The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

“Optimism in a leader, especially in challenging times, is so vital. Pessimism leads to paranoia, which leads to defensiveness, which leads to risk aversion. Optimism sets a different machine in motion.” ~ From The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.¹ by Bob Iger

Thoughts

If I could describe the book in one word, it is - Optimism. The book charts the big milestones in Bob Iger’s life mainly focusing on the 45 year career at Disney/ABC. He faced many challenges as he rose through the ranks and what stood out was the strong belief that every challenge was something that could be overcome, that a disruptive idea was not really a long shot once you got into the details, that when you believe in people you can get extraordinary things done. His bosses believed in him and he believed in the people that worked under him. Huge acquisitions like Pixar ($7.8B),Marvel($4 B), Lucas films (~$4 B), and 21st Century Fox (over 50 billion dollars) were viewed as deals that were good for the consumers and the companies and not takeovers. There is a remarkable scene in the book where Steve Jobs comes to the board of Disney to pitch the sale of Pixar and even Iger is mesmerized by his impassioned speech. I think no other company could have made the running of a big business as a service to people, especially kids and families like Disney did, except maybe Google. Iger did an excellent job of portraying the positive side of Disney.

As a top executive, Iger is humble throughout and it comes across in the narrative. It is an emotional, straight-from-the-gut retelling of life at different stages of his career. He believes in the cause, puts in more effort, has the grit to ride out difficult times, and has a great work ethic. He had great bosses that he looked up to, especially Tom Murphy and Dan Burke who bet on talent and put people at places which would help to blossom their abilities. Also, it is not just about work. He brings in a lot of humanity into the book. He talks about his friends and family and other people that he leans on for support. It was enlightening to see the personal relationship he had with Steve Jobs. He dealt with people as friends. His accounts of the Marvel and Lucas films deals were heartwarming since he describes these as times when he forged friendships with Ike Perlmutter and George Lucas.

I came across this book in Gates Notes² and found the review by Bill Gates to be a great endorsement. I was also amazed at the great reviews and thumbs up on Amazon and Goodreads. The book lived up to the expectations and didn’t disappoint at all. Would gladly recommend to anyone who is in need of some inspiration. The other business book in recent times, that I was excited to read based on the excitement of the reviewers was The Goal, which is another great read.

Of the many life lessons, one thing that stood out for me was the description of how a manager at a big corporation should be.

“Managing your own time and respecting others’ time is one of the most vital things to do as a manager. ”

”.. in a company like Disney, if you don’t do the work, the people around you detect that right away and their respect for you disappears. You have to be attentive. You often have to sit through meetings that, if given the choice, you might choose not to sit through. You have to learn and absorb. You have to hear out other people’s problems and help find solutions. It’s all part of being a great manager.”

There are other great life lessons and the best thing is that Iger has condensed all of it as short notes at the end of the book in the Appendix. As always, I took some notes at the end of every chapter but I guess that was not needed since the gist is there in the appendix.

Notes

Prologue

• This is probably the best start of any book and clearly shows the challenges that Iger faced. It is 2016. Shanghai Disneyland which took 18 years to build, is in the process of opening up. Nightclub shooing in florida, and the alligator attack of a small boy at Disney happen around that time. He speaks to the boy’s father and in less than half an hour attends a banquet for Disneyland.
• He has worked for the same company for 45 years - 22 at ABC, 23 at Disney with 14 yrs as CEO.
• Some key pointers -
  • Even the least eventful days require the ability to constantly adapt, and re-adapt.
  • There are always cries and failures for which you can never be fully prepared.
  • The days are challenging and dynamic, but they’re also a never-ending exercise in compartmentalization.
  • Ten principles necessary to true leadership
    1. Optimism
    2. Courage
    3. Focus
    4. Decisiveness
    5. Curiosity
    6. Fairness
    7. Thoughtfulness
    8. Authenticity
    9. The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
    10. Integrity

Part One: Learning

Chapter 1: Starting at the Bottom

• He has always been a person who woke up early and that has helped him throughout his life, to be able to carve out time in the morning to think.
• He fell in love with books in high school. He credits his dad who had a den lined with shelves of books.
• He started working at young age. He got a chance to work at ABC through his uncle Bob who met someone while at hospital.
• He was a fan of Frank Sinatra and the high point was him getting a gold cigarette lighter inscribed ‘Love Sinatra’, which he still has in his possession.
• The personality of Roone Arlidge loomed large in his life at this point. He learnt a lot from him.
• He credits Arlidge for instilling the ‘relentless pursuit of perfection’, about creating an environment where one refuses to accept mediocrity.

Chapter 2: Betting on Talent

• Cap Cities, a smaller company acquires ABC. Iger along with others are surprised.
• With time, Iger grows to respect the new owners - Tom Murphy and Dan Burke. Warren Buffett had called them “probably the greatest two-person combination in management that the world has ever seen or maybe ever will see”.
• Covering Winter Olympics in Calgary was a great opportunity for Iger.
• Iger talks highly of Tom and Dan and calls them ‘perfect bosses’. He learnt from them that genuine decency and professional competitiveness weren’t mutually exclusive, that ‘betting on brains’ and giving people the right opportunity to flourish was the best thing to do.

Chapter 3: Know What You Don’t Know (and Trust in What You Do)

• Iger takes up the job as the Head of ABC entertainment and moves to L.A.
• At the outset he says that he had no clue about how things were done at Hollywood. He also points out that ‘inexperience is no excuse for failure’.
• He was fully dependent on Stu and Ted. His managers Tom and Dan had full faith in him and that was a huge morale booster and he didn’t feel like the was leaping without a parachute.
• Doogie Howser M.D. was one of the first successes. Then came Twin Peaks which was a huge success. Cop Rock, a musical police drama, was a failure.
• The key lessons were - Never start negatively, never start small, take big risks and fail sometimes rather than not taking risks at all, be comfortable with failure and own up to failures.

Chapter 4: Enter Disney

Avoid getting into the business of manufacturing trombone oil. You may become the greatest trombone oil manufacturer in the world, but in the end, the world only consumes a few quarts of trombone oil a year. (Dan Burke)

• The quote above is mentioned a few times and it was a like a guidepost to Iger.
• Disney acquires Cap Cities/ABC. For Iger, it didn’t seem like a good career option. He was in line to become the next CEO of ABC and was being asked to run the media division of Disney for at least five years.
• His wife Willow was very supportive. Tom had a lot of confidence in Iger. He told him that if Iger did well, he could run the bigger company some day.
• He was expecting to be #2 to Michael Eisner but Eisner got in Ovitz to that position and Iger reported to him. He describes it as an unproductive period.
• Ovitz was not a fit to the corporate culture at Disney and the description of that period was a lesson in how to be a good manager and also that when executives fight, it is the team that suffers.
• The key thing is to ask hard question and take fast decisions when things don’t work out.

Chapter 5: Second in Line

• After Ovitz left Eisner didn’t officially announce a #2, but Iger was running most of the things.
• The key thing is to focus on the job and do it well rather than focus on the next job and not do the current one well.
• ABC entered a downward slide in ratings. Who Wants to be a Millionaire brought in success.
• ABC’s 24 hour coverage of the Millennium was a novel idea and a great success. Iger was the boss of his earlier boss Roone Arlidge and appealed to his sense of pride to take up the challenge.
• Iger’s vivid description of visiting Arlidge while in hospital was touching.
• Eisner tells the board that Iger cannot be CEO and Iger is hurt when he hears that. But he doesn’t quit.
• Eisner later makes a proposal for Iger to become President and COO and a member of the Disney board.

Chapter 6: Good Things Can Happen

• Iger describes how Eisner had become a legend as a person who had ‘re-founded’ Disney. He was remarkably creative businessman and is credited for turning Disney into a modern entertainment giant.
• He learnt a lot from Eisner during this period through his visits to Disney parks and Imagineering. Eisner used to be referred to as an oppressive perfectionist and a micromanager. He was proud of it and would say “Micromanagement is underrated”.
• Disney and Pixar have a deal but Pixar feels it is lopsided. Eisner and Jobs don’t get along well.
• 9/11 happens and Disney and ABCs profits and ratings go down.
• Roy Disney becomes critical of Eisner and wants to have him replaced. He launches “Save Disney” campaign.
• Comcast tries a takeover bid that fails.
• Board wants a new CEO and tries to shortlist candidates. Iger is the only internal candidate.

Chapter 7: It’s About the Future

• Iger has many interviews and meetings with the Board and others to convince them of his vision for Disney and to convey that he was the best suited to be CEO at that point.
• He urges the board to look to the future and not the past. Many times he feels the pressure and also gets frustrated in a meeting at one point.
• Scott Miller gives him good advice on how to view it as a campaign, define priorities and pitch the ideas clearly.
• Iger defines three key priorities for the company under his leadership -
  1. Devote most of the resources to creation of high-quality content. (reminded of trombone oil quote)
  2. Embrace technology - to enable creation of content, to reach consumers.
  3. Become a truly global company.
• In the end, Iger is named the CEO by the board. He is at home with his wife and kids when he gets to know the news from George Mitchell through phone. Eisner also calls him. He later calls his parents, his old bosses - Tom Murphy and Dan Burke, and Steve Jobs.

Part Two: Leading

Chapter 8: The Power of Respect

• In week 1 of the CEO-in-waiting period, Iger calls his closes advisers and lays out the immediate things to be addressed -
  1. Bury the hatchet with Roy Disney.
  2. Try to salvage the relationship with Pixar and Steve Jobs.
  3. Begin the process of changing the way Disney made decisions, which consisted of restructuring Strat Planning.
• Before he could reach out to Roy Disney, Roy and Stanley Gold sued Disney over Iger’s appointment. Iger talks to Stanley and then to Roy, agrees to make Roy as Director Emiretus in the board. The key take away is to “Not let ego get in the way of making the best possible decision”.
• He patches up Disney’s relationship with Steve Jobs and even forges a friendship. He is on stage with Jobs during the launch of video ipod.
• He restructures Strat Planning and the company morale across the board goes up.

Chapter 9: Disney-Pixar and a New Path to the Future

• When Iger starts with the talks of Pixar acquisition, everyone is against for multiple reasons, Jobs will not sell, it is too big a risk to take as a new CEO, etc.
• In his first board meeting, he makes a presentation of the parade in Disneyland Hong Kong that showed that there were no Disney characters in the last decade. Then pitches the idea of Pixar acquisition.
• He visits Steve Jobs at Pixar office in Emeryville and is impressed at the campus. They whiteboard the pros and cons.
• Minutes before the deal is announced, Jobs takes Iger into confidence and tells him about his cancer and offers that he could back out if he wanted and put the blame on Jobs. It is a poignant moment and Bill Gates highlights this event in his review. Iger doesn’t backout.
• The key point was the optimism that Iger had about the future of Disney and Pixar with the deal.
  • It could fix Disney animation which was core to the success of Disney since the beginning.
  • It would bring Steve Jobs into the Disney Board.
  • It would bring a lot of technological prowess and a culture of excellence into Disney.

Chapter 10: Marvel and Massive Risks That Make Perfect Sense

• Iger talks about how he got in touch Ike Perlmutter and the process of acquiring Marvel. Ike is described as a tough-to-reach private person and Iger shows a lot of patience in dealing with him. When Ike is not convinced that the Marvel culture would be changed with the acquisition, Steve Jobs calls him and says that Iger would be true to his word.
• Iger talks about a personnel mistake that he made - Rich Ross who was very successful at running Disney channel but failed as the chairman of Disney Studios. He fires Rich and brings in Alan Horn who ends up transforming the division.
• He gives a lesson on firing people - that it has to be done in person, look the person in the eye, not use anyone else as an excuse, be direct, etc.
• About hiring he says “Surround yourself with people who are good, in addition to being good at what they do.” Honesty and Integrity matters a lot.
• Lot of people and media criticize Iger for the 4 billion dollar price tag for Marvel but he says time have proven that it was one of the best acquisitions ever.
• He talks about Black Panther and Captain Marvel which were again discouraged since they didn’t fit the stereotype. But former becomes the fourth highest grossing superhero film of all time, and the latter the tenth, Both earning well over $ 1 billion.

Chapter 11: Star Wars

• Iger attends Steve Jobs’ funeral and mentions about Jobs’ confidence in him during the Pixar deal. Jobs’ wife, Laurene tells Iger the other side of the story and that Steve Jobs really liked him.
• Acquisition of Lucas films was an emotional roller coaster. Iger was patient throughout the process and treated George Lucas with greatest respect at the same time protecting the interests of Disney.
• They bring in JJ Abrams to direct the first Star Wars movie under Disney and that becomes a huge success.

Chapter 12: If You Don’t Innovate, You Die

• Iger talks about his concern about Disney’s place in the future and the need to adapt to the changes and to launch a streaming service directly to the consumers.
• He goes through a phase of discussions around buying tech companies. They almost end up buying Twitter but he changes his mind in the last minute.
• They buy a controlling stake in BAMTech which helps them build Disney+ and ESPN+. It meant taking a profitable section of business and investing into future. Though the books don’t look good in the short run, it is going to be a major success in the future. Stock market rewards Disney for this.
• Iger talks about a time when he was thinking about running for President. Rupert Murdoch calls him and asks him about it.
• After his meeting with Murdoch, the idea of buying 21st century fox takes hold.

Chapter 13: No Price on Integrity & Chapter 14: Core Values

• Iger visualizes the combined company after Fox acquisition and whiteboards the different operational groups the company would be divided into. He gets his staff onboarded with the idea.
• But the deal itself takes long to materialize due to Comcast bidding at a higher price, then backing off, then coming back after AT&T merger with Warner Media is approved.
• Though Iger is reluctant to go above 28 price point initially, after the AT&T-Warner deal when Comcast makes a 35 a stock, cash offer to Fox, he raises the bid to $38, and finally gets the deal.
• It is also a period of turmoil since a few key executives get caught in harassment cases - John Lasseter for unwanted physical contact with women, John Skipper for drug abuse. He removes both from their posts and is left with no one managing Disney Animation and ESPN suddenly.
• After the merger with Fox and the presentation to the media about the future prospects with Disney+, Hotstart and others, the response from Wall Street was great with the stock going up 30% in a month.
• He wraps up by saying that 2019 was going to be his retirement date and it was changed to 2021 due to Fox merger. He mentions that he had great mentors and bosses along the way.

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Book cover Image Credit: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?pcampaignid=books_read_action&id=FIKMDwAAQBAJ

Footnotes

1. Iger, Robert. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. United States: Random House Publishing Group, 2019. ↩

2. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Ride-of-a-Lifetime ↩