1/ In the early 2000s, The Walt Disney Company was in a bad way…
...It fended off a hostile takeover by Comcast.
2/ Its core business—animation—released commercial flops like Brother Bear, Atlantis, and Dinosaur. Meanwhile, Dreamworks and Pixar churned out hit after animated hit...
...And Michael Eisner—Disney’s CEO of 21 years—was on his way out after a shareholder revolt.
3/ In the midst of Disney’s crisis, Bob Iger spotted an opportunity. After 30 years at one company, the mild-mannered empath from Long Island was about to shake things up…
4/ ...Now, after 15 years with Iger at the helm, Disney is at the top of its game.
How did he do it?
5/ Before he started as Disney CEO, Bob laid out 3 key strategic priorities:
1. Re-focusing the company on high-quality branded content
2. Embracing technology
3. Expanding Disney’s international reach
6/ These goals didn’t emerge out of thin air.
Behind every great CEO is a collection of mentors. Iger benefitted from a series of legendary mentors who helped give him the tools he would need to bring Disney back.
1. Roone Arledge
2. Tom Murphy
3. Dan Burke
4. Michael Eisner
7/ Roone Arledge was the most vaunted sports and news producer of his era.
From Arledge, Iger learned to achieve perfection in visual storytelling and to always be innovating.
8/ By broadcasting competitor’s backstories, Arledge believed, even the most esoteric sports could be made compelling.
It would also serve as a valuable lesson about the emotional power of storytelling--the core output of Disney’s businesses.
9/ Tom Murphy and Dan Burke ran Capital Cities/ABC. Buffett once called them “probably the greatest combination in management that the world has ever seen.” They taught Bob leadership.
Then they put him in charge of ABC Entertainment, where he learned to manage creative output.
10/ Don’t fake knowledge to appear impressive…
Creative managers who are out of their depth often focus on the small details to demonstrate to creatives that they have taste and mask their inability to deliver big-picture feedback. This habit betrays a lack of knowledge.
11/ Michael Eisner, who led Disney’s first turnaround, gave Iger Disney’s international portfolio. This laid the groundwork for Iger’s third strategic priority (international expansion).
And with his buyout of ABC, Eisner gave Iger a taste of the power of big, bold acquisitions.
12/ While Disneyland Shanghai was truly monumental, Iger’s stewardship of Disney may be best remembered for his string of such acquisitions—Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, BAMTech, 21CF.
Each is still paying major dividends for the company.
13/ Iger would later add a fourth pillar to his plan: promoting diversity.
He greenlit groundbreaking films like Black Panther, Luca, and Soul. Under his leadership, Disney has made strides towards more equal representations of gender with films like Captain Marvel.
14/ He has a fifth mentor to thank here: his father, Arthur Iger.
As president of the local school board, Arthur showed by example the importance of using power to elevate others.
End/ @RobertIger’s is a story of emergent properties—of learning from great mentors, remixing their lessons, and forging his own path to create something extraordinary.
Check out the first half of our two-part series on Disney’s legendary leader here:
cloudvalley.substack.com/p/coming-about…
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