares and his approaches toward the future of business that comes from his years of experiences in the edge if innovative market of the world is very valuable.
April 3, 2021
Readability: Hard ----o Easy
Practicality: Low o---- High
Insights: Few o---- Many
Length: Long --o-- Short
Overall: Bad -o--- Amazing
January 5, 2020
Bardzo dobra książka dająca trafne rady w tematach posiadania idei, działania, współpracy, porażki, mentora i rynku. Polecam każdemu przedsiębiorcy. Temu zaczynającemu jak i temu doświadczonemu.
January 8, 2016
Moonshot is an extremely timely and important book which gives the road map not just for business as we know it, but for how to communicate, decide, learn, storytell, travel, and essentially live during probably the rarest technological period of human history. Sculley argues that every business will, if it hasn't already, be turned on its head so that their adaptability with respect to every aspect of consumer wants will be what drives them forward. Easy sincere read written by one of the top business CEOs of our time.
“Existing businesses aspiring to become adaptive corporations need to commit to understanding what exactly an adaptive innovator is and how that differs from both systemic designers and knowledge workers. In the end, they will actually need conscious planning to move them from a decades-imbedded orientation of knowledge work, to a new mindset of continuous adaptive innovation centered on the customer.”
― John Sculley, Moonshot!
“Existing businesses aspiring to become adaptive corporations need to commit to understanding what exactly an adaptive innovator is and how that differs from both systemic designers and knowledge workers. In the end, they will actually need conscious planning to move them from a decades-imbedded orientation of knowledge work, to a new mindset of continuous adaptive innovation centered on the customer.”
― John Sculley, Moonshot!
February 7, 2016
John emphasizes that future belongs to adaptive innovators who have their business goals focused around giving best customer service experience. With the rise of technology today's consumer has become smart customer and is loyal to you until some other company offers better product/services at a better price.
March 18, 2016
An excellent overview of what it takes to create a disruptive product containing critical tidbits necessary for success like staffing and certainly implying what many young companies often don’t realize, the value of a powerful connected subject matter expert as a mentor. It is an easy read with value far above its price.
June 2, 2015
Must read book - Adaptive innovator, Adaptive Corporation, Learn from mistake, Do Cheap Mistake, Have Plan B - WOW :)
August 10, 2015
Decent business book which discusses current trends and building billion dollar business ideas. The author stays pretty high level on all of the topics he touches on.
August 20, 2016
Ex-Apple CEO still rules!
December 23, 2016
Excellent book by John Scully read this book as a recommendation I would recommend it for anyone to read. He discusses the innovators who will be leaders of the business world…
April 24, 2017
It's not my favorite. I mean, it's good, but it seemed like the author was primarily pulling from his own case studies (it's not exactly biased as such, but just... he didn't reach very far to get his case studies). It's not so much a blueprint on how to build a Moonshot (other than "these types of people tend to do this more often than not")... it's more like, "Here's how to identify one to perhaps help out or invest in it, and here's a few areas where we think it'll happen next... because here's what's happened before..."
September 18, 2018
Pretty good but general/broadly accepted advice today (so it is rather dated and general) - yes, mobile and cloud and referrals are important. This was fairly obvious to people in 2014 when this was written, but not as universally known (and fairly well presented), so this is a 4 star book which hasn’t aged particularly well.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews