Bob Iger Returns/Disney CEO Thread (2022)

[Jerroddragon]

Between him and Musk it's been a great year for CEO haters

lol

I don't want to hate CEO's....I just want them paid far less, especially when they lose the company value/money. Makes no sense that if they get rewarded extra for a good job they wouldn't be getting less when they screw up

I was thinking about this today....I don't want these companies to screw up, it brings me zero joy for Disney to be sucking this bad....it just means less great films, less great theme park rides.

I want companies to do well but then they get all greedy and won't even meet half way on something and it makes many into "haters" because it really does feel like Us vs them.

Look at USH, besides the fact I think it's a joke they were so caught off guard with how big Nintendo would be in theme parks a even more serious issue is the staff is being wayyyyy under paid as they make hand over fist money.

I just wish more people in charged did more then make everyone else's lives suck, and for those who say its all about the bottom line....I challenge that companies saw productively in most offices pike during covid because of working from home but now that we have the data what are most companies doing? Forcing people back into the office costing the company money by wasting resources on offices that aren't need for many job, wasting tax payers money by having more people on the roads causing them to need more work on and especially calling out the BS of companies being "green" but forcing people to drive to work everyday just because of control.

 

[Grabnar]

I want companies to do well but then they get all greedy and won't even meet half way on something and it makes many into "haters" because it really does feel like Us vs them.

I mean it literally is Us vs Them. They get rich extracting your labor and quite literally stealing your time and energy. That's how capitalism works.

So many CEOs have failed upwards by being kissing enough ass to ingratiate themselves with the board.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I mean it literally is Us vs Them. They get rich extracting your labor and quite literally stealing your time and energy. That's how capitalism works.

So many CEOs have failed upwards by being kissing enough ass to ingratiate themselves with the board.

Sure but even back in the Day many who worked at Disneyland could afford a home and family.

Now that's impossible and a balance is just needed. I'm not against someone like Mark Z getting Rich from creating Facebook, he had a good idea and made it happen But it's when they are allowed to buy out anyone with a good idea so that it's company doesn't have to get better, not pay employee's livable wages and thing's like seeing the work at home numbers and forcing people into offices for no real reasons.

As for Disney CEO, I just see nothing from Bob. He can't even tell us what's next for Disneyland or WDW because every idea he has is either buying out another company or waiting for a committee to tell him what next attraction "might' bring in the most money because his personal tastes don't align with a normal person.

I've at least seen tons of video's with concept art of projects they have lined up but Disney won't commit to any of them and while Bob Iger can blame the last CEO for the Star Wars Hotel/Disney Plus, these projects were made during Iger time at the company and he can't take responsibly for having no idea how to make them profitable

 

[belloq87]

This is not a thread for a debate about the philosophical merits of capitalism, so I won't go there!

I will say, however, that -- even as one of the least anti-capitalist people around here, it seems -- the ways in which Disney (and many large corporations) are obsessed with increasing quarterly profits and Wall Street's perceptions is deeply unhealthy. Not just to consumers (for whom the company should deliver a quality product), but also for the longterm endurance of Disney itself.

What Disney is going through now is the culmination of (at least) ten years of questionable decisions across multiple levels of the company. And the buck stops with Iger.

 

[Mad Dog]

In the 1950's, CEO made, on the average, about 8 times what the regular worker for that company, made. Now it's an astronomical gap between CEO & worker. And, so many bad CEO decisions certainly don't earn them those vast rewards. The Fox acquisition, and the results be damned Disney+ decisions have wounded Disney greatly. And the USA theme parks, though always being an excellent generator of profits, short of covid shutdowns, always suffer due to their profits being diverted to assist struggling areas of the too far expanded corporation.

 

[Nico]

I love this forum. Great work everyone.

 

[quinnmac000]

I think generally speaking Iger was never a good CEO but just had a great communications/pr team. Chapek literally just did everything Iger did yet everyone acted like he was the devil. That's why i'm not surprised by any of this.

As for the quarterly profit mindset, its a derivative due to the change of pension based retirement compensation to 401K based retirement compensation which made everyone scream invest invest invest.....now we end up in a negative chain of events because they cut too much and don't focus on the reality or make proper decisions for long term growth.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

They’ve just really mishandled their acquisitions imo. To me, Obi Wan as a movie instead of a show would’ve made a billion, Ashoka is sooooo good, I think it should also be a film. Mandalorian could’ve been a trilogy of its own.

That’s a lot of money being spent just to go on Disney + when a much faster return on investment would’ve come from theatres. This is just one of many examples.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I mean it literally is Us vs Them. They get rich extracting your labor and quite literally stealing your time and energy. That's how capitalism works.

So many CEOs have failed upwards by being kissing enough ass to ingratiate themselves with the board.

This is not a thread for a debate about the philosophical merits of capitalism, so I won't go there!

I will say, however, that -- even as one of the least anti-capitalist people around here, it seems -- the ways in which Disney (and many large corporations) are obsessed with increasing quarterly profits and Wall Street's perceptions is deeply unhealthy. Not just to consumers (for whom the company should deliver a quality product), but also for the longterm endurance of Disney itself.

What Disney is going through now is the culmination of (at least) ten years of questionable decisions across multiple levels of the company. And the buck stops with Iger.

my problem is with corporatism and monopolies. Capitalism is supposed to be a free market, encouraging competition, these companies are too big and too many loop holes and benefits. i prefer small business capitalism. we need market competition.
the writers strike is showing some of the problems with giant corporations,

 

[tielo]

Maybe I missed it but I don't see Iger improving anything in the 2 years he is at the helm.
What I do see is him trying to make the company profitable in the short term, to make it a better sell.
He does that by scaling everything down, trimming away fat and raising prices and just before it crashes and burns it should be sold off. It's a tried and tested method (once I was asked to do something like that in Afrika for a Philips beeper factory just before the beeper would die, I declined as I have a conscious and this kind of transitions don't go without massive bloodshed).
What Iger should have done is making creative decisions so the Disney product would improve but it's not something he can nor the people around him. His only value to the company is buying new companies and slap a Disney sticker on it but where is the Disney that once was, the core of the company, could that come back if a creative mind would be at the helm? Or would it be to out of date and not be able to translate to current audiences? Or those people still there or did they move on to green pastures.

 

[Nico]

This made me laugh:

Iger doesn’t mention Chapek once in his 2019 autobiography outside of the prologue — even though by then Chapek was at least tentatively in line to be Iger’s preferred successor. For comparison, Iger spends more than five pages of his 236-page book discussing “Twin Peaks.”

Disney's wildest ride: Iger, Chapek and the making of an epic succession mess

Here's the inside story of the executive chaos at Disney over the past few years — and how it could shape the fate of the iconic entertainment company.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Nick]

I love how Iger saw an atomic bomb incoming with COVID and he just sort of played hot potato and said “I’m out, you handle this other Bob (who I do not know)”.

Then he got celebrated upon his return and in the funniest way did it while it was supposed to be Chapek’s big night with the D+ Elton John concert and Chapek himself was at Dodger Stadium.

 

[Nico]

I love how Iger saw an atomic bomb incoming with COVID and he just sort of played hot potato and said “I’m out, you handle this other Bob (who I do not know)”.

Then he got celebrated upon his return and in the funniest way did it while it was supposed to be Chapek’s big night with the D+ Elton John concert and Chapek himself was at Dodger Stadium.

I always thought it was suspicious that the dude dipped before covid. This was a man who believed he could run for President at some point later that year. I think he definitely knew/saw the writing on the wall before most of us did.

 

[Grabnar]

I always thought it was suspicious that the dude dipped before covid. This was a man who believed he could run for President at some point later that year. I think he definitely knew/saw the writing on the wall before most of us did.

A dude with significant business ties and high level connections in the Chinese government would definitely have had one of the earliest warnings possible.

 

[rageofthegods]

This whole article is a fantastic read (and frankly doesn't make Iger look much better than Chapek).

 

[Michael S]

This whole article is a fantastic read (and frankly doesn't make Iger look much better than Chapek).

I always thought Iger kind of rode on the coattails of Eisner’s failure in his last decade as CEO. He never really had a creative vision or a true plan for the company besides “let’s buy up everything that can make us some money and milk the hell out of it.” But his image was a lot glossier, in his first tenure, compared to what came before.

 

[Mad Dog]

Disney is not in a good position at this point in time. So much of their media and film interests have gone south, even if only temporarily. Their overpay for Fox looms over their heads. And their Orlando resorts are underperforming. This could be a really bad fourth quarter (ends on Sept. 30), to rival last year's bad fourth quarter report. Interesting to see their reactions.

 

[Michael S]

Disney is not in a good position at this point in time. So much of their media and film interests have gone south, even if only temporarily. Their overpay for Fox looms over their heads. And their Orlando resorts are underperforming. This could be a really bad fourth quarter (ends on Sept. 30), to rival last year's bad fourth quarter report. Interesting to see their reactions.

They’re feeling less culturally relevant every day.

 

[Nick]

A dude with significant business ties and high level connections in the Chinese government would definitely have had one of the earliest warnings possible.

I definitely predicted the coronavirus concerns on the company at the time and I was certainly not the only one speculating that had to be the “why now?” and “why so abruptly?”

This was February 25, 2020, the same day he stepped down. COVID had already made its way to the US.

Coronavirus is gonna have a massive affect on the Parks bottom line and let’s not forget DCL in there as well. 2019 was a banner year for the Studio and 2020 has a meh lineup. Disney+ adds a lot of cost with no immediate ROI.

 

[Mad Dog]

I definitely predicted the coronavirus concerns on the company at the time and I was certainly not the only one speculating that had to be the “why now?” and “why so abruptly?”

This was February 25, 2020, the same day he stepped down. COVID had already made its way to the US.

Yes, always thought that also. I've never been a big believer in 'coincidence'. He had the political connections to know what was 'really happening'.