Rumor Hollywood insiders say there's growing tension at Disney as CEO Bob Chapek chafes at Bob Iger's 'long goodbye'

[pdude81]

Hey its nice to hear he can be a decent human being. The one person I have talked with that met Chapek said you could tell he was done talking to you in 5 mins

Haha, sorry. I thought we were talking about Josh D'Amaro.

 

[skypilot2922]

Will it be Bob himself or his AA? It’s difficult to tell them apart, they’ve made great advances with his AA!

They gave up on the AA because the engineer who got laid off found a job with SpaceX, However his AI deepfake is really impressive and it has instant access to all Disney data.

 

[skypilot2922]

It's wonderful isn't it. With the UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND and the revenue coming in from the over priced After Hour events why would they get rid of Chapek. It seems to me it's the people on these boards that want Chapek gone.

Chapek has not proved to Wall St that he can keep the money train rolling, He's a classic example of a executive promoted beyond his competence. He was brilliant at Consumer Products, They should have left him there with a nice bump in pay and title. I'd probably make an above average imagineer but I'd be a failure as a Disney CEO.

The short version best said by Clint Eastwood 'A Man's gotta know his limitations'.

 

[jpinkc]

I would love to see a TRUE creative type at the helm but they tend to want to BE CREATIVE and that flies in the face of the current board and Wall Streets idea of a "profitable leader".

 

[Inspired Figment]

I would love to see a TRUE creative type at the helm but they tend to want to BE CREATIVE and that flies in the face of the current board and Wall Streets idea of a "profitable leader".

Which honestly doesn’t make sense to me as it was that free spirited creativity that got Disney as profitable & successful as it has been both short-term & long-term. How they don’t quite connect the dots there is beyond me.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I would love to see a TRUE creative type at the helm but they tend to want to BE CREATIVE and that flies in the face of the current board and Wall Streets idea of a "profitable leader".

You don't want a creative CEO, you want a powerful CCO.

CEOs are administrators. HR, legal, compliance, government relations, investor relations, etc. Actual creative talent would be wasted in that role.

 

[jpinkc]

But its probably whats needed to shake things up I think. Someone of vision who could lead by example! Someone who wont roll over the minute a great Idea costs $1.50 more than they budgeted so we scrap the whole project.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

But its probably whats needed to shake things up I think. Someone of vision who could lead by example! Someone who wont roll over the minute a great Idea costs $1.50 more than they budgeted so we scrap the whole project.

Disney's creative shortcomings, if you want to call them that, are (usually) not for lack of budget. Everything Imagineering does costs twice what it should.

 

[jpinkc]

Disney's creative shortcomings, if you want to call them that, are (usually) not for lack of budget. Everything Imagineering does costs twice what it should.

That is true as well. Some of that is to get it right and I can respect that. Pandora is very pretty, FOP is fun and a good ride. Now that river crap is just that. When you look at WWHP and Pandora and the time each took I hate to say it but WWHP is the winner in all aspects, and I am not a Potter Superfan like my wife and kids.

 

[SirLink]

All true. I was surprised by Disney's response to the lawsuit, which seemed unnecessarily aggressive and nasty in accusing SJ of callous disregard for the suffering caused by COVID-19. That was a really weird and bad move on Disney's part that seemed to elevate it from simply a contract dispute.

Well it sure doesn't help when one of the big Hollywood trades is stating that Chapek and the investment banker in charge of D+ have no experience in talent relations and Zenia pressed the nuclear button on the response.

 

[skypilot2922]

The only person who could have Run Disney in Walts vision was Jim Henson. But alas that never came to be!

Eisner did a good job on the creative side but he lost it after Wells died, Just like Walt needed Roy to be the adult in the room, Eisner needed Wells to be the adult who made the responsible decisions with money and executive staffing.

Disney as a company has never run well unless both a creative and finance guy are sharing the top role. Card Walker and Ron Miller along with Iger are all exemplars of this.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Well it sure doesn't help when one of the big Hollywood trades is stating that Chapek and the investment banker in charge of D+ have no experience in talent relations and Zenia pressed the nuclear button on the response.

I read those blog posts too, and I genuinely don't understand why Kareem Daniel has anything to do with talent relations whatsoever. My understanding was that DPEP and DMED were the reporting segments, but that the "content engines" would somewhat sit separate. Feige and Pitaro and Peter Rice and Alan Horn make the stuff, which would include talent relations, and Kareem's guys sell and distribute the stuff.

 

[skypilot2922]

None of this talk about them dumping Chapek makes sense to me. I don't see this lawsuit moving the board in any meaningful way, as it's a blip on the radar. Their major focus has to be the financial stability and growth of the company, and whether you like him or not, the stock is still up 15% or so from where it was pre-pandemic with DLR and movie theaters shut down for a year.

Also given Disney's reach into China, I don't believe there is any way that Iger suddenly stepping down at the time was a coincidence. The virus was raging in China at the time but had already spread to other continents.

Whether Chapek is set up to be the fall guy, a willing and well-paid participant in a cost cutting scheme, or making these choices of his own free will, I just don't see anything thus far as particularly damaging. People just readily assume they are going to get ripped off these days and just prepare to pay whatever upcharge Disney has to offer. They might even make jokes about the CEO, but most keep paying the ransom.

Sometimes it seems like a few of these "insider" stories are planted to damage the guy, but I have no reason to suspect that other than they seem to come in waves rather than a steady drip. I don't want to go too "tin foil hat" there, but I'm surprised this contract business takes off (compared to all the things to hit the guy on)

It's hard to hate Chapek, he's been promoted beyond his competence and he's trying to use the toolkit which was succesful in selling consumer products as I've said before they needed to leave him where he was and give him a nice salary bump and title but let him do what he does best. Sell clothes, toys and housewares.

 

[skypilot2922]

You don't want a creative CEO, you want a powerful CCO.

CEOs are administrators. HR, legal, compliance, government relations, investor relations, etc. Actual creative talent would be wasted in that role.

A pair like Walt and Roy or Eisner and Wells a creative/financial pair who govern as one voice.

 

[Ponderer]

I would love to see a TRUE creative type at the helm but they tend to want to BE CREATIVE and that flies in the face of the current board and Wall Streets idea of a "profitable leader".

Yeah, but that doesn’t work without a partnership in place. Walt was amazing but he desperately needed Roy to make it work. And while Eisner was no Walt, he still had Frank Wells to pay the bills and let him do the fun stuff.

That’s the problem, right? Disney has worked best in the past when you had a balanced leadership with someone who could be the creative face of the company and someone to keep the lights on.

 

[Ponderer]

A pair like Walt and Roy or Eisner and Wells a creative/financial pair who govern as one voice.

You read my mind.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

A pair like Walt and Roy or Eisner and Wells a creative/financial pair who govern as one voice.

Walt wasn't reaaaaally the CEO in a functional sense. He was basically the President and CCO, Roy was the CEO and CFO.

 

[skypilot2922]

Walt wasn't reaaaaally the CEO in a functional sense. He was basically the President and CCO, Roy was the CEO and CFO.

Exactly correct Walt was the face of the company and he was the CCO his status as President was largely ceremonial, Roy was the CEO and CFO

 

[CJR]

If Chapek were to leave, and I'm not going to hold my breath despite the pressure, I would love it if they did try to copy what they did when they brought in Eisner. Bring in two or three executives with proven leadership and creative experience. It's a proven recipe for Disney's success.

Although, I'd love to see Disney "promote from within", Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg all came from outside of the company, so if it happened again, it wouldn't immediately come across as the worst move, given the success they brought early on. Hopefully, they choose carefully.

 

[Robbiem]

If Chapek were to leave, and I'm not going to hold my breath despite the pressure, I would love it if they did try to copy what they did when they brought in Eisner. Bring in two or three executives with proven leadership and creative experience. It's a proven recipe for Disney's success.

Although, I'd love to see Disney "promote from within", Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg all came from outside of the company, so if it happened again, it wouldn't immediately come across as the worst move, given the success they brought early on. Hopefully, they choose carefully.

The only problem compared to the 80s is there’s not many old school Disney staff left. Eisner and co were external but there was a big pool of people like Roy jnr, Marty Sklar and others on both the movie and park sides who knew and understood what Disney was. Today I’m not sure if new management would have the same talent pool to draw on -no Tony Baxter, JoeRhode or Glen Keanes for example. On the other hand maybe people like Filoni, Faverau, Fiegie and Docter will be free to be more creative and drive the next renaissance