The Ride of a Lifetime - Entire Book Summary

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger: 

Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

PROLOGUE:

Also a best-seller, ‘The Ride of a Lifetime’ by Rober Iger is a fascinating book describing the life of Robert Iger as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company. The book focuses on outlining key moments in Iger’s life during that time and principles on the type of leadership that is appropriate in a business environment. This book was highly recommended by Bill Gates. This is evident from the following blog post on his website:

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Ride-of-a-Lifetime

At the outset, Iger points out that he was CEO of the Walt Disney Company for eleven years when Disney was to open Shanghai Disneyland in 2016 and he subsequently had plans to retire. He described his experience as CEO as “thrilling”, and the creation of Shanghai Disneyland was the greatest accomplishment of his professional career. However, things in life do not necessarily go as one expects. There have been tragic events in Shanghai, Paris and Orlando where Disney employees or people associated with Disney have either been killed or injured. Hence, Iger remained as CEO until 2020. 

Iger also pointed out that his routine for the days leading up to the amusement park’s opening in Shanghai was extremely busy: “leading park tours and giving interviews and attending rehearsals to give final notes on the opening ceremony performances; hosting lunches and dinners and meetings with shareholders and vendors and members of our board; meeting with Chinese dignitaries to pay proper respects; dedicating a wing of the Shanghai Children’s Hospital; practicing a brief speech, part of which was in Mandarin, that I’d be giving at the opening ceremony.” 

June 16, was the opening day for the park and (it is interesting to look at the habits of highly successful people) Iger woke up at 4:00 A.M. and worked out to clear his mind and relax.

As a CEO, the author emphasises that it is necessary to be able to continuously adapt and re-adapt. “You go from plotting growth strategy with investors, to looking at the design of a giant new theme-park attraction with Imagineers, to giving notes on the rough cut of a film, to discussing security measures and board governance and ticket pricing and pay scale.” It is “challenging and dynamic” day in and day out. 

Lastly, Iger continued to state that throughout his time as CEO, he identified 10 principles that are essential to true leadership. 

1. Optimism. As Iger emphasises, optimism is vital to leadership and he rightly acknowledges that optimism is necessary for people to be motivated. 

2. Courage. In an organisation that seeks to attain long-term success, complacency is not an option. Therefore, true innovation requires courageous people. As Mark Zuckerberg once said, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

3. Focus. Assigning priorities effectively is also vital. 

4. Decisiveness. Indecisiveness by a leader will render an organisation unproductive. 

5. Curiosity. Iger put it best: “A deep and abiding curiosity enables the discovery of new people, places, and ideas, as well as an awareness and an understanding of the marketplace and its changing dynamics. The path to innovation begins with curiosity.”

6. Fairness. Being fair to the people within the team/organisation is crucial to strong leadership as well as the quality of being empathetic. Leading by force and fear will also kill innovation, which is a terrible idea.  

7. Thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness is “the process of gaining knowledge, so an opinion rendered or decision made is more credible and more likely to be correct.” In fact, it is the attribute of being objective, meaning knowing the facts prior to making conclusions. 

8. Authenticity. “Truth and authenticity breed respect and trust.”

9. The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection. Do not mistake this principle with trying to be a perfectionist all the time. Rather, it is about denying to settle for mediocrity.

10. Integrity. Integrity is incredibly important in everything that one does. Warren Buffett famously said: “We look for three things when we hire people. We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if they don't have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you're going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb.”

Part One - Learning

CHAPTER 1:

STARTING AT THE BOTTOM

The author begins the first chapter by stating his attributes, qualities, habits and generally provides an insight into his early life. As he asserts, there are things he was always doing, which are a result of a mixture of nature and nurture. For instance, he would always wake up early and he would always enjoy those hours to himself prior to the rest of the world waking up. 

The author subsequently points out that his father was the most influential person in his life. As Iger asserts, “He certainly made me curious about the world. We had a den lined with shelves full of books, and my dad had read every one of them. I didn’t become a serious reader until I was in high school, but when I did finally fall in love with books, it was because of him.”

Iger then states that his dad would check on him at night before going to bed to ensure that he was “spending time productively”. That included things such as reading or doing homework or being acting in a way that would “better” Iger in some way. The author also outlined that his dad wanted his sister and him to have fun, but it was also essential that they would use their time “wisely and work in a focused way toward our goals.” Hence, according to Iger, his time-management skills come from his dad. 

Iger went to Ithaca College and he would work nearly every weekend night in his freshman and sophomore year at the local Pizza Hut. Additionally, he added that he obtained mostly B’s and a few A’s in high school, but academics were never his passion. Nonetheless, something clicked for him in college. He found himself motivated, with an enhanced work ethic, and a passion to learn as much as possible. Something which also goes back to his dad, due to the fact that he did not want to feel like a failure like his dad. His dad was diagnosed with manic depression and hence, he could observe and understand that he did not want to live the disappointment that his dad felt for himself. As the author put it: “I didn’t have a clear idea of what “success” meant, no specific vision of being wealthy or powerful, but I was determined not to live a life of disappointment. Whatever shape my life took, I told myself, there wasn’t a chance in the world that I was going to toil in frustration and lack fulfillment.”

Another point worth mentioning, is that he started at the very bottom of his first job, in ABC, since his role paid $150 per week, which was the lowest point in the ladder of the company. 

Iger still wakes up at 4:15 every morning, which now is for selfish reasons. He does it to have “time to think and read and exercise before the demands of the day take over.” He also emphasises that he would be less productive and less creative in his work if he did not spend this time alone in the mornings, prior to getting bombarded with emails and phone calls and general work responsibilities. 

His boss at ABC, Roone, taught Iger an important lesson he would always remember in his life. Innovate or die. Note that it is important not to fear innovation. 

Iger also makes reference to a significant point in his life, one where he admitted and owned up to his mistake in a room full of people. As he explicitly says: “Roone never said anything to me about it, but he treated me differently, with higher regard, it seemed, from that moment on. In my early days, I thought there was only one lesson in this story, the obvious one about the importance of taking responsibility when you screw up. That’s true, and it’s significant. In your work, in your life, you’ll be more respected and trusted by the people around you if you honestly own up to your mistakes.”

Lastly, Iger is right to point out that excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Something that is a common misconception in society. 

CHAPTER 2

BETTING ON TALENT

ABC was bought by Tom Murphy and Dan Burke from Cap Cities. Despite ABC being a bigger company than Cap Cities, Tom’s close friend Warren Buffett, was a large shareholder in the $3.5 billion deal and the deal could, therefore, go through. 

At first, Iger did not like the fact that his boss changed and was genuinely thinking of leaving the company. However, working for his new boss, Dennis, became one of the best career decisions he ever made. Dennis turned out to be a funny guy with lots of energy and optimism and, “crucially, he knew what he didn’t know.”

Appropriately, as Iger expressly recited: “We would sit in meetings and something would come up and rather than bluffing his way through it, Dennis would say he didn’t know, and then he’d turn to me and others for help. He regularly asked me to take the lead in conversations with higher-ups while he sat back, and he took every opportunity to extol my virtues to Tom and Dan.” Essentially, Dennis would “never put himself ahead of anyone else.”

Correspondingly, Iger described the characters of Tom and Dan, which was that they were two of the most genuine and authentic people he ever met. They did not have an ego and they treated everyone with honesty and forthrightness, irrespective of their ranking within the company. “They were shrewd businesspeople (Warren Buffett later called them ‘probably the greatest two-person combination in management that the world has ever seen or maybe ever will see’). From Tom and Dan, Iger received the important lesson that “genuine decency and professional competitiveness weren’t mutually exclusive.” Iger also put it best in the following passage: “In fact, true integrity—a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong—is a kind of secret weapon. They trusted in their own instincts, they treated people with respect, and over time the company came to represent the values they lived by. A lot of us were getting paid less than we would have been paid if we went to a competitor. We knew they were cheap. But we stayed because we felt so loyal to these two men.” 

Accordingly, the business strategy of Tom and Dan was simple because they were focused about controlling costs, and they allowed other people to make key decisions in the company as well. Their hiring policy was smart, decent and hardworking people. Due to their characters, “executives working for them always had a clear sense of what their priorities were" and their focus reflected on the rest of the employees being focused as well. 

Lastly, Iger points out that one of his career principles was to say yes to every opportunity and therefore, he took the opportunity to become the new head of ABC Entertainment. 

CHAPTER 3

KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW (AND TRUST IN WHAT YOU DO) 

Iger, throughout this Chapter, wants to emphasise that self-awareness is key to leadership. He would sometimes put pressure on himself that the management of the company would expect a lot from him and his inexperience for the position couldn't be an excuse for not delivering. Nonetheless, as he makes clear: “The first rule is not to fake anything. You have to be humble, and you can’t pretend to be someone you’re not or to know something you don’t. You’re also in a position of leadership, though, so you can’t let humility prevent you from leading. It’s a fine line” and hence, a leader must find the right balance between the two.  Again, he also puts it best in the following passage: “You have to ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as you can.” A team will ultimately be demotivated when their leader is faking knowledge he/she does not have. Respect and admiration to the leader comes when the leader is genuinely himself/herself at all times. 

Subsequently, the author also points out that the right balance must also be achieved when the leader deals with a creative project, since he/she must allow his/hers subordinates to exercise their creativity without the project implementing financial severity. Empathy and respect, therefore, are vital in such circumstances. 

Finally, Iger rightly emphasises that during his professional career, he would always prefer trying something and failing, rather than not trying at all. Accordingly, he continued to assert that he didn’t regret trying anything , since he “didn’t want to be in the business of playing it safe.” Iger “wanted to be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness." As he makes crystal clear: "Of all the lessons I learned in that first year running prime time, the need to be comfortable with failure was the most profound. Not with lack of effort but with the unavoidable truth that if you want innovation—and you should, always—you need to give permission to fail.”

As one of the greatest hockey players of all time, Wayne Gretzky, pointed out: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

CHAPTER 4

ENTER DISNEY

This Chapter provides an insight into the life of the author after Disney acquired Cap Cities/ABC in 1995. 

Despite Iger not getting the promotion he wanted, it is important to note that he appreciated that his boss had been straight with him. His boss “didn’t try to sugarcoat it or pretend the arrangement was something it was not.” 

Correspondingly, Iger found himself in a different corporate environment after Disney acquired his company. His previous bosses, Tom and Dan, were warm and accessible. They would always make time for their employees and would provide advice freely. Their business strategies were “intensely focused on managing expenses and increasing earnings, and they surrounded themselves with executives who could work for them forever as long as they adhered to the same principles. They also believed in a decentralized corporate structure.”

In contrast, Disney had a central corporate structure called Strategic Planning, which consisted of executives with highly intellectual degrees. These executives provided the analysis with data in every business move that Disney executed and the CEO would also execute all the creative decisions himself.

It is this type of system that Iger believes had to do with the fact that there were more disagreements and arguments within the company, while the tone of the Disney executives was “often authoritative and demanding.” As Iger expresses, they acted as if, because they bought his company, they “were expected always to bend to their will.” 

Subsequently, Iger emphasises the significance of the people at the top of the company having a relationship that is functional. In Disney, the two top executives, Michael Eisner and Ovitz had a dysfunctional relationship and as a result, the rest of the subordinates in Disney were dysfunctional. 

Last but not least, the author provides a very brief but accurate description of an excellent manager. Most importantly, an excellent manager must always be eager to learn and absorb information. Additionally, “you have to hear out other people’s problems and help find solutions.” 

CHAPTER 5

SECOND IN LINE

For some years, the number two spot at Disney was vacant. Additionally, Iger confessed that he remained at the company after Disney purchased ABC due to one of the factors being that one day the opportunity could arise to become the CEO. 

Subsequently, Iger points out that he was asked a lot about the ideal way to nurture ambition, both the ambition that a person has and the ambition of the people that person manages. Consequently, it is best that the leader urges those around him/her to embrace more responsibility, subject to the fact that the job they are eager to have, does not distract them from the job they actually have. Ambition must not lose sight of opportunity. This is because one can become impatient if their dream drives up too much of their concentration to do their job. In such an instance, ambition actually becomes counterproductive. As Iger rightly points out, “It’s important to know how to find the balance—do the job you have well; be patient; look for opportunities to pitch in and expand and grow; and make yourself one of the people, through attitude and energy and focus, that your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.”

Overall, Iger asserts that strong leadership is “about helping others be prepared to possibly step into your shoes—giving them access to your own decision making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve, and, as I’ve had to do, sometimes being honest with them about why they’re not ready for the next step up.” 

CHAPTER 6

GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN

At the beginning of this Chapter, Iger starts off by emphasising how much he learned from Michael, who was CEO of Disney at the time. For instance, the author learned a lot regarding how to run the business, but more significantly, he learned what the creative and design essence of the Disney parks should be.

Michael had excellent attention to detail skills and once he would spot something that could be improved, he demanded that it would be improved. As Iger comments, “That was the source of so much of his and the company’s success, and I had immense respect for Michael’s tendency to sweat the details. It showed how much he cared, and it made a difference. He understood that ‘great’ is often a collection of very small things, and he helped me appreciate that even more deeply.” This approach by Michael was defined as ‘micromanagement’.

Correspondingly, Iger once again stresses the importance of optimism. Accordingly, it is vastly important that in adversity and in times when only problems seem to appear, people have a leader who makes them feel assured in the capabilities of their leader to concentrate on what is significant and not to function with fear in mind. “This isn’t about saying things are good when they’re not, and it’s not about conveying some innate faith that ‘things will work out’.” It is about the people believing that their leader will ensure that the optimal solution to the circumstances is obtained; without creating an environment of pessimism, where everything feels lost to the people. Communicating in a confident, assured, assertive and optimistic way is the ideal way to lead. 

CHAPTER 7

IT’S ABOUT THE FUTURE 

At the outset of this Chapter, it is emphasised in the book that it came to Iger’s attention, after the board ousted Michael Eisner, that he should concentrate on the future and not the past. In the questions that Iger received from the board of directors and the press, he would address them in a way that would highlight the lessons learned from prior mistakes and try to improve things going forward. 

Furthermore, Iger was advised to demonstrate some strategic priorities. Accordingly, he was also advised that he should not demonstrate multiple strategic priorities for the company, since he would seem unfocused and it would be inefficient due to the fact that they require a lot of capital. Therefore, Iger decided that he would only demonstrate 3 priorities. 

Subsequently, Iger went on to state that the culture of a company is influenced by a variety of factors, but one of the most significant is the ability to showcase the company’s priorities clearly and consistently. “It’s what separates great managers from the rest. If leaders don’t articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them don’t know what their own priorities should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted. People in your organization suffer unnecessary anxiety because they don’t know what they should be focused on. Inefficiency sets in, frustration builds up, morale sinks.” 

Iger identified the following priorities:

1) Most of Disney’s time and capital should be allocated to “the creation of high-quality branded content.”

2) Establishing state-of-the-art technology at Disney..

3) Making Disney a genuinely global company by targeting markets such as China and India.

As already stated in a previous Chapter, the corporate structure within Disney was a centralized decision making structure called Strategic Planning. Therefore, due to the excessive analytical decision-making approach, it would result in slow decisions. As Iger expressly told the board: “The world is moving so much faster than it did even a couple of years ago, and the speed with which things are happening is only going to increase. Our decision making has to be straighter and faster, and I need to explore ways of doing that.” Hence, Iger thought “that if the leaders of our businesses felt more involved in making decisions, that would have a positive, trickle-down effect on the company’s morale.” In the subsequent years after taking this different approach, the results would be beyond Iger’s expectations. 

Finally, another important lesson is pointed out by the author, since he rightly observes that tenacity and perseverance are dramatically important as well as being able to remain calm, especially when things are beyond your control. Additionally, it is also rightly observed that “It’s easy to be optimistic when everyone is telling you you’re great. It’s much harder, and much more necessary, when your sense of yourself is being challenged, and in such a public way.”

PART TWO: LEADING

CHAPTER 8: 

THE POWER OF RESPECT

Bob Iger, as soon as he became CEO of Disney, decided that his first task was to reconcile the relationship between him and Roy Disney. Iger realised that Disney would not gain anything by making Roy Disney feel smaller or insulted. Consequently, Iger decided to provide Roy a small consulting fee and an office in order for him to be able to call Disney his home again. In return, the two parties would not settle their dispute in court or let this dispute dominate public headlines. 

As Iger very rightly acknowledged: “Don’t let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision.” Iger knew that he could have won in court after Roy and Stanley sued the board for choosing Iger as CEO, but this would bring a big distraction and a lot of expenses. 

Therefore, another great point is the fact that “If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.” 

After this solution, Iger set his sights on figuring out ways to resolve the dispute between Disney and Steve Jobs, who was CEO of Pixar. Again, with the same approach of not allowing ego to get in the way, Iger repaired the relationship between the two companies and his relationship with Steve Jobs. 

Lastly, another key decision after becoming CEO, Iger reduced the people in Strat Planning from sixty-five to fifteen. As Iger explains in the book: “Remaking Strat Planning turned out to be the most significant accomplishment of that six-month period before I took over the company. I knew that it would have an immediate practical effect, but the announcement that they would no longer have such an iron grip on all aspects of our business had a powerful, instantaneous effect on morale. It was as if all the windows had been thrown open and fresh air was suddenly moving through. As one of our senior executives said to me at the time, ‘If there were church bells on the steeples throughout Disney, they would be ringing’.”

CHAPTER 9: 

DISNEY-PIXAR AND A NEW PATH TO THE FUTURE

This Chapter begins by Bob Iger confessing that he was seriously thinking about acquiring Pixar. However, there was a massive issue that needed to be addressed. As Iger states: “Steve [Jobs] loved Pixar and he didn’t care about Disney, so any agreement he’d consider would have huge upsides for them and come at a steep price for us.” 

The thoughts to acquire Pixar started when, at some point, Disney figured out that they were far behind Pixar in terms of brand loyalty. “Among women with children under twelve, Pixar had eclipsed Disney as a brand mothers thought of as ‘good for their family.’ In a head-to-head comparison, Pixar was far more beloved—it wasn’t even close.”

The next paragraph is best described through Iger’s words: “PEOPLE SOMETIMES SHY AWAY from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step. One of the things I’ve always instinctively felt—and something that was greatly reinforced working for people like Roone and Michael—is that long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem. Roone and Michael both believed in their own power and in the ability of their organizations to make things happen—that with enough energy and thoughtfulness and commitment, even the boldest ideas could be executed. I tried to adopt that mindset in my ensuing conversations with Steve.” 

After positive conversations with Steve Jobs, Iger spent a day visiting Pixar and he was astounded. He was inspired and fascinated by the degree of talent and “creative ambition, the commitment to quality, the storytelling ingenuity, the technology, the leadership structure, and the air of enthusiastic collaboration—even the building, the architecture itself.”

As Iger continued to assert: “Nothing is a sure thing, but you need at the very least to be willing to take big risks. You can’t have big wins without them.” The CEO genuinely felt that Disney acquiring Pixar would revolutionise them and specifically, Disney Animation. Additionally, the acquisition would bring in Steve Jobs to the Disney board and thus, Disney could also adopt a culture of excellence and ambition. Disney ended up acquiring Pixar for $7.4 billion.

CHAPTER 10: 

MARVEL AND MASSIVE RISKS THAT MAKE PERFECT SENSE 

Iger along with his business executives decided that it is a good idea to acquire more companies, even after Pixar. Therefore, they, at first, concentrated on companies that can provide excellent intellectual property rights. Their list was narrowed down to two companies: Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm. (Lucasfilm will be discussed in the next Chapter)

This happened three years after the Pixar acquisition and the CEO, Bob Iger, decided that it was essential to keep operating ambitiously and take advantage of their momentum as well as increasing their portfolio of branded storytelling. 

One key question that Bob Iger would always ask prior to an acquisition of another company was: “Would we possibly destroy some of their value by acquiring them?” It was pivotal for him to ensure that the brands could be run respectfully and separately and to operate side by side without one being negatively affected by the other and vice-versa.

Correspondingly, Disney acquired Marvel and due to its great success, Iger, then, shares an important principle for Human Resource (HR) managers: “Surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do. You can’t always predict who will have ethical lapses or reveal a side of themselves you never suspected was there. In the worst cases, you will have to deal with acts that reflect badly on the company and demand censure. That’s an unavoidable part of the job, but you have to demand honesty and integrity from everyone, and when there’s a lapse you have to deal with it immediately.” 

Subsequently, Iger provides an inspiring story on the idea of creative the movie Black Panther, which was done by Marvel. People would always say to him that “black casts, or with black leads, will struggle in many international markets.” Iger believes that “That assumption has limited the number of black-led films being produced, and black actors being cast, and many of those that have been made had reduced budgets to mitigate the box-office risk.” Nevertheless, Iger very rightly emphasises that: “I’ve been in the business long enough to have heard every old argument in the book, and I’ve learned that old arguments are just that: old, and out of step with where the world is and where it should be. We had a chance to make a great movie and to showcase an underrepresented segment of America, and those goals were not mutually exclusive. I called Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks and ordered that we put both Black Panther and Captain Marvel [which would also include the Black Panther] into production.”

At the time of the author writing this book, “Black Panther is the fourth-highest-grossing superhero film of all time, and Captain Marvel the tenth. Both have earned well over $1 billion.”

CHAPTER 11: 

STAR WARS

Disney, then set their sights on acquiring Lucasfilm, who had the rights to make Star Wars movies, and making them another great subsidiary as part of the Disney family. 

Bob Iger, the CEO, would meet with the CEO of Lucasfilm to discuss and negotiate the acquisition. An important lesson arises when Iger rightly points out that “The worst thing you can do when entering into a negotiation is to suggest or promise something because you know the other person wants to hear it, only to have to reverse course later. You have to be clear about where you stand from the beginning. I knew if I misled George [the CEO of Lucasfilm], simply to begin the bargaining process, or to keep the conversation going, it would ultimately backfire on me.” 

The CEO of Lucasfilm wanted the same price that Disney paid for Pixar but Iger made it clear that Disney would pay less. As he comments in the book: “Typically, the price we pay for assets doesn’t vary much from what we believe the value to be in the first place. It’s often possible to start low and hope to pay far less than what you’re valuing an asset at, but in the process you risk alienating the person you’re negotiating with.” 

In consequence, Disney ended up acquiring Lucasfilm as a subsidiary for less than what Disney paid for Pixar, and it has been a huge success. The new movies of Star Wars released in recent years have been in the list of highest grossing movies of all time in terms of revenue, way surpassing the $1 billion mark. 

CHAPTER 12:

IF YOU DON’T INNOVATE, YOU DIE

Bob Iger explicitly emphasises that Disney became committed to start delivering their content in new and innovative ways and they needed to get rid of the middlemen in the process and provide it through their own inhouse technologies. 

The CEO, subsequently, provided a valuable comment when he pointed out that “as a general rule, I don’t like to lay out problems without offering a plan for addressing them. (This is something I exhort my team to do, too—it’s okay to come to me with problems, but also offer possible solutions.)” 

Due to this disruption to their business model and their commitment to innovation, Disney would incur substantial short-term losses.  “(As one example, pulling all of our TV shows and movies—including Pixar and Marvel and Star Wars —from Netflix’s platform and consolidating them all under our own subscription service would mean sacrificing hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees.)” Nevertheless, Iger knew that eventually in the long-term it would all be worth it. 

The next section could not be summarised any better than the words of the author: “The decision to disrupt businesses that are fundamentally working but whose future is in question—intentionally taking on short-term losses in the hope of generating long-term growth—requires no small amount of courage. Routines and priorities get disrupted, jobs change, responsibility is reallocated. People can easily become unsettled as their traditional way of doing business begins to erode and a new model emerges. It’s a lot to manage, from a personnel perspective, and the need to be present for your people—which is a vital leadership quality under any circumstances—is heightened even more. It’s easy for leaders to send a signal that their schedules are too full, their time too valuable, to be dealing with individual problems and concerns. But being present for your people—and making sure they know that you’re available to them—is so important for the morale and effectiveness of a company. With a company the size of Disney, this can mean traveling around the world and holding regular town hall–style meetings with our various business units, communicating my thinking and responding to concerns, but it also means responding in a timely way and being thoughtful about any issues brought to me by my direct reports—returning phone calls and replying to emails, making the time to talk through specific problems, being sensitive to the pressures people are feeling. All of this became an even more significant part of the job as we embarked on this new, uncertain path.”

The innovative technology that Disney decided to adopt was: ESPN+ and Disney+.

“When you innovate, everything needs to change, not just the way you make or deliver a product. Many of the practices and structures within the company need to adapt, too, including, in this case, how the board rewards our executives.”

The CEO then asserted that it is wrong that even established companies play it safe and remain complacent, instead of investing capital to bring long-term growth or adapt to the disruptive innovations that are changing industries, societies and the world. As Warren Buffett made clear: “Complacency is the enemy of all businesses.”

The Walt Disney Company also had their sights on further acquisitions. This time they were looking at FOX. Assets included: “the movie studio, including Fox Searchlight Pictures; their stake in Hulu, which would give us a majority stake in that platform; the FX Networks; the regional Fox Sports Networks (which we would later have to divest); a controlling stake in National Geographic; a sprawling and varied set of international operations, particularly in India; and a 39 percent stake in Sky, Europe’s largest and most successful satellite platform.” The financial and strategic analysis of these assets was also predicated on not only current value, but also forecasting the long-term return on investment of these assets. 

After the financial and strategic analysis, 3 things were clear about those assets: 

1. High Quality content.

2. Technology. 

3. Global reach. 

Even better, adopting these assets into the brand new strategy of Disney, would be fundamental to the company’s future growth to steer it to the direction it wanted to go. 

CHAPTER 13: 

NO PRICE ON INTEGRITY

At the very beginning of this Chapter, Iger reiterated that the culture of the Walt Disney Company was to establish and nurture an environment in which people felt completely safe. However, at some point there were various claims of employees who had been abused and the CEO emphasised that he wanted to encourage people to be willing to come forward with the truth in order for Iger to resolve the situation, while promising to protect them. 

The last Chapter ended when Iger and his team realised that FOX would be a great acquisition, as it would be integrated perfectly into Disney’s long-term goals. Now in this Chapter, Iger points out the strategy that Disney would follow to complete the acquisition. They were willing to “make an all-stock offer of $28 a share—or $52.4 billion—for the acquisition.” Subsequently, however, “word had leaked that he was contemplating a sale, which invited others to start considering an acquisition.” Comcast emerged as Disney’s competitor and they made an all-stock bid that was substantially higher than Disney’s.

Correspondingly, at the same time, the CEO arrived at another problem as he figured out that one of his senior people, John Skipper, “had admitted to a drug problem, which had led to other serious complications in his life and could potentially jeopardize the company.” Therefore, with a heavy heart, Iger told John that he had to resign the following Monday. As Iger expressly commented in his book: “I regarded John highly; he is smart and worldly and was a talented, loyal executive. This was a clear example, though, of how a company’s integrity depends on the integrity of its people, and while I had great personal affection and concern for him, he’d made choices that violated Disney policy.” 

After this incidence, the CEO concentrated on how Disney would merge with FOX. This was a complex issue because they are both gigantic companies. As Iger said: “We couldn’t just add them to what already existed; we had to integrate them carefully in order to preserve and create value. So I asked myself: What would, could, or should the new company look like? If I were to erase history and build something totally new today, with all of these assets, how would it be structured? The first thing I did was separate ‘content’ from ‘technology.’ We would have three content groups: movies (Walt Disney Animation, Disney Studios, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Searchlight), television (ABC, ABC News, our television stations, Disney channels, Freeform, FX, National Geographic), and sports (ESPN). All of that went on the left side of the whiteboard. On the other side went tech: apps, user interfaces, customer acquisition and retention, data management, sales, distribution, and so on. The idea was simply to let the content people focus on creativity and let the tech people focus on how to distribute things and, for the most part, generate revenue in the most successful ways. Then, in the middle of the board I wrote ‘physical entertainment and goods,’ an umbrella for various large and sprawling businesses: consumer products, Disney stores, all of our global merchandise and licensing agreements, cruises, resorts, and our six theme-park businesses. I stepped back and looked at the board and thought, ‘There it is.’ That’s what a modern media company should look like. I felt energized just by looking at it, and spent the next few days refining the structure on my own.”

He, then, provided a lesson in ethics. Iger emphasised that “demanding quality and integrity from all of our people and of all of our products is paramount, and there is no room for second chances, or for tolerance when it comes to an overt transgression that discredits the company in any way.” Another one of his key people, Roseanne, made a racist tweet which violated Disney’s ethical policies and his only choice was to take a decision about what was morally right. 

Finally, the CEO asserted that: “It was an easy decision, really. I never asked what the financial repercussions would be, and didn’t care. In moments like that, you have to look past whatever the commercial losses are and be guided, again, by the simple rule that there’s nothing more important than the quality and integrity of your people and your product. Everything depends on upholding that principle.” 

CHAPTER 14: 

CORE VALUES

The last Chapter left off by outlining that The Walt Disney Company wanted to acquire FOX. Therefore, the CEO of Disney and the author of this book, stated that Disney was prepared to make a $38 offer per share, which would be half cash, half stock.

Subsequently, the FOX board approved the deal and Disney received further positive news when they received a guarantee from the Department of Justice that, if Disney would sell the sports networks of FOX, they would not sue to block the deal. This was essential, as indicated by Iger, because big mergers require regulatory approval which sometimes they are incredibly hard to get. 

As Iger then pointed out, this deal was directly aligned with his first interview with the Disney board back in 2004. In his words, “It was all about the future, and our future depended on three things: making high-quality branded content, investing in technology, and growing globally.” 

Another lesson on leadership comes when Iger asserts that after numerous years as CEO, one may subconsciously believe that they know it all and seen it all. However, Iger indicates that a CEO must always remain grounded and that “You have to make a conscious effort to listen, to pay attention to the multitude of opinions. I’ve raised the issue with the executives I work most closely with as a kind of safeguard. ‘If you notice me being too dismissive or impatient, you need to tell me.’” 

Iger also acknowledged that he had great mentors throughout his life and career, which helped him shape who he has become but also listening to his own intuition. In his words, “Each was a master in his own way, and I’d absorbed everything I could from them. Beyond that, I trusted my instincts, and I encouraged the people around me to trust theirs.”

APPENDIX: LESSONS TO LEAD BY

These are some of the most important lessons and principles on leadership touched on in the book:

“Now more than ever: innovate or die. There can be no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new.”

“Be decent to people. Treat everyone with fairness and empathy.”

“True integrity—a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong—is a kind of secret leadership weapon. If you trust your own instincts and treat people with respect, the company will come to represent the values you live by.” 

Warren Buffett once said that he looks for 3 things when he hires people. He looks for intelligence, energy and integrity. If they don’t have the latter, then don’t even bother with the first two. 

“Value ability more than experience, and put people in roles that require more of them than they know they have in them. Ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as you can.” 

“Don’t be in the business of playing it safe. Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.”

“At its essence, good leadership isn’t about being indispensable; it’s about helping others be prepared to step into your shoes—giving them access to your own decision-making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve, and sometimes being honest with them about why they’re not ready for the next step up.” 

According to John Donne, “No man is an island.” Meaning that no individual can do everything entirely on his own. 

“A company’s reputation is the sum total of the actions of its people and the quality of its products. You have to demand integrity from your people and your products at all times.”

“If you walk up and down the halls constantly telling people ‘the sky is falling,’ a sense of doom and gloom will, over time, permeate the company. You can’t communicate pessimism to the people around you. It’s ruinous to morale. No one wants to follow a pessimist.” 

“People sometimes shy away from big swings because they build a case against trying something before they even step up to the plate. Long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem. With enough thoughtfulness and commitment, the boldest ideas can be executed.” 

“You have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly. If you don’t articulate your priorities clearly, then the people around you don’t know what their own should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted.” 

“A lot of companies acquire others without much sensitivity toward what they’re really buying. They think they’re getting physical assets or manufacturing assets or intellectual property (in some industries, that’s more true than others). But usually what they’re really acquiring is people. In a creative business, that’s where the value lies.” 

“As a leader, you are the embodiment of that company. What that means is this: Your values—your sense of integrity and decency and honesty, the way you comport yourself in the world—are a stand-in for the values of the company. You can be the head of a seven-person organization or a quarter-million- person organization, and the same truth holds: what people think of you is what they’ll think of your company.” 

P.S. any comments that are made by the author of this blog are outlined in Italics.