News The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors Extends Robert A. Iger’s Contract as CEO Through 2026

Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Dranth said:
I somewhat disagree in that it depends on which issue you are talking about. That is what determines who gets how much blame for me.

Personally, I feel that the overall direction of a company is too complex to just say good/bad, at least if we want any real insight or analysis of the why. That is where I find it helpful to break out the various factors that drive the overall direction. When we do that, I think most of us see that Iger had lots of issues, but the company as a whole did much better under him than Chapek. Further, it is easy to see where Chapek created plenty of his own problems that had nothing to do with Iger. Just for example...

- The Florida situation leading to the end of Reedy Creek? 100% Chapek. Iger had nothing to do with that.
- Brain drain/talent loss? 100% Chapek. No matter what we think of him, creatives tend to like Iger outside of his IP mandate while they hated Chapek.
- Lack of any development or even plans for development of any of the parks while in charge? 100% Chapek.
- Putting a municipal hospital architect in charge of what remained of the corpse of Imagineering? 100% Chapek.
- Decision to reorg the company and place streaming ahead of all other entertainment despite all the people he consulted on it telling him it wouldn't go well? 100% Chapek.
- Trying to tell us that Halloween after parties were awesome while ignoring a devastatingly bad earnings miss? 100% Chapek.
- Going DIRECTLY against the board on multiple occasions, many of them after agreeing with them in meetings? 100% Chapek.

Now of course Iger should and does take the blame for giving us Chapek to begin with and if someone wants to make an argument Disney was already heading in the toilet before Chapek, that is fine, there is certainly evidence people can point to that would support that, but there is also plenty of evidence on how much the pace accelerated under Chapek and he created all new issues and emergencies for the company all on his own.

Let me put it this way. I feel like Iger pushed the company to the brink in a number of areas. Chapek came in, shoved it over the edge, climbed down to its broken body and then defecated on it all while telling us how great things were.
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The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.
 
Dranth

Dranth

Well-Known Member
Tha Realest said:
The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.
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I disagree and feel it is a little unrealistic to suggest he could have gotten away with doing nothing. Too much noise was coming internally and externally on the matter by the time they finally issued a statement. Signing the petition, like 100s of other companies did, would have provided cover to stop internal tensions, put out a position so the media could move on and likely ended it right then and there. Chapek chose otherwise.

I don't blame him for trying to stay out of it and I also don't blame him for finally jumping back in, he had to. Where I do fault him is not having a better understanding of politics, his company or its history. End of the day, the nuclear option was all him despite sitting in a meeting with the board and them all agreeing he would just sign the petition weeks before.
 
Vegas Disney Fan

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
Tha Realest said:
The “Florida situation” likely would never have occurred if they stuck to Chapek and Morrell’s original plan.
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It will be interesting to see how history remembers Chapek, if it even does.

He was thrown into the CEO role at the worst possible time, they had just bought Fox and put the company tens of billions in debt, they had just launched D+ which was losing billions more, the pandemic quickly shut down the world and cost them tens of billions in park income… it was the perfect storm for failure, then on top of that FL passed some controversial legislation and he was instantly faced with internal revolt while he was still trying to establish himself as the new CEO, while still reporting to Iger.

I’ll never be a fan of Chapek due to all the horrible parks decisions he made but I don’t think anyone could have succeeded in his position. He was thrown to the wolves, it would have been amazing had he not failed.

I think he ends up a footnote but I also think history will be kinder to him than it will be to Iger.

ETA… Dranth is also correct, had he simply signed the letter, like he said he would, he probably could have avoided that drama and had one less catastrophe to deal with.
 
Magic Crush Drop

Magic Crush Drop

Active Member
Vegas Disney Fan said:
It will be interesting to see how history remembers Chapek, if it even does.
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High than Post Walt-Pre Eisner CEOs but lower than Iger. Maybe on Roy O. level?
Vegas Disney Fan said:
I think he ends up a footnote but I also think history will be kinder to him than it will be to Iger.
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I think he will have something written about his time (DisneyWar pt2) and a couple tik toks about the wild actions he did by some creator that barely remember that time and confuses him with Iger 2.0.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Dranth said:
I somewhat disagree in that it depends on which issue you are talking about. That is what determines who gets how much blame for me.

Personally, I feel that the overall direction of a company is too complex to just say good/bad, at least if we want any real insight or analysis of the why. That is where I find it helpful to break out the various factors that drive the overall direction. When we do that, I think most of us see that Iger had lots of issues, but the company as a whole did much better under him than Chapek. Further, it is easy to see where Chapek created plenty of his own problems that had nothing to do with Iger. Just for example...

- The Florida situation leading to the end of Reedy Creek? 100% Chapek. Iger had nothing to do with that.
- Brain drain/talent loss? 100% Chapek. No matter what we think of him, creatives tend to like Iger outside of his IP mandate while they hated Chapek.
- Lack of any development or even plans for development of any of the parks while in charge? 100% Chapek.
- Putting a municipal hospital architect in charge of what remained of the corpse of Imagineering? 100% Chapek.
- Decision to reorg the company and place streaming ahead of all other entertainment despite all the people he consulted on it telling him it wouldn't go well? 100% Chapek.
- Trying to tell us that Halloween after parties were awesome while ignoring a devastatingly bad earnings miss? 100% Chapek.
- Going DIRECTLY against the board on multiple occasions, many of them after agreeing with them in meetings? 100% Chapek.

Now of course Iger should and does take the blame for giving us Chapek to begin with and if someone wants to make an argument Disney was already heading in the toilet before Chapek, that is fine, there is certainly evidence people can point to that would support that, but there is also plenty of evidence on how much the pace accelerated under Chapek and he created all new issues and emergencies for the company all on his own.

Let me put it this way. I feel like Iger pushed the company to the brink in a number of areas. Chapek came in, shoved it over the edge, climbed down to its broken body and then defecated on it all while telling us how great things were.
Click to expand...

The other two bad decisions, in hindsight, on how the men differed:

-Chapek was chasing empty subscriber numbers. There is well documented conflict between to the two of this. It led to the stock pumping and eventual slump. Along with the write off in Indian operations. This issue is most directly what got him fired and invited corporate raiders through the door.

-Shoveling content to DTC. Iger has always been a less is more tentpole strategy. A bit more theatrically focused. It didn’t seem like a bad idea in the midst of the Pandemic, but theatrical earnings were clearly left on the table in hindsight.


Now that said, In the sake of being celebratory of Chapek; I really don’t think Iger would have purchased the Genting Dream. Considering how much money is in cruising right now, getting a mega vessel on a major discount was a correct long play.
 
JD80

JD80

Well-Known Member
Sure but some to breathlessly post stock numbers if they are below an arbitrary point or in downward trajectory even if it's small. Doesn't go both ways so it's funny to me.
 

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