Let’s Examine the New Disney

I’m jumping the gun on this one a bit, but that’s because I’m so excited.

For the first time in six years, The Walt Disney Company will have a real change at the top.

No, Bob Chapek didn’t work out, and no, the returning Bob Iger doesn’t count.

Disney appears to be on the cusp of an entirely new generation of leadership and, hopefully, excellence.

So, let’s examine the new Disney. Who’s at the top of the org chart, and are they here to stay?

Josh D’Amaro: The People’s Champion

Let’s start with the upstart winner in Disney’s decade-long succession battle.

Technically, we’ve had two winners, as Chapek also emerged victorious in his duel.

Alas, that decision proved disastrous at Disney, and it informed much of what has happened since then.

Disney chose Chapek, the financial wizard, to spearhead a survival campaign during the pandemic.

Chapek, who had previously demonstrated tremendous skill, somehow made things worse.

His failures led to Iger’s return, but they also played a vital role in everything we’re about to discuss.

When he became CEO, Chapek quickly closed ranks and carefully chose his promotions.

What followed was a kind of loyalty test wherein VERY good Disney execs left the company.

In particular, Disney has suffered dearly without Alan Horn’s guidance on various films.

The promotion of Josh D’Amaro to CEO scares many due to those lingering memories of Chapek.

The glib comment being repeated incessantly is that Disney has promoted another “theme parks guy.”

To me, that’s like saying that Josh Allen and Carson Wentz are both NFL quarterbacks.

That’s technically true, but anyone who watches football knows that they’re…quite different.

One is actually good at playing quarterback. The other is, well, Carson Wentz.

In this analogy, Josh D’Amaro is Josh Allen, and Bob Chapek is like a lesser Carson Wentz.

I never once heard any Disney fan say from 2015-2019, “Gee, I hope Bob Chapek becomes CEO.”

Conversely, I heard Disney fans, Cast Members, and especially Imagineers plead for him.

Wall Street loved him as well. Frankly, the only group that didn’t want him is Hollywood, which brings me to…

Dana Walden: The Chief Creative

Technically, her job titles now are Chief Creative Officer and President of Disney, but she’s chiefly creative.

That’s her #OneJob from now on. Every piece of Disney storytelling goes through Dana Walden.

Frankly, there is no more prestigious job in Hollywood than this one, but there’s a caveat.

From a certain perspective, Kareem Daniel held the equivalent of this job five years ago.

Chapek similarly empowered him. The difference lies in the experience of the two candidates.

Daniel had the same level of experience in Hollywood as you do, which is to say he probably had a Disney+ account.

Personally, I wouldn’t empower a person with that resume as the head of all Disney storytelling.

So, again. He’s the Carson Wentz in this scenario, although my understanding is that he’s a brilliant person.

Still, there’s a massive skill gap between Daniel and Walden, a hugely credentialed executive.

Disney’s new CCO has demonstrated an uncanny ability to find Hollywood’s biggest talents.

Some of Walden’s discoveries include Seth MacFarlane, Ryan Murphy, and Jimmy Kimmel.

You could argue that all three of those people would have succeeded without Walden.

However, the facts underscore that she has functioned as a force multiplier for all their careers.

All three of them swear by her as well, which speaks to her ability to foster loyalty from others.

While D’Amaro is in charge of Disney now, we should still be honest about the current infrastructure.

Dana Walden controls all elements of the Disney Flywheel.

Alan Bergman: The Demoted

Now we have one of the strangest remaining situations at Disney, although it’s probably nothing.

Before now, Alan Bergman and Dana Walden shared a title: Co-Chairman at Disney.

Walden handled the television side of the business, while movies were Bergman’s domain.

I presume that the infrastructure will still work similarly, at least in the short term.

However, Bergman had reported directly to Bob Iger. Now, he reports to Walden.

Think about this setup in terms of your own job.

Let’s say that you and a co-worker hold the same title. Then, they get promoted, but you don’t.

You were both reporting to the same boss. Now, you’re reporting to the person who just got promoted.

I don’t care if that co-worker is your favorite person on the planet. It’s still gonna be awkward.

That’s not a theory at Disney. Alan Bergman is living out that scenario as we speak.

Walden probably won’t change much, though, in that she’s had this infrastructure for a while. When she worked at Fox, she shared a job title and duties with Gary Newman.

Once she arrived at Disney, she did the same with Bergman. So, she’s used to this setup.

Still, I have to say “probably” because she’s in charge of Disney Entertainment now. She can do whatever she wants as long as D’Amaro goes along with it.

Given the uncomfortable dynamic of his getting promoted over her, I’d expect him to give plenty of room, too.

The last thing he’d want is to get into a needless conflict with Walden almost immediately.

That leaves Bergman to find his place in the new Disney C-suite dynamic. Not coincidentally, Bergman is the one I suspect is most likely to leave Disney.

Jimmy Pitaro – On a Private Island

As the Chairman of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro’s status hasn’t changed any.

Disney has unchained ESPN from the rest of its corporate infrastructure.

Iger did that so Disney could spin off ESPN at a later date, if needed, although he really didn’t want to do it.

For this reason, Pitaro has worked independently for several years now.

Technically, Dana Walden is his boss now, as ESPN is a part of Disney Entertainment.

I doubt that either executive wants to get into a power struggle with the other, though. That’s a byproduct of this new org chart. D’Amaro is 1, Walden is 2, and then it gets messy.

Bergman and Pitaro are technically next in power in the C-suite, although someone else is rising fast.

Then, we’ll have one more person whose identity we won’t learn until later.

This person, D’Amaro’s replacement as Chairman of Disney Experiences, will be the least powerful at first.

However, that individual will soar in importance at Disney, just as D’Amaro did.

With two new cruise ships debuting in six months, the Experiences division is poised for another growth spurt.

The new Chairman will get to take credit for this improvement occurring on their watch.

Meanwhile, Pitaro continues to depend on the ESPN app for his future success.

If you missed this story from Justin Hermes, let’s just say that I have concerns.

Confusion about access to the ESPN app definitely seems like a feature, not a bug.

Disney wouldn’t be doing something so ethically shaky if it weren’t stressed about the product.

To a larger point, D’Amaro may do what Iger couldn’t. The new CEO may spin off ESPN.

That places Pitaro in an oddly tenuous position, even if I personally feel it’s largely overblown.

Disney still needs ESPN.

Asad Ayaz – The Rising Superstar

You may not know who this is yet, but there’s a reason I wrote about him a couple of weeks ago.

Ayaz and D’Amaro share a trait: they’re Disney to the core. This is their dream job.

In the case of Ayaz, he’s now in charge of advertising at Disney. I mean all of it.

The company reorganized twice in a short timeframe, with Ayaz gaining more power each time.

Now, he’s the unquestioned overload of all Disney marketing. Any commercial you see goes across his desk.

So, any complaints about a Star Wars trailer are his problem.

That’s the thing with gaining more power. It cuts both ways.

With Ayaz in charge of all the ads, anyone that fails is entirely his fault.

Still, there’s a reason why Disney consolidated its thousands of marketing employees under Ayaz.

He’s the real deal, just as D’Amaro had been before him. Sometimes, people just know.

Everyone who works with Ayaz raves about his innate understanding of why fans connect with Disney.

While Bergman and Pitaro were technically in contention to become CEO, they missed their window.

When Disney searches for a CEO after D’Amaro, Ayaz seems like a strong contender.

Hopefully, we won’t need to have that decade until at least the mid-2030s, though.

Disney’s new org chart looks like a dream lineup, with Bergman’s status the only real question.

That’s a question we will quickly answer over the next 12-18 months, too.

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