News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!

[Sir_Cliff]

What's with the massive amount of "news" articles I'm seeing about Iger selling Disney to Apple?

Talk about killing the soul of Disney...

I wouldn't worry. It doesn't make much sense for Apple to purchase Disney.

Reporters have to write stories on which people are going to click.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I wouldn't worry. It doesn't make much sense for Apple to purchase Disney.

Reporters have to write stories on which people are going to click.

And "Disney" is the highest click-through brand on the planet.

 

[Lilofan]

I wouldn't worry. It doesn't make much sense for Apple to purchase Disney.

Reporters have to write stories on which people are going to click.

Whatever happens I would think house cleaning would happen. Chapek, Daniel already have been fired , restructuring in a number of ways when the new boss comes in usually happens.

 

[SilentWindODoom]

since the news broke the other day, it reminds me of this..
View attachment 680440
now let’s hope for the love of god chapek doesn’t come back as a clone in a few years

Somehow, Chapek has returned.

I agree with both of you. I haven't gone to the movies in about 3 years. There really hasn't been anything that I'm willing to pay $15 to see. I love being able to watch movies from my own home without other people ruining my experience (talking, using their phone, etc.)

I went once. Years ago I didn't get a chance to see The Simpsons on the big screen, and I didn't want to miss my chance with Bob's Burgers. Fortunately, it was empty except for me and my friend. The only thing in the future I feel the same about is Mario. Besides that, while I'd love to know what's going on currently, nothing else seems like a once-in-a-lifetime theatrical experience.

Hello all.......Happy Thanksgiving. Most of you don't know me but I have walked the halls here at da' Magic for a long time......1974 (if you know.....you know) was king.

I always describe my tenure as stretching back to when we got our new from Lee and watching Grizz be the second coming of Thrawn. At least I think so. It's been a while, so I forget which came after the other, and I'm not 100% sure a member hanging around isn't just Thrawn under another name.

 

[Disstevefan1]

11/28 Company town hall with Iger to discuss the future of TWDC.

I’d listen if I thought there was anything worth listening to.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

I’d listen if I thought there was anything worth listening to.

What makes you think there won't be? Probably will give us our best indication of upcoming changes, good or bad.

 

[Lilofan]

What makes you think there won't be? Probably will give us our best indication of upcoming changes, good or bad.

At least Iger calls a cast member town hall in the near future to address direction of company moving forward one would hope.

 

[Tha Realest]

At least Iger calls a cast member town hall in the near future to address direction of company moving forward one would hope.

Will this be streamed anywhere?

 

[Tom P.]

Iger is going to announce that, effective immediately, the parks will only be serving New Coke.

 

[Nubs70]

Hello all.......Happy Thanksgiving. Most of you don't know me but I have walked the halls here at da' Magic for a long time......1974 (if you know.....you know) was king.

I find it hilarious that Iger comes in on his white horse trying to play the Disney savior when it was under his watch we got to this place in time. You have had to watch this unfold from years ago. Chapek was Iger's guy. Chapek was the ultimate hatchet man. He rose through the ranks of the Disney corporation by cuts and raising prices. Almost all of the changes we have sen for over a decade were the brain child of Chapek. For those who may not know, CHapek was head of Parks & Resorts........I could go in to the "it all started with napkins" but I don't want to bore you.

Chapek spent years cutting and nibbling at the edges of the "Disney difference". Making the board and as importantly Bob Iger buckets and buckets of money. The stock prices rose accordingly. The board was thrilled. Iger seeing the writing on the wall when Covid hit knew it was time to make his great escape.

No time like the present to reward Chapek for all those years of service.....and basically destroying the guest experience, the job of CEO.
Once in the job Chapek immediately had challenges. Covid and the Governments effort to combat it had a negative impact on the economy thus on the Disney company. With out causing a major fuss here there were other policies Disney had that finally had a negative effect on those guest surveys Disney loves so much.

Stock prices began to fall, guest satisfaction at an all time low, In order to keep revenue positive Chapek had to continue to do what he knew best......cut and raise prices. The snow ball going down hill just got away from him. The board had to act.....and act fast. They make a phone call to Iger.

Iger comes in on his white horse to save the day and squarely throws his old pal Chapek under the bus.......then he backed up to see what he ran over. Iger is just as responsible for the current state of the company as Chapek......maybe even more so. The real damage was done while Iger was at the helm. I zero respect for Iger or the board.

Iger will stop the bleeding........but it was him who made the deepest cuts in the first place.

Chapel simply practiced Business Process Optimization, an industrial engineering oncept where inefficiencies are found and eliminated resulting in higher margins.

Once all meaningful inefficiencies are eliminated, cuts to quality (costs) and price increases are used as margin drivers.

The one thing isee that amazed me is the interaction between Genie+, LL and reduced equipment uptime and throughput (as pointed out by drzgirl). Chapek has turned BPO on its head by monetizing reduced equipment uptime and throughput.

WDW produces a higher return as rides shutdown and ridership is curtailed. Genie+ and LL increase margin by exploiting FOMO.

 

[Lilofan]

Will this be streamed anywhere?

On the site Inside The Magic it’s listed as a company town hall with Iger and Q&A. No word on streaming.

 

[matt9112]

It's like how I've yet to encounter someone who was underwhelmed by Galaxy's Edge outside of this board.

It’s hard not to like things on your 10,000 dollar vacation.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I wouldn't worry. It doesn't make much sense for Apple to purchase Disney.

Reporters have to write stories on which people are going to click.

It’s a story Iger has promoted in the past.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Serious respectful open question to the people celebrating this- Can anyone here explain why they believe Iger would have handled the parks differently/better than Chapek? Or why they believe things will improve with his return. Keep in mind that Chapek has only been running the company 100% solo for less than a year. The issues people currently have with the parks are a continuation of Iger's policies (if not approved by him directly before leaving). CEO title or not, Iger was still with the company and dictating decisions until December 2021.

I would understand celebrating if this was actual new leadership with a chance for positive impact. But it's Iger again, his handling of the parks from my view was pretty much identical to Chapek. I just don't understand the excitement...

Granted I expect most of the positive reactions aren't coming from this site specifically. But if anyone here has anything to share on the matter, it's appreciated.

I’m celebrating because the parks were amazing in 2020 when Chapek took over.

Everyone implies Iger is behind all the recent unpopular changes from behind the scenes (G+, reservations, AP changes, magical express death, etc) but he was CEO for nearly 20 years, if he really is responsible for all these changes he played the worlds longest long game… 20 years of minor changes only to implement a bunch of monumental changes all within a year of stepping down? Seems unlikely to me, so I put that blame on Chapek.

Iger was far from perfect, most of Igers park successes stopped when Staggs left (coincidentally also when Chapek took over the parks ) but Iger never burnt the parks to the ground for a penny like Chapek did.

In short… Iger isn’t perfect but he worries about guest satisfaction, Chapek was purely a numbers guy and the guests didn’t seem to matter to him at all.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Everyone implies Iger is behind all the recent unpopular changes from behind the scenes (G+, reservations, AP changes, magical express death, etc) but he was CEO for nearly 20 years, if he really is responsible for all these changes he played the worlds longest long game… 20 years of minor changes only to implement a bunch of monumental changes all within a year of stepping down? Seems unlikely to me, so I put that blame on Chapek.

Genie was announced when Iger was still CEO, a direct result of the failure of the multibillion dollar NextGen project also conceived and implemented under Iger. Changes to the Annual Passes were happening. He didn’t only make minor changes, all sorts of things were done. Most of these changes are the direct result of Iger’s view of the parks as a mature business that could no longer grow naturally.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Genie was announced when Iger was still CEO, a direct result of the failure of the multibillion dollar NextGen project also conceived and implemented under Iger. Changes to the Annual Passes were happening. He didn’t only make minor changes, all sorts of things were done. Most of these changes are the direct result of Iger’s view of the parks as a mature business that could no longer grow naturally.

True, Genie the app designed to help plan and maximize your day was introduced back in 2019, Genie+, the scheme designed to separate money from your wallet, didn’t show up until 2021…

Iger was 100% behind Genie, the “plussing” and monetization of it happened under Chapek.

I know you think Igers the man behind the curtain pulling the strings but I still think it unlikely he chose to wait 20 years until he was no longer in charge to implement them.

Actions speak louder than words, I choose to look at what Iger did, not what he “may have done” behind the scenes.

 

[lazyboy97o]

True, Genie the app designed to help plan and maximize your day was introduced back in 2019, Genie+, the scheme designed to separate money from your wallet, didn’t show up until 2021…

Iger was 100% behind Genie, the “plussing” and monetization of it happened under Chapek.

I know you think Igers the man behind the curtain pulling the strings but I still think it unlikely he chose to wait 20 years until he was no longer in charge to implement them.

Actions speak louder than words, I choose to look at what Iger did, not what he “may have done” behind the scenes.

Monetization was always part of Genie. It was being worked on as part of NextGen. You and many others are deliberately ignoring what he did.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Monetization was always part of Genie. It was being worked on as part of NextGen. You and many others are deliberately ignoring what he did.

You keep saying that but without proof I will continue to believe what I saw over 20 years rather than what people believe happened over the last 20 years.

The question was why people believe the parks will be better under Iger, I answered why for myself. You may be right but I sure hope I am, under your theory the parks are doomed to continue along the path they’re on, under mine they improve, time will tell.

You’ll never change your mind, I’ll never change my mind, nothing wrong with that, have a great Thanksgiving.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I’m celebrating because the parks were amazing in 2020 when Chapek took over.

Everyone implies Iger is behind all the recent unpopular changes from behind the scenes (G+, reservations, AP changes, magical express death, etc) but he was CEO for nearly 20 years, if he really is responsible for all these changes he played the worlds longest long game… 20 years of minor changes only to implement a bunch of monumental changes all within a year of stepping down? Seems unlikely to me, so I put that blame on Chapek.

Iger was far from perfect, most of Igers park successes stopped when Staggs left (coincidentally also when Chapek took over the parks ) but Iger never burnt the parks to the ground for a penny like Chapek did.

In short… Iger isn’t perfect but he worries about guest satisfaction, Chapek was purely a numbers guy and the guests didn’t seem to matter to him at all.

The vast majority of recent changes you're discussing were again developed and started while Iger was still at the company. Iger has only been absent for less than one year. And despite Chapek holding the CEO title for a few years now, even by the admission of that WSJ Iger puff piece, Iger retained the true power within the company and used it to "override" Chapek whenever he felt like it. As transparent as that article is at trying to paint Iger as a saint and Chapek as the devil (I think they're both devils again), it also betrays the truth by admitting who was truly running the show prior to this past year.

If Iger significantly drops ticket prices, gets rid of G+, removes park reservations, etc, then you can say that he "fixed" some things. This is not going to happen, especially the ticket price hikes for tickets and Genie+. Genie received an enormous price hike the day after Iger was reinstated. Tickets will continue to skyrocket as they always had under Iger. They're also not going to get rid of the variable day ticket costs, which have been planned for years before Chapek became CEO. The only thing I could even potentially being scaled back eventually are the park reservations, but even that seems like there's no significant plan to do so according to marni1971.

I've also mentioned prior that the worst physical condition i've ever seen WDW in was between 2010-2012 (someone who visited prior to that period stated that it stretched back to 2008). The place was completely filthy and literally falling apart to the point where guest safety was becoming a very real concern in certain areas (there was falling scenery on Big Thunder, the queue for Splash Mountain and the Tree of Life). And as bad of a shape as Splash Mountain is in currently, it was many times worse during those years. So were a number of other rides.

You keep saying that but without proof I will continue to believe what I saw over 20 years rather than what people believe happened over the last 20 years.

It was being actively discussed back when FP+ was still being designed, much of it in WDW1974's old threads by a few different people. FP+ was always going to be evolved into something they could monetize.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

True, Genie the app designed to help plan and maximize your day was introduced back in 2019, Genie+, the scheme designed to separate money from your wallet, didn’t show up until 2021…

Iger was 100% behind Genie, the “plussing” and monetization of it happened under Chapek.

I know you think Igers the man behind the curtain pulling the strings but I still think it unlikely he chose to wait 20 years until he was no longer in charge to implement them.

Actions speak louder than words, I choose to look at what Iger did, not what he “may have done” behind the scenes.

I imagine the monetisation of Genie and some version of what happened under Chapek was in the works under Iger, but I am struggling with this narrative that everything negative that happened under Chapek's watch was Iger's fault and everything positive that happened under Iger was due to Eisner.

Sure, Iger has been very busy massaging the narrative in his favour. I don't think he's the only one who should have sore arms at this point, though.