Many of you may have seen this, but I ran across a relatively recent interview with Bob Iger on YouTube, which I thought particularly interesting in light of many of the discussions that take place on these forums.
Here's the quote I found particularly interesting regarding when he took over as CEO from Michael Eisner:
"Disney, having been founded in 1923 by Walt Disney, still had an abnormal adherence to its legacy, to its heritage, to its past. It was a religion. And what was clear to me is that if that adherence or the reverence that people had within the company for that heritage continued, it would get in the way of innovation. We would not be able to adapt quick enough, we would not be able to look at change with an open mind and an ability to seize the opportunity as opposed to just looking at its threat.
And so I started articulating in the succession process the need to balance heritage with innovation. And what I ultimately concluded was that we need to respect our past, because there are a lot of qualities about the past -- the brand attributes, what Disney stood for, a number of other things, attention to quality -- that had value and that should be, basically, carried forward into the future. But let's not revere it, because if we revere something we might as well just put it in a glass case in a museum and let people look at it and say, 'Wow, look at that.' And there's a big difference. But there were a lot of folks in the company that were more on the reverential side than the respect side, and I had to really attack that. In some cases, it meant changing out personnel. In some cases, it meant taking some big, bold decisions that felt anti-brand to some people that in my opinion weren't at all. It was more about being pro-present and future than it was about anything that would be against the past or, you know, the brand."
That portion, BTW, begins at 8:48 in the video.
Here's the quote I found particularly interesting regarding when he took over as CEO from Michael Eisner:
"Disney, having been founded in 1923 by Walt Disney, still had an abnormal adherence to its legacy, to its heritage, to its past. It was a religion. And what was clear to me is that if that adherence or the reverence that people had within the company for that heritage continued, it would get in the way of innovation. We would not be able to adapt quick enough, we would not be able to look at change with an open mind and an ability to seize the opportunity as opposed to just looking at its threat.
And so I started articulating in the succession process the need to balance heritage with innovation. And what I ultimately concluded was that we need to respect our past, because there are a lot of qualities about the past -- the brand attributes, what Disney stood for, a number of other things, attention to quality -- that had value and that should be, basically, carried forward into the future. But let's not revere it, because if we revere something we might as well just put it in a glass case in a museum and let people look at it and say, 'Wow, look at that.' And there's a big difference. But there were a lot of folks in the company that were more on the reverential side than the respect side, and I had to really attack that. In some cases, it meant changing out personnel. In some cases, it meant taking some big, bold decisions that felt anti-brand to some people that in my opinion weren't at all. It was more about being pro-present and future than it was about anything that would be against the past or, you know, the brand."
That portion, BTW, begins at 8:48 in the video.
