MickeyBlog News for November 27th, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend from your friends at MickeyBlog!
Unless you were living under a rock this past week, you know what the big story was.
So, I’ll quickly go through it again and then let you get back to eating leftover turkey and watching The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
Not All Bobs Are Created Equal
The CEO chair at Disney grew a bit warmer this past week.
We’ve tracked a cold spell in that area since February 2020. That’s when Bob Iger abruptly announced he was retiring and revealed his successor.
At the time, Kevin Mayer appeared to have the inside track to become Disney’s next CEO. That didn’t happen, though.
Shanghai Disneyland’s closure in January 2020 had spooked Disney’s Board of Directors. They recognized the danger well before most of society.
So, the leaders reneged on an alleged promise to Mayer and picked Chapek instead.
Disney elevated its CEO due to his proficiency at making money despite the various flaws that had previously hurt his candidacy.
Alas, once Bob Chapek ran the show, those flaws grew more and more apparent. He’s a stubborn, insular man who prefers a group of yes people.
Whereas Iger empowered his staff throughout his tenure, Chapek sent a message during the first year that he’d only trust a select few.
Disney reorganized with the specific purpose of limiting power and purse strings to those within Chapek’s circle.
One of them, Kareem Daniel, claimed no Hollywood experience, yet he somehow found himself in the wildly unlikely job of choosing all Disney stories.
That job should belong to a creative, and Bob Iger said as much. However, since he’d announced his retirement and ceded the job, Chapek ignored him.
In truth, that statement summarizes the body of 2020 and 2021. Chapek tried to embark on a new plan for Disney, while Iger griped and stewed.
The two men had a serious falling out and had stopped speaking by the time Iger retired.
Simultaneously, Chapek struggled to make inroads and earn the respect of Wall Street and Hollywood, Disney’s two de facto corporate partners in all things.
This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us
In a way, a showdown between Iger and Chapek appeared inevitable as the end of the former gentleman’s Disney era approached. However, that never happened, at least not as far as we know.
Instead, Iger said his goodbyes on New Year’s Eve 2021. Yes, he left less than 11 months ago.
After Iger officially retired, Chapek somehow struggled even worse as a leader. Several of his high-profile mistakes qualify as unforced errors.
Chapek proved his own worst enemy, even as he took complete control of his dream job.
Perhaps the worst miscalculation involved the merciless termination of Peter Rice. Chapek viewed Rice as a threat and eliminated the competition.
However, Rice has friends in high places, including Bob Iger and Fox’s Rupert Murdoch. Chapek made more enemies that day when he iced Rice.
In fact, that event led to my writing an analysis of who could replace Chapek. Here’s some text from the June 13th article:
“Then, there’s the elephant dancing in the living room. The eighth candidate who could become Disney’s next CEO is…Bob Iger.
I don’t care what the former CEO is saying at the moment. Seriously, he could state that he’d rather pull out his eyeball and eat it before coming back to Disney.
I still wouldn’t believe him because I believe Iger feels extreme resentment toward Chapek. Mentors don’t expect disciples to freeze them out… Iger absolutely could go another decade if the Board of Directors made him the right offer.”
That’s precisely what just happened here. For all Iger’s recent bluster that he was done at Disney and could never go back, the situation changed almost overnight.
The Big Move and Its Ramifications
Susan Arnold, the Chairperson of the Board at Disney, called the person she replaced, Bob Iger, on Friday, November 20th. It was reportedly the first time they had spoken in 2022.
Barely 48 hours later, Chapek was out, while Iger was back in as Disney’s CEO for at least two years.
Realistically, the move raises more questions than it answers. Also, Iger faces numerous pressing problems, some of which are of his own creation.
So, Disney isn’t out of the woods yet. Indeed, the company has already faced a damaging intel leak about some of Chapek’s questionable moves.
Specifically, Disney’s CFO indicated that Chapek shuffled some streaming titles to air on linear television first. He did this specifically to hide some of Disney’s streaming losses.
Disney could face some sort of financial reckoning here if Chapek did things that were questionable/unethical in nature.
The Reality of This Move
However, the company brought back Iger for one specific reason. He brings 15 years of goodwill with him as someone that Hollywood and Wall Street executives admire, adore, or both.
That’s significant as Disney enters its 100th year as a company. The centennial technically doesn’t occur until next October, but Disney starts celebrating in January 2023.
You can imagine how many self-owns Chapek would have had during the Disney100 celebration. Who wants that headache?
Meanwhile, Iger claims the title of the most polished media CEO of the 21st century, possibly ever.
Iger’s presence at Disney rights the ship during the company’s most significant year ever.
Just as importantly from the perspective of Disney fans, we don’t have to live in fear of what Chapek may do next to mess up everything.
So, we’re all feeling a sense of relief, right?
We are all gonna have the happiest of holidays without Bob Chapek as CEO. That’s just the reality of the situation.