Bob Iger’s biggest mistakes to date

[guynhawaii]

Aloha,

i have greatly enjoyed the Disney+ Imagineering series, especially the reflections/ results of the decisions made by Disney’s leadership. Which got me to thinking about Bob Iger’s time at the helm. The good...a lot of investment in new rides, ships, DVC, Disney+, movies, etc...

But what have been his failures? The biggest which come to my mind is lack of either oversight or plain bad judgement on the Latest Star Wars Trilogy and SWGE. The last couple of films were disappointing and the philosophy and execution of SWGE has been equally disappointing. Pure head scratchers.

What do y’all think? I am no expert and would like to know your opinions.

[Westsider]

SW:GE is a hot mess, and much of that mess is directly attributable to the decisions Bob Chapek made in the 24 months leading up to its opening. All the stuff cancelled and cut back and delayed by Chapek made the bottom line look better in '18 but when it opened in '19 its impact on the DLR was a weak shadow of what was supposed to happen.

If SW:GE doesn't turn around massively in 2020, Bob Chapek will need to be the sacrifice. The dude was supposed to be in the running for Iger's job, but his boneheaded decisions and total lack of people skills (or even a hint of likability) proves he's not up to the job.

Bob Chapek is one of Iger's biggest blunders. If not the biggest. Kathleen Kennedy's handling of the Star Wars franchise could equal Chapek tho.

[Richard Nelson]

You add Marvel Comics and ESPN to that list. Both went to expand their audience at the sacrifice of old. In both cases the new audience never materialized and no attempt was made win back the original audience.

[J. Thaddeus Toad]

Bob’s successes :
-Pixar
-Marvel
-Disney+
-Disney Animation
-foreign parks

Bob’s Blunders:
- Espn
- Star Wars
- Walt Disney World
-DCA (after initially fixing it)

Like Eisner, he’s done a lot of good, and he’s done a lot of bad.

[micromind]

On a larger scale, I believe his biggest failure was to allow himself to become completely intoxicated by greed.

I have no knowledge of what he was like prior to his obscene compensation packages but it seems that just about every decision he has made during his tenure at The Disney Company is based mostly on how it will affect his bonus rather than what's best for the parks and guests. It seems that he sees TDC as nothing more than a means to vast personal wealth.

It's sad that any person can become so consumed by his lust for more and more to the point of alienating those from whom he derives his wealth.

[denyuntilcaught]

SW:GE is a hot mess, and much of that mess is directly attributable to the decisions Bob Chapek made in the 24 months leading up to its opening. All the stuff cancelled and cut back and delayed by Chapek made the bottom line look better in '18 but when it opened in '19 its impact on the DLR was a weak shadow of what was supposed to happen.

If SW:GE doesn't turn around massively in 2020, Bob Chapek will need to be the sacrifice. The dude was supposed to be in the running for Iger's job, but his boneheaded decisions and total lack of people skills (or even a hint of likability) proves he's not up to the job.

Bob Chapek is one of Iger's biggest blunders. If not the biggest. Kathleen Kennedy's handling of the Star Wars franchise could equal Chapek tho.

Uh-greed!

[Mr Wiggins]

Iger's biggest mistakes were 1) promoting Bob Chapek from head of Consumer Products to Chairman of Parks, Experiences and Products; and 2) backing up Chapek's business M.O. of cheapening the brand by cutting quality and raising prices.

[Laugh-O-Grams]

Chapek

[Mr Wiggins]

On a larger scale, I believe his biggest failure was to allow himself to become completely intoxicated by greed.

I have no knowledge of what he was like prior to his obscene compensation packages but it seems that just about every decision he has made during his tenure at The Disney Company is based mostly on how it will affect his bonus rather than what's best for the parks and guests. It seems that he sees TDC as nothing more than a means to vast personal wealth.

It's sad that any person can become so consumed by his lust for more and more to the point of alienating those from whom he derives his wealth.

Even worse, in that regard he sets the style and values for Disney's entire executive hierarchy.

[Eagleman]

IGER
Greed-for his own personal wealth ,
and Didn't have the same love as "Walt" did for the company.........
nor for the Consumer ,as well Parks Guest.........

It was about his own ego and his Bonus.
IMO He was way over pay CEO ,with to much control in the company !

[Eagleman]

Iger's biggest mistakes were 1) promoting Bob Chapek from head of Consumer Products to Chairman of Parks, Experiences and Products; and 2) backing up Chapek's business M.O. of cheapening the brand by cutting quality and raising prices.

Also a Bingo........
I feel

Chapek ,have brought down a new low in the Disney Parks
with the there Parks guest , Pay more and get less !

[micromind]

Even worse, in that regard he sets the style and values for Disney's entire executive hierarchy.

And it shows....oh how it shows......

[Eagleman]

And it shows....oh how it shows......

You got that right ....It really SHOWSand why I never had respect
for Mr. IGER
It's about money in his pocket ,not what is right for the company and the

Consumer.

His values has spread within Disney's executive hierarchy in

entire company.

[DLHMFAN]

Putting Star Wars into Space Mountain longer than it should be; cutting the operation of Haunted Mansion from 4 months to 2 months, opening Star Wars Land when it was not ready; not replacing the Star Wars clip show with something that is not based on movies, replacing Tower of Terror with Guardians of the Galaxy.

[Eagleman]

Another

executive hierarchy is how

Chapek

is turning the parks
into a advertisement market ,long with high price of admission.
Bringing down guest

Experiences at the same time........
Iger ,

promoting Bob Chapek from head of Consumer Products to Chairman of Parks
Got to be the worst concept in the company !

[order 1966]

Aloha,

i have greatly enjoyed the Disney+ Imagineering series, especially the reflections/ results of the decisions made by Disney’s leadership. Which got me to thinking about Bob Iger’s time at the helm. The good...a lot of investment in new rides, ships, DVC, Disney+, movies, etc...

But what have been his failures? The biggest which come to my mind is lack of either oversight or plain bad judgement on the Latest Star Wars Trilogy and SWGE. The last couple of films were disappointing and the philosophy and execution of SWGE has been equally disappointing. Pure head scratchers.

What do y’all think? I am no expert and would like to know your opinions.

I agree completely. I am a huge Star Wars fan and I love Disney as well so I was expecting the Disney Star Wars movies to be some of my favorites. I never thought that they (7 and 8) would be the two biggest cinematic disappointments of my life. I thought they were terrible. They fired Michael Arndt and cancelled
Lucas’ trilogy because he wasn’t writing fast enough. (Kennedy admits this in the deleted scenes.) They were
too impatient for quality and now say it was “fatigue” so Iger won’t even admit his mistake.

Then I thought at least Star Wars Land will be fantastic. Parks are what Disney does best and they are willing to spend billions on it. What we ended up getting was, like the movies, all flash. Expensive buildings that look nice but have little substance. Ronto Roasters is the most beautiful hot dog stand I have ever seen, but it is still just a fancy hot dog stand. Maybe a Podracing ride would have had more substance than a dangling Podracer engine with no real purpose. If ROTR and Episode 9 aren’t fantastic, Star Wars will be in serious trouble.

[TLand2055]

not replacing the Star Wars clip show with something that is not based on movies

They did replace it... with High School Musical. In Tomorrowland.

[biggsworth]

Putting chapek in charge of the parks. Also allowing Star Wars both GE and the trilogy get so messed up.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

I think there are two main strands to explore here. The first category I place mistakes in are what I consider miscalculations from a business perspective. Personally, I think the entire Fox deal was overinflated in value. If we go far enough back, I think the BAMTech investment was also overvalued. I understand why they were important to Disney's future, but I really don't think they justified the cost. From the parks perspective, it comes down to a lack of transformative investment on a continual basis. Similar to when Michael Eisner announced the "Disney Decade," I think both Iger and Eisner had a decent level of investment in the parks. However, this investment ended once both CEOs felt they did enough. The Disney Decade ended and we had the three worst parks Disney ever created. Shanghai Disneyland was built and suddenly Disneyland in California has resorted to opening lands in phases and cheap overlays. We can discuss the causes of these ad nauseam, but the ultimate result is a poor business calculation. Of course that is just my opinion as an outsider, but I am a shareholder and don't expect Disney to be able to sustain it all.

This brings me two my second (and arguably more important) category. I consider these mistakes to be in leadership selection. It's clear there has been a lot of turnover on all sides of the company and we've had a front row seat to it. Whether it's people disagreeing with how Kathleen Kennedy has run Star Wars or with how Bob Chapek has run the parks, there are plenty of critiques to go around. Seemingly great leadership talent has gone underappreciated or been passed over, while an overreliance on inflated revenues has turned the C-suite into a revolving door with executives not caring about their roles long-term. This is a mistake at the highest level. Iger could easily blame any mistake on his minions and direct reports, but when it keeps happening, I fear for the future of the company.

[Disney Adventure]

Iger’s two biggest mistakes:

• Putting Bob Chapek in charge of the parks.
• Keeping Bob Chapek in charge of the parks.