A Cook in Disney’s Kitchen
Bob Chapek isn’t Tim Cook. And Bob Iger isn’t Steve Jobs. But…
When the news broke earlier this week that Bob Iger was stepping down as CEO of Disney, the takes were hot. Magma. Solar. Was he sick? Was this about Coronavirus? Was something nefarious about to drop? Was he running?!
I sort of fell victim to this myself. But with a few days now passed, the reality — shocker! — would seem to be far less surprising, and far more nuanced. Actually, that may not even be the right word. It may just be boringly straightforward.
If you read over all the reporting on the topic over the past few days, it would seem to boil down — and I do mean boil down — to this: Bob Iger is handing over the reigns of Disney to Bob Chapek because it’s a good time to do so.
Rather than face the mass hysteria that would inevitably come as we creep closer to the date that Iger said he would leave (end of 2021), better to get ahead of that and start to execute on the plan early. Iger, of course, will still be sticking around as long as promised, and he’ll even seemingly still be running the show in all but title. But that’s the key, the title will be Chapek’s so that when it is time for him to actually do the job, it will be as seamless of a transition as it could possibly be.
That’s the hope, at least.
It also seemingly indicates that unlike in years past, Iger does actually intend to step down this time — he’s extended his contract not once but twice in the past. But unlike those periods of relative instability or change, Disney is not only in a great place, but has executed Iger’s grand plans to set the company up well for years and years.
In fact, the only thing that gives one pause — and presumably gave the company pause — about this plan is the currently unfolding Coronavirus situation. Not only will it have a major impact on Disney’s China business — an increasingly key part of both parks and movies; are we also going to see some sort of revenue warning from them? — the person who would be in charge of weathering such a storm would seemingly be Chapek. But again, he’s CEO only in title for now. He should have the bandwidth to deal with this crisis.
And we already know that there’s no person Iger would rather have by his side to do just that. Two key parts of his recent autobiography were about a mass shooting threat and a toddler death at Disneyworld, in both situations, Iger gives Chapek the credit for helping the company overcome.
In a way, Iger’s entire biography would seem to be one big tipping of his hand for this week’s news.
Again, once we all settle down and breathe and think, this all sounds and seems fairly obvious. In a way — a very different way — it can’t help but remind you of the last CEO change at Apple. Ben Thompson alluded to this in a weekly update this week, but I think it’s worth calling out a bit more.
While again, the circumstances could seemingly not be more different — Steve Jobs was terminally ill when he handed over the reigns of Apple to Tim Cook — there are a number of parallels in the move.¹
While Chapek was famously not the COO of Disney up until now, he seemingly operated like one (albeit in his own divisions). That is to say, he was all about business and operations. From the WSJ story on the move:
While Mr. Iger is known for being charismatic and cosmopolitan and loves to hobnob, Mr. Chapek is all business with little time or interest in niceties, people who have worked closely with both say.
“A meal with Bob Chapek is one minute and 30 seconds of pleasantries and 58 minutes and 30 seconds of business,” said a former high-ranking Disney executive.
And:
Bob Chapek doesn’t fail. He is incredibly disciplined about doing what it takes to deliver the numbers,” the former executive said. “He is relentless in that regard.”
And:
In his 18 years at Disney’s film studio, Mr. Chapek was known among colleagues and others in the industry for a focus on data and business execution, rather than worrying about relationships with the creative community and business partners.
This may not sound like the Tim Cook we see now, but he’s also been CEO of Apple for almost a decade. Previously, he was known as the master of business execution — in particularly on the supply chain side. Cook had to evolve into a more charismatic, forward-facing leader.² Chapek will have to do the same. And reading the accounts about him, he should be able to make this transition just as well as Cook has. From one bit in the NYT report:
At media events, such as the 2018 opening of Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World in Florida, Mr. Chapek amiably performs his role (in that case, yukking it up with Buzz Lightyear on a stage).
And:
“He’s classy and, at the same time, he can put on a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt and be as blue collar as the next guy,” said Gill Champion, president of POW! Entertainment, which counts the comics legend Stan Lee as a co-founder. “He lives and breathes the Disney lifestyle.”
And:
“We visited Walmart stores together more than 20 years ago,” Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive, said in an email on Wednesday. “He’s always been someone who’s willing to learn what Walmart customers are looking for and come to us with big and creative ideas.”
He added, “Trusting your partners is really important in this business, and Bob has always been someone we can trust to deliver on what he says.”
In an email, Brian Cornell, Target’s chief executive, called Mr. Chapek a “savvy operator” with a “deep understanding of what Disney fans really love about their brand.”
What’s most interesting is that back in 2005, no one thought Iger could be the guy to run Disney either. Yes, he was perhaps more naturally schmoozy and charismatic given his role as a television executive, but he was seen as a dim star compared to Michael Eisner’s supernova (which carried both the good and bad connotations of such a thing). Times change. People change. Perceptions change.
Again, over the past decade-plus Iger has laid out and executed upon a brilliant set of deals (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and now Fox — but also BAMtech and Hulu) that have set the company up for seeming success in perpetuity. It has been one of the most brilliant CEO runs in recent times.
It brings to mind a man Iger became close with thanks to one of those acquisitions, and who would become Disney’s largest shareholder as a result: Steve Jobs.
Like Iger, Jobs (in his second run at Apple) set the company on a path for seeming success in perpetuity. He just needed someone he could trust to continue to execute the plan once he was gone. That was obviously Tim Cook.³ It’s easy to forget now, but when Cook took over Apple, the company’s market cap was $350B. He was able to raise that value by over $1 trillion. That’s not a typo.
And he has famously done that largely by continuing to execute on the path and vision Jobs laid out. It has only been in the past couple of years that the company is starting to move beyond that obvious iPhone-centric roadmap, moving into services and wearables (which started under Jobs as well of course) and the like.
There’s a similar (though seemingly more complex given all the business lines) path in front of Chapek, and undoubtedly a similar gameplan. With such smooth sailing ahead, the last thing you want to do is rock the boat.
Before he passed away, Jobs famously told Cook to not worry about what he would do, just to focus on doing what’s right. But what has been right for Apple has largely been doing what Jobs set the company up to do. You could imagine Iger saying the same thing to Chapek. And Chapek doing the same thing as Cook.
With all that in mind, the most surprising thing about this “surprise” announcement is that most people you talked to both before and after the announcement expected another Disney executive — Kevin Mayer — to be the next-in-line. That could very well be simply because he was viewed as the more obviously charismatic forward-facing leader Disney would need. And maybe he will still be that one day. But that’s perhaps not the guy Disney needs right now. And in so far as Disney does need that, they trust Chapek to grow into that. Just as Tim Cook has.
¹ Though, of course, Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple, whereas Iger has no direct connection to the founding of the company or even the Disney family. Still, you could make a pretty compelling case that he was a “re-founder”.
² Something which current Apple COO Jeff Williams may or may not be doing with his increasing on-stage appearances at Apple events…
³ And it’s easy to say “obviously” now, but it wasn’t so obvious to the outside world at the time — and certainly not in the first few years after Jobs’ passing. People wondered if it should have been Jony Ive — the closest embodiment of Apple — who was made CEO. Or someone like Scott Forstall, who seemed the most Jobs-like, at least from a product perspective. Again, Cook was the trains-run-on-time guy. Which he did brilliantly, but what about when it came time for new products? We still hear that to this day!
