What is going on at Disney? Bob Iger replaces Bob Chapek - who replaced Bob Iger. Leadership and life lessons for you.

Let’s start from the beginning

Iger’s first boss at ABC declared “you’re not promotable, and I’m giving you two weeks to find another job”. Iger walked down to the notice board with the job posting and found another role with ABC sports. Rest is history.

1.  Career will only make sense looking backward, opportunities do not come with labels. Take chances and Keep moving forwards.

Disney acquired ABC, and Iger succeeded as Disney’s CEO. Iger's first act was a call to Steve Jobs with an offer to buy Pixar. Steve Jobs listed a mile-long set of cons including “Distraction will kill Pixar creativity and Disney culture will destroy Pixar”. Iger thought the exercise was futile but magically, Steve said “Just sometimes a couple of really big pros far outweigh many, many cons”. Disney never interfered with Pixar’s creativity or culture, acquisition was a roaring success.

2. Focus on big rocks, do not get distracted by the large quantity of sand. Creativity manifests, but cannot be manufactured.

Iger applied the same formula to acquire Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm. Meanwhile, efficient operations increased profits in theme parks and cruises contributing to nearly 5X stock growth under Iger.

3. Two different rule books are required to manage creativity and efficiency, you need both, mixing rule books is a recipe for disaster.

Iger postponed his retirement 4 times when he finally retired he remained chairman for another 2 years with a 10 million consultancy deal to advise his successor – Bob Chapek. Unlike Iger, Chapek was low-key and did not enjoy the media spotlight but was an extraordinary operating executive.

4. Great leaders are self-aware, relinquish power and control at the right time, and cheer from the outside.

Chapek assumed power just before covid, arguably the most tumultuous time in Disney's history. The budget, distribution channel, and pricing were decided centrally, creative’s were asked to just focus on producing content. After two eventful years, Chapek was ousted after poor results and an internal management revolt, and Iger was back as CEO.

5. Creatives wanted full control of the product; the efficiency drive did not land well.  Great leaders assemble and manage teams of rivals to deliver great results.

Will Iger succeed in choosing the right successor or will he sell Disney to Apple?

6. Leaders produce leaders who can run the organization in their absence, managers hold on to the role, power, and control. Iger has got a second chance, will he redeem his leadership?

Note: Views are personal and certainly not investment advice. Blogs are my weekend exploration. I write about topics that are interesting to me.

Recommend reading Team of Rivals or watching Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln in the adaptation

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