How Disney Failed with Succession: The Iger/Chapek Feud

Folks, I’m gonna let you in on a secret. Bob Chapek and Bob Iger don’t like each other.

I know that you’re not at all shocked by this revelation, but some recent CNBC reporting has driven home the chasm between the Disney leaders.

These two petty executives feuded about everything from a Disney office shower to who was the Big Bob and who was the Little Bob.

Here’s how Disney failed with its succession plan.

Petty Men in a Petty Squabble

First, let’s talk about the petulance of both people involved.

Disney has paid Bob Chapek tens of millions of dollars, while Bob Iger currently claims a net worth of $700 million.

Despite their professional triumphs and staggering wealth, both men have proven that they have the same maturity level as the average Bluey viewer.

Seriously, some of this stuff is so petty that a parental figure would put them both in timeout.

Specifically, when Bob Iger confirmed Bob Chapek as his replacement, a weird power play ensued.

Iger intended to remain with Disney as Executive Chairman so that he could manage Disney’s storytelling content.

That’s an area where Chapek lacked skill and experience, thereby justifying Iger’s decision.

However, since Iger was staying at Disney for another 18 months, he refused to give up the large office of the CEO.

Iger wanted to keep the room because he typically arrives at work at 4:15 a.m. and loves to shower in his office, sometimes twice in a given workday.

Chapek expected that his new CEO duties would include the largest office. So, he immediately felt inferior.

Almost by intention, Iger also referred to himself as Big Bob and Chapek as Little Bob.

That’s something a grandparent does, not how an executive speaks to the CEO of a Fortune 50 company.

Iger belittled his successor as often as possible, while the somewhat insecure Chapek repeatedly took the bait.

In the process, Disney created a dysfunctional workplace at the worst possible time, the beginning of a multi-year pandemic.

Whenever we discuss Disney’s current struggles, we should always remember that they circle back to the egos of its top two executives.

Yes, that’s maddening.

Blame Iger and Arnold

The mere fact that Bob Chapek became CEO of The Walt Disney Company has never made sense to me.

In 2019, I wrote this piece about Disney’s succession plans. The candidate I highlighted was Kevin Mayer, who now co-leads Candle Media.

At the time, Mayer had become the hot candidate to follow Iger as CEO. And Mayer thought so, too.

In 2021, Mayer confessed that he learned only minutes before the official announcement that he had lost the succession competition with Chapek.

During an interview, Mayer stated, “I didn’t know that was coming at all.”

Disney had apparently narrowed the list of potential Iger replacements to Chapek, Mayer, and since-terminated television executive Peter Rice.

Chapek never jumped through any of the hoops that Iger had in chasing the title of CEO.

During his interview process, Iger met with members of Disney’s Board of Directors on approximately 15 occasions.

Chapek learned that Disney expected the same of him in 2017, but that never happened.

Instead, in January 2020, Chapek spoke with the Chairman of the Board, Susan Arnold, as well as Iger.

They informed him of his candidacy and declared him the winner a few days later. According to CNBC, everything happened that quickly.

Chapek learned that he would be Disney’s next CEO in mid-January 2020 and sat on the announcement for six weeks until February 25^th, 2020.

Notably, that’s also how long Iger kept his close friend and trusted ally, Mayer, in the dark that he had lost his dream job.

Please tell me which part of that isn’t weird and shady.

As I’ve previously referenced, Iger only mentions Chapek once in his autobiography, and even that mention seems incidental.

Meanwhile, Mayer merits a dozen compliments in a 236-page autobiography. Who does it sound like Iger respects more?

Then Why Did Chapek Win?

“What this is about, really, is, we believe, a really good succession process and a really smart transition process.”

Presuming that Bob Iger’s second run as Disney CEO doesn’t tarnish his legacy – and it very well might – he will be remembered as one of the greatest media CEOs ever.

Still, that quote has aged like milk. Seriously, I once said that Myles Garrett was the best player in a draft that had Patrick Mahomes in it…and even my comment wasn’t as dumb as what Iger said there.

Let’s just say that the transition from Iger to Chapek was NOT a “really good succession process.”

What caused these mistakes? We’ve learned several sticking points recently as Chapek has finally started telling friends his story.

Similarly, former Iger allies are no longer as willing to hold their tongue in the wake of his recent missteps.

The revelations involve the vetting process for CEO, and they come down to missing the forest for the trees.

Also, a professional sports adage comes into play. The way you can identify the good scouts from the bad ones involves Occam’s Razor.

Some people spend too much time fixating on what a person can’t do and overlook the obvious of what this individual can do exceptionally well.

In the case of Mayer, Disney’s Board and possibly even Iger emphasized all his shortcomings as a brash, aggressive, somewhat inexperienced leader.

What they missed is that Mayer had a hand in Disney’s seminal transactions like the acquisitions of Marvel and Fox as well as the implementation of Disney+.

Mayer’s fingerprints are all over many of Bob Iger’s greatest successes as CEO. And none of them fell apart due to his brash, aggressive personality or lack of experience.

Undeserved Credit

Meanwhile, Disney may have credited Chapek too much for things that happened on his watch.

When Chapek arrived as the leader of the home video market, titles like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid sold millions.

How much of that happened due to Chapek? I mean, I don’t recall anyone talking about him as the architect of the Disney Renaissance.

As the maxim goes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and that’s Chapek’s Disney tenure before he became CEO.

If you don’t believe me, consider that Chapek’s run as President of Consumer Products occurred at the same time as the Frozen phenomenon.

Folks, I’ve never sold a toy in my life, but if I’d been in charge of Disney’s merchandising when Frozen came out, I’d look like a genius, too.

In a weird way, Chapek seemingly enjoyed more than 25 years of excellent fortune as a Disney exec…right up until he became CEO.

At that point, Chapek suffered a reversal of fortune and became one of the unluckiest CEOs ever.

 

Of course, the pandemic didn’t help any, which explains why I’ve always viewed him as a kind of wartime consigliere and the CEO Disney needed at the time.

Chapek made some tough calls in impossible circumstances and acquitted himself shockingly well during the first year.

Later, the wheels came off, and I suspect the explanation stems from the fact that he’s better as an executive than a leader.

Iger has confessed that he “mistook Chapek’s stellar operational track record for leadership skills.”

Why did that happen? Well, that’s the other part of the story…

Learning the Wrong Lessons from Past Mistakes

A lot of this nonsense could have been avoided if Bob Iger had handled the Thomas Staggs succession plan better.

Iger declared Staggs the winner of a bake-off with Jay Rasulo and then empowered his friend with a new title, Disney’s Chief Operating Officer.

The following year, Iger and Disney’s Board fired Staggs, who had struggled to prove he should lead the company.

Iger believed that he had learned from that series of events, unfortunate ones that culminated in laying off a vacation buddy and friend of the family.

With Chapek, Iger decided never to make his potential successor jump through the same hoops. And that move cost Disney.

In hindsight, Chapek cared about money more than people, which isn’t what Disney needs from its leader.

Also, the Peter Principle may apply here. While Chapek handled the start of the pandemic well, he struggled over time.

In short, Iger’s chosen successor simply lacked the skill to run the company well over the duration.

Using another sports analogy, Chapek was Barry Switzer. Jimmy Johnson built a dynasty at Dallas, so much so that Jerry Jones could fire him and bring in Switzer.

During his second year, Switzer won a Super Bowl because his team was so much better than everyone else. Dallas hasn’t won a title since then.

Without Jimmy Johnson, everything fell apart. The same thing happened with Disney once Iger retired as Executive Chairman.

Every time Chapek went off on his own, the company’s position grew more perilous. Chapek just wasn’t good enough as Iger’s successor.

While the fact that Chapek and Iger hated one another makes for great stories – seriously, how petty is the big office squabble? – it’s less important.

What matters is that Disney cannot botch its next succession. Too much relies on this choice.

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