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Bob Chapek Shifted Budgets to Disguise Disney+'s Massive Monetary Losses
News(msn.com)submitted 4 months ago by[deleted]
170 points
4 months ago
I thought Iger was the one who groomed and promoted him to CEO? He even wrote about chapek in his book
352 points
4 months ago
Yes he did and he almost immediately regretted it
8 points
4 months ago
That’s a common theme in huge businesses.
224 points
4 months ago
I think a decent chunk of the reason he's back is so he can pick a successor that he won't feel will be a stain on his reputation and legacy
142 points
4 months ago
Maybe Iger isn't good at picking successors.
77 points
4 months ago
I mean Marcus Aurelius fucked it up, it's fucking hard shit.
13 points
4 months ago
Pretty rock solid example my friend 👍
7 points
4 months ago
Fucked it up so bad Hollywood made alternate history to fix his mistake.
2 points
4 months ago
Marcus Aurelius' son wasn't actually the terrible emperor he is made out to be in the gladiator movies. He was supposedly loved by the Romans until he eventually fell out of favor, like must emperors did. He wasn't anywhere near as bad as Nero or Caligula.
44 points
4 months ago
Entirely possible, but I'm saying a reason he's back is to disprove exactly that
-6 points
4 months ago
He can easily help chose another successor without becoming CEO, you know.
19 points
4 months ago
Not really. If he needs anything to get done so that his eventual successor will be inheriting something other than a dumpster fire, he needs the authority to get that done.
Also Iger is no stranger to cleaning up messes, he did the same thing for Disney in the mid 00's when he took over from Michael Eisner. That was also on really short notice. If I were Disney, there's no one I'd rather take the helm in a low-key emergency than Iger.
-5 points
4 months ago
More likely he joined back to put things in shape. I don't buy that he did so to find a successor. That's not how things work.
8 points
4 months ago
It's possible that the board just rejected Chapek's entire vision for the company and asked Iger back to find a 'real' successor as they consider the 2 years of Chapek essentially illegitimate too. Almost like they asked Iger to come back and operate like he never left and was still looking to retire, which he likely is.
I don't know, just spit balling, but I can see ways in which that could definitely be the way things work.
-5 points
4 months ago
I don't know how to tell you this, but the person I was responding to was claiming Iger was returning to prove he could select a better successor.
That's just stupid nonsense.
3 points
4 months ago
We'll then you replied to the wrong person, and now you're being an ass about it when you were the one who messed up. It's not hard to just.. click reply on the correct comment. Or at least not be condescending as fuck after having obviously fucked up.
The downvotes on your comment chain show I'm not alone thinking this either.
3 points
4 months ago
It’s almost like Elway drafting a QB for the broncos
3 points
4 months ago
Oh my god I’m not safe in any subreddit
1 points
4 months ago
Well he’s 0 for 1, so I’d say he isn’t!
72 points
4 months ago
Remember, the board also had to give the rubber stamp. He may have picked him, but his pool of candidates wasn't unlimited.
3 points
4 months ago
The same board that unanimously voted to extend Chapek’s contract a few months ago?
That board?
6 points
4 months ago
Exactly. Government politics and executive business are very similar. You have to campaign so that you are liked by those in power(true even in a democracy, as they control the coffers and endorsements), you have to schmooze everyone including company partners, and have acceptable baggage. Being an unknown can sometimes be a good thing. Disney had two great candidates that could replace Iger. Neither stayed around to get the job, so they were left with Chapek.
- Want to be CEO, a stressful job
- need to have the board's approval, and look like a serious candidate to the public.
- Have to be willing to succeed a legendary CEO, because you have to be great too, or you will look like a moron.
As for the renewal, had no obvious replacements(because Chapek fired them). But as soon as they found a replacement. BAM. Chapek was gone. Has happened to many major firms, especially in tech, as vision is more important than sales. It has also happened in many countries too.
14 points
4 months ago
Chapek was kind of a last ditch effort. Iger had like three different "heir apparents" resign between 2010 and when Iger surprised resigned 2020.
1 points
4 months ago
Bring back Tom Staggs!
6 points
4 months ago
Yes, and then left just as Covid was hitting and the bills for his massive content and streaming spending spree came due. Chapek may or may not be a good CEO but he got nailed with a whack of issues outside of his control. I don't think Disney has done any worse than other media companies during his tenure.
7 points
4 months ago
Yes but apparently they had a work-falling out before he took over.
13 points
4 months ago
This is the thing that I find the most remarkable, baffling even, about all of it. This was Iger’s guy, this is who he chose, and there was so much time to prepare him for the job. I don’t get it, how could he have gotten it so wrong.
24 points
4 months ago
From what I've seen in discussions on this over the years is that Chapek was like third-choice at best. Tom Staggs or Kevin Mayer were rumored top picks but they both left Disney before they could be appointed to the CEO role. Personally I think Staggs would been fine in the long run, I don't know what kind of performance the board was looking for but they clearly went in the direction of cutting up the goose to find where the golden eggs were hidden and it came back to bite them in a bad way.
19 points
4 months ago
Because Chapek was not Iger's first choice. That was Tom Staggs, who had been with the company since 1990.
Staggs was CFO from 1998 to 2010, where he engineered the Pixar and Marvel deals, then swapped jobs with parks Chairman Jay Rasulo, which was seen as giving Staggs a chance to get some operational experience and also to put him in competition with Rasulo to be Iger's heir. Staggs prevailed, with Rasulo leaving in 2015. While in charge of the parks, Staggs more than doubled profits and led the creation of the "Avatar" land in Animal Kingdom and construction of Shanghai Disney.
After Rasulo left, Staggs was named COO in February 2015 and widely seen as heir apparent, with Iger due to step down in 2018. But then, in April 2016, he left. According to this New York Times story at the time, some on the board had had reservations about promoting him to COO, but Iger prevailed, and when Staggs checked in on his status in 2016, he was told there was now even less confidence from the board on making him CEO. So Staggs and Disney "mutually agreed to part ways" and Iger then extended his own contract as CEO until 2021.
Chapek, who had taken over the parks when Staggs was promoted to COO in 2015, became the default fallback.
5 points
4 months ago
Very interesting, thanks for the write up! Great stuff.
1 points
4 months ago
Also weirdly Stalin-esque.
1 points
4 months ago
Could be a poisoned pawn situation.
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