Bob Chapek's days as CEO may be numbered

IanDLBZF

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As Chapek's current contract ends in 11 months, Hollywood Reporter and a number of other sources are starting to doubt his tenure as CEO of TWDC. And given this current situation, chances are he will be ousted as CEO at the end of his contract, unless...
  1. The contract is extended, or...
  2. He is recalled by the board, with shareholders, or...
  3. He resigns from TWDC
Read the whole article for more details.
 

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
My gut feeling tells me that if anything is to happen it would be the BOD would just let his contract expire and not renew. They would then replace him and to save face publicly state that he helped the company transition during the tough times of the pandemic but that its time to move on.
Diplomatic. Yes.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
chances are he will be ousted as CEO at the end of his contract, unless...
  1. The contract is extended, or...
  2. He is recalled by the board, with shareholders, or...
  3. He resigns from TWDC
I like how in your three possibilities for how he isn’t ousted as CEO, two of them still result in him being ousted as CEO.
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
Bob Chapek somehow managed to make himself and the Disney company hated by both sides of the political spectrum when it came to the LGBTQ legislation in Florida. That's a spectacular failure on his part. The new CEO needs to be more politically savvy. Chapek keeps saying the wrong thing. Remember the whole Scarlet Johannson debacle from last year?
 

seascape

Well-Known Member
Bob Chapek somehow managed to make himself and the Disney company hated by both sides of the political spectrum when it came to the LGBTQ legislation in Florida. That's a spectacular failure on his part. The new CEO needs to be more politically savvy. Chapek keeps saying the wrong thing. Remember the whole Scarlet Johannson debacle from last year?
Cheapsteak Bob was originally right staying out of the fight. The company should never have been involved in political issues. Iger got too involved and Cheapsteak was right in trying to move away from that. The country is divided and risking a large percentage of their customers is stupid. Disney was right in giving benefits to all Cast Members and their families. Treating all CM equally is far different than getting involved in issues that have nothing to do with Cast Member direct employment or treatment while at Disney. I was brought up to believe you should hire and pay the best people and sell to and treat all customers with respect. The only color to favor is green. Business and politics do not belong together and this bill proves that.
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
Cheapsteak Bob was originally right staying out of the fight. The company should never have been involved in political issues. Iger got too involved and Cheapsteak was right in trying to move away from that. The country is divided and risking a large percentage of their customers is stupid. Disney was right in giving benefits to all Cast Members and their families. Treating all CM equally is far different than getting involved in issues that have nothing to do with Cast Member direct employment or treatment while at Disney. I was brought up to believe you should hire and pay the best people and sell to and treat all customers with respect. The only color to favor is green. Business and politics do not belong together and this bill proves that.
Except he didn't stay out of the fight originally. The reason LGBTQ cast members were upset wasn't just because Disney was silent on the Florida legislation, but because Disney had provided financial donations to the lawmakers who helped create and support the bill. If Disney wanted to "stay out of the fight" they shouldn't have given the donations in the first place. Disney was having a PR nightmare. Unfortunately, the company course-corrected in a clumsy manner.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
Bob Chapek somehow managed to make himself and the Disney company hated by both sides of the political spectrum when it came to the LGBTQ legislation in Florida. That's a spectacular failure on his part. The new CEO needs to be more politically savvy. Chapek keeps saying the wrong thing. Remember the whole Scarlet Johannson debacle from last year?

Yeah, but the flip side to this argument is, you can risk all of these things happening again with a new CEO. Unlike most viable candidates in the world, Bob Chapek has actual experience running Disney.

Chapek now is making a serious effort to correct his earlier mistakes and learn from them. Would a new CEO do the same?


Cringe.

Is it intentional? When do shareholders start class action suits?

Probably intentional. Chapek still has to answer to the board, and the board consists of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Even if Chapek goes, their pro-LGBTQ+ stances will not change.
 

DisneyHead123

Well-Known Member
I dislike Chapek’s management style because I think he has butchered customer oriented thinking at the parks. Instead of creatively engineering solutions to build capacity and grow the number of visitors, he has gone with “Let’s test the absolute limits of how much we can cut, and how far we can raise prices.” So I fault him for this, and for the level of ill will this raised against him. In some sense he poisoned the well against himself, before any of this political controversy started.

That said, once Disney was caught in the middle of partisan crossfire, I just don’t see how this was his fault or what course of action would have changed this. He’s collateral damage in a much bigger fight. How would Iger have handled this differently? Gone further Left earlier on? The GOP is already trying to use the power of the government to punish Disney and many conservative Disney fans are up in arms. Would that approach really have de-escalated things? Go the other way and pander to the GOP behind the scenes? In an era where Disney can’t go a week without something getting leaked on Twitter? That would be a land mine waiting to blow up in their face.

I don’t like Chapek’s leadership, but there was no right answer here.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Instead of creatively engineering solutions to build capacity and grow the number of visitors, he has gone with “Let’s test the absolute limits of how much we can cut, and how far we can raise prices.”
What has he cut besides Magical Express that wasn't the direct or indirect result of the pandemic?

FastPass+ to Genie+ isn't a cut, it's a price increase. Extra Magic Hours switching to the new format is actually a cost increase to the company. Evening Deluxe hours are new.

I don't like Chapek at all, but he's only been CEO during a once-in-a-century catastrophe, so I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense to draw conclusions about what "cuts" he likes to make.

How would Iger have handled this differently? Gone further Left earlier on? The GOP is already trying to use the power of the government to punish Disney and many conservative Disney fans are up in arms. Would that approach really have de-escalated things? Go the other way and pander to the GOP behind the scenes? In an era where Disney can’t go a week without something getting leaked on Twitter? That would be a land mine waiting to blow up in their face.
Iger was very very good at playing the "pragmatic Democrat" in a way that appeased vocal progressives but didn't cause conservatives to do much besides roll their eyes and say "there's that mainstream Hollywood media at it again." Even the Uyghur controversy when Mulan came out was only an issue on the fringe right, not the fairly mainstream right that is angry now.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
As Chapek's current contract ends in 11 months, Hollywood Reporter and a number of other sources are starting to doubt his tenure as CEO of TWDC. And given this current situation, chances are he will be ousted as CEO at the end of his contract, unless...
  1. The contract is extended, or...
  2. He is recalled by the board, with shareholders, or...
  3. He resigns from TWDC
Read the whole article for more details.
Chapek is gone. Ironically, he was the best person for the shareholder.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Sorry-the data says otherwise- in the last 2.5 years the return on investment has been 1%. So as a shareholder, this is not true. Yell when we want to talk about the dividends starting back up
The last 2.5 years was the pandemic. But whatever, TWDC will probably do well no matter who replaces Bobby...
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Sorry-the data says otherwise- in the last 2.5 years the return on investment has been 1%. So as a shareholder, this is not true. Yell when we want to talk about the dividends starting back up.
That is incorrect. In March 2020, Disney stock was $85 per share , shot up to $197 per share March 2021, now the stock is around $137 per share.
 

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