The Walt Disney Company’s Bob Iger Defines Leadership

Robert Iger, CEO of Disney, discusses his leadership journey and strategic decisions that revitalized the company since 2005. He emphasizes the importance of optimism, thoughtful leadership, and strategic acquisitions like Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm to enhance Disney's brand and content. Iger highlights the need for innovation and disrupting traditional business models to stay relevant, especially in the face of technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors. He also underscores the significance of global expansion, particularly in emerging markets like China and India, and the role of leadership in fostering a culture of creativity and adaptability.

• Robert Iger took over as CEO of Disney in 2005 during a challenging time for the company.
• The perception of Disney was more negative than its actual internal condition, providing a foundation for improvement.
• Iger's initial focus was on resolving conflicts with various entities, such as distributors and shareholders.
• Building internal confidence was crucial; employees needed to believe in the company's future for external admiration to follow.
• Strategic moves, such as partnering with Apple and acquiring Pixar, were pivotal in revitalizing the company.

"In 2005 when I became CEO, we had been through a really rough period of time, and we were kind of at war in many respects with a variety of different entities."

• Iger inherited a company in turmoil, facing numerous conflicts that needed resolution for progress.

"First and foremost, I needed peace and prosperity as I called it."

• His priority was to establish harmony and stability within the company to enable growth.

"I started really after making peace with really pros and explaining to the company that its future was much brighter."

• Iger emphasized the importance of instilling optimism within the company to drive success.

• Disney's acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm were strategically aligned with creating high-quality branded content.
• Pixar was acquired to fix Disney's broken animation division, which was core to the company's identity.
• Marvel and Lucasfilm offered opportunities for cross-business leverage and expansion.
• These acquisitions were not only about content but also about enhancing Disney's brand and market presence.

"Pixar was about fixing a business that was broken and, in fact, a business that was more core to the company than any other business we were in."

• Acquiring Pixar was essential to revitalizing Disney's animation, a fundamental part of its legacy.

"Marvel was more in line with high-quality branded content and content that is leverageable or exploitable across multiple businesses."

• Marvel's acquisition was driven by the potential for cross-platform content exploitation.

"Lucas kind of a similar thing...it was kind of a no-brainer for us even though it cost just over 4 billion."

• The acquisition of Lucasfilm was strategic, fitting perfectly with Disney's focus on high-quality branded content.

• Iger believes a CEO must define the company's identity, strategies, and standards.
• Disney is primarily a content creation company, not a distributor.
• Setting high standards for both product and people is essential for maintaining Disney's reputation.
• Diversity is an important aspect of leadership and company strategy.

"I believe the CEO has to define who what the company is...we are a content company, we're not a distributor."

• Iger's leadership involves clearly defining Disney's core focus and strategic direction.

"A CEO also has to set standards which essentially is standards for your product and for your people."

• Establishing and maintaining high standards is crucial for a company's success and reputation.

• Leadership is crucial for taking a successful company to new heights. It involves specific attributes that support continuous improvement and success.
• Key leadership attributes include optimism, thoughtfulness, decisiveness, focus, openness, honesty, curiosity, and embracing diversity.
• Leaders must motivate and inspire their teams, ensuring they are optimistic about the company's future and their role within it.

"Leaders have to be optimistic. Nobody wants to follow a pessimist."

• Optimism is essential for leadership as it motivates and inspires teams, fostering a positive outlook on the company's future.

"Thoughtfulness is an often underappreciated quality of leadership... you have to take the time to study."

• Thoughtfulness involves being informed and making decisions based on knowledge, leading to respected and effective leadership.

"You have to be decisive. People hate to work for people who are not decisive."

• Decisiveness is critical for leadership, as it provides clear direction and instills confidence in team members.

"You must listen to a diversity of opinions and to do that, you have to surround yourself with a diversity of people."

• Embracing diversity in opinions and people leads to better decision-making and innovation, essential for leadership in a changing world.

• Successful companies must balance respecting their heritage with the need for innovation to stay relevant and competitive.
• Revering a brand can hinder innovation; instead, companies should respect their heritage while evolving with changing times.
• Companies must challenge themselves to disrupt their own business models to avoid being disrupted by external forces.

"If you revere a brand, you might as well stick it in a museum behind glass and not touch it."

• Over-reverence for a brand can prevent necessary innovation and adaptation, leading to stagnation.

"Disrupt yourself. If you don't disrupt yourselves, you're going to be disrupted anyway."

• Self-disruption is crucial for staying ahead in a rapidly changing market and avoiding external disruptions.

• Large organizations must foster a culture of innovation at every level, encouraging employees to take risks and challenge the status quo.
• Leadership by example is critical; leaders must demonstrate willingness to challenge existing business models and encourage their teams to do the same.
• Effective communication is essential for spreading strategic priorities and fostering a culture of innovation across the organization.

"Great leaders are great communicators or successful leaders are great communicators. You have to communicate all the time."

• Continuous communication is vital for reinforcing strategic priorities and encouraging innovation throughout the organization.

"I was at one of our offices fairly recently... each business card had my strategic priorities on the back of it."

• Reinforcing strategic priorities through consistent messaging ensures alignment and focus across the organization.

• Global expansion presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in emerging markets like China.
• Demographic trends, such as population growth, influence strategic decisions for expansion and investment.
• Navigating the business climate in different regions requires adaptability and understanding of local markets.

"Follow the babies... where is their population growth."

• Demographic trends, such as population growth, are key indicators for identifying strategic opportunities in global markets.

"You're opening Shanghai Disneyland... how do you see the opportunities in China, the challenges?"

• Expanding into China presents significant opportunities but also challenges that require careful navigation and strategic planning.

• The speaker discusses the importance of demographics in global markets, highlighting Turkey as a young country with a significant population under 14, surpassing several European countries.
• Emphasizes the need for economic, cultural, and technological development, and a favorable regulatory environment for business growth.
• The US remains a strong market, but the company seeks growth opportunities elsewhere, aggressively expanding into emerging markets.
• Disney has made strategic acquisitions and expansions in India, Russia, China, Turkey, Latin America, and Southeast Asia to grow its brand and presence.

"I was in Turkey about a year ago, you look at the population of Turkey, it's a very young country, and I was actually staggered by the number of people in Turkey under 14, bigger than France, bigger than Italy, bigger than Spain, bigger than Germany."

• The speaker highlights Turkey's youthful demographic as a key factor in considering it a growth market.

"We bought the largest movie producer in India, we bought an over-the-air Network and converted it to a Disney Channel in Russia, we broke ground on Shanghai Disneyland."

• Disney's strategic acquisitions and expansions in various countries are aimed at increasing its global presence and brand recognition.

• Different markets require unique strategies; no single strategy fits all.
• In India, Disney focuses on television and local movie production to grow its brand as a local entity.
• In Russia, the focus is on television, while in China, theme parks are prioritized due to regulatory challenges in other areas.
• The goal is to create an aspirational brand experience in each market, similar to Disneyland's effect in the US.

"No two markets are the same and therefore we enter each market differently."

• The speaker emphasizes the need for market-specific strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

"In Russia, it was about TV, so we bought the TV network. We're not going to build a theme park in Russia."

• Disney focuses on television in Russia, highlighting a tailored approach to market entry.

• Technology is seen as both a disruptor and an opportunity, affecting business models and content creation.
• The rise of short-form content, like Vine and BuzzFeed, reflects changing consumer tastes influenced by technology.
• Disney is adapting by creating shorter content, such as three-minute Mickey Mouse shorts, to meet these new consumer preferences.
• Technology is used to enhance content creation, distribution, customer engagement, and operational efficiency.

"There's a huge growth in people's interest in very, very compressed, condensed video experiences."

• The speaker notes the trend towards shorter content consumption as a significant shift in media consumption habits.

"We decided that we'd make new ones, and we made 25 new Mickey shorts, they were three minutes long."

• Disney has adapted to the trend by producing shorter content to align with changing consumer preferences.

• Technology should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a threat, fostering innovation and adaptation.
• Disney leverages technology to create personalized and relevant customer experiences through data collection and analysis.
• The company uses technology to distribute content more widely and efficiently, enhancing customer reach and engagement.

"Look at technology as opportunity, not as threat, because if you look at it as threat, everybody's going to think you're only under threat."

• The speaker advocates for an optimistic view of technology to encourage innovation and growth.

"Use technology to get closer to the customer, that's also growing in importance."

• Emphasizes the importance of technology in enhancing customer relationships and experiences.

• The future of electronic advertising is uncertain, with a need for more personalized and relevant ad delivery.
• Dynamic ad insertion, using user data for targeted advertising, is becoming increasingly important.
• The challenge lies in adapting mass media advertising to a more personalized approach through technology.

"We have to start really turning to what I'll call dynamic ad insertion, which is collecting user data."

• Dynamic ad insertion is identified as a key strategy for improving advertising relevance and effectiveness.

"It's important to start collecting user data and creating relevance in terms of advertising."

• The speaker highlights the necessity of using data to enhance the relevance of advertising content.

• MBAs are seen as valuable for their skills in data analytics and consumer insights.
• Entertainment companies, including Disney, are expected to increase hiring of MBAs to leverage data-driven strategies.

"I think MBAs are brilliant at those data analytic questions and answers that you need to fine-tune the consumer base."

• The speaker acknowledges the importance of MBAs in enhancing data analytics capabilities within entertainment companies.

"Entertainment companies are going to see the light and start hiring tons and tons of MBAs."

• Suggests a growing trend towards employing MBAs for their expertise in data-driven decision-making.

• Entertainment companies require leaders who can balance creative and business aspects.
• Leaders must manage creative processes while understanding business and technology.
• It's essential to appreciate creativity's value and be able to provide feedback.

"I know that my job requires me to have both a deep understanding and appreciation of Business and Technology while at the same time I'm not a Creator but I manage a lot of creative processes."

• Leaders need a broad perspective and the ability to bridge the gap between creative and business sides.

• Companies benefit from leaders who have both business acumen and creative sensibility.
• Leaders do not need to be creators themselves but should recognize quality and impact.
• Business elements are crucial in managing large divisions within entertainment companies.

"I don't need someone in a job working for me that knows that has ever made a movie, but they need to know good from bad."

• Leaders with diverse educational backgrounds, like MBAs or law degrees, can effectively manage different company divisions.

• Career success involves patience, hard work, treating people well, and luck.
• Many career aspects are uncontrollable, and impatience can lead to poor decisions.
• Opportunities may arise unexpectedly; patience can lead to career growth.

"Sometimes it's better off just to be patient because just when you think nothing is going to change or no opportunity is going to come your way boom you're smacked in the face with it."

• Staying with a company can offer varied opportunities and growth.

• Both Walt Disney and John Wooden were optimists and perfectionists.
• They achieved success while maintaining integrity and demanding quality.
• Teamwork is essential for success, and both leaders valued team dynamics.

"It wasn't victory at all cost; it was Victory, you know, won by maintaining Integrity by demanding quality by demanding quality in terms of behavior of people first and then of product."

• Competitive spirit and respect for teamwork are crucial for leadership and company success.

• Recognition of teamwork within Disney and acknowledgment of personal influences.
• Importance of family support in career success.

"This is a company that is successful because of a team, not because of a CEO."

• Personal anecdotes and appreciation for contributions from family and colleagues.