11/23/2020

A Bob by Any Other Name

November 23, 2022

The shocking news of Bob Chapek being terminated and Bob Iger stepping back into the role of Disney CEO dropped on Sunday evening. The Disney corner of the Internet lost its collective mind. Admittedly, it is huge news. The further up the food chain, the more impactful personnel changes are. For the most part, the news has been greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. Jubilation in many cases. And my question is: why do Disney fans have such short term memories?

To be clear, I am cautiously optimistic myself, as Bob Iger is certainly the lesser of two evils on the “Bob front”. Perhaps memory makes the heart grow fonder. Or maybe you don’t know what you have, ‘till it’s gone. Choose your cheesy cliché, but the fact remains: there were a metric ton of complaints about Iger before he left. Our community crucified him on several occasions. His hesitancy to pull the trigger on letting John Lasseter go after a slew of harassment claims. His impossibly quick trigger finger on firing James Gunn. His handling of the Galaxy Edge opening. Revelations of criminally low wages for Disneyland Cast Members. The disastrous state of Disney animation before the 2006 acquisition of Pixar. Plus, many of the “pay more for less” ideas were conceptualized under Iger but implemented under Chapek. Disney Genie+ was announced at D23 in 2019. Free parking at the resorts was removed in 2018. The Osborne Family lights were removed in 2017. The list goes on.

However, what seems to be flying under the radar for the last few days is the fact that Bob Iger hand picked his successor.

He chose Bob Chapek.

Yes, he has certainly come out recently and admitted to blowing it on that one, but that ball was in his court. And now it is there once again. Once upon a time, it was just assumed that Iger was grooming Tom Staggs, former COO at Disney, for the job. He seemed the perfect guy for the position. So what happened? We really don’t know. But somehow Bob Chapek leap-frogged Staggs and Tommy Boy was let go. There has to be a better succession plan this time. Hopefully, Mr. Iger realizes that as well.

As I stated, I am cautiously optimistic. Bob Iger has his finger on the pulse of the the company in a way that Bob Chapek never approached. Chapek had no interest in the creative divisions of the company and was apathetic at best toward the parks division. While Bob Iger is still going to make decisions that are best for the stockholders, and those decisions are still going to make the Disney Crazies furious, he has enough instinct, charm, and guile to keep the majority of us from calling for the torches and pitchforks. However, the stockholders will definitely have him under the microscope for the next two years to see who will emerge as the heir-apparent.