Analysis: Why Can't Disney CEO Bob Chapek Be More Like His Predecessor Bob Iger?

It's difficult to think of another chief executive who has been the recipient of so much recent bad press in such a short period of time as the Walt Disney Co’s DIS Bob Chapek.

Since taking the corporate reins in February 2020, Chapek has been steering the company across a pothole-scarred road including crises not of his making (the COVID-19 pandemic and the anything-but-transitory inflationary economy) and fiascos of his own creation (a legal spat with “Black Widow” star Scarlett Johansson and the disastrous waffling on a contentious political issue).

Chapek has also been the subject of leaked stories from within the company regarding a workforce that is increasingly unhappy with his leadership, and there’s even been an online petition to have him removed as CEO. The petition’s creators are unhappy over the changes he brought to the company’s theme parks.

And even his C-suite team has been skeptical. The Hollywood Reporter cited unnamed Disney sources who referred to him as “a numbers-oriented, bottom-line-focused businessman lacking creative experience and without Iger’s polish and flair.”

And Chapek’s leadership has yet to animate Disney’s stock, which is trading around $129.81, too close to its 52-week low of $129.26 and too far from its 52-week high of $198.54.

Chapek’s leadership skills are frequently held up to those of his predecessor, Bob Iger, and never to Chapek’s favor. But what can Chapek do to improve the image of his leadership? Perhaps he might want to take a few pointers from Iger on how to run operations.

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Trust Builders: Last December, as Iger was winding down his role as Disney chairman, he gave an extensive interview with Variety that detailed his approach to leadership — including key pointers that Chapek seems to have ignored.

When asked how difficult it was to manage a huge creative enterprise like Disney, Chapek responded: “It’s not difficult if you apply a few critical principles. First is you have to respect the creators and their creative processes a lot and not encroach. In other words, do no harm. Be there as a cheerleader to encourage, to push and to demand excellence and innovation. Part of the underpinning of successful creative leadership is trust — trusting people in the end to do the right thing.”

One month after becoming CEO, the pandemic paralyzed the U.S. economy and Chapek approved the layoffs of approximately 28,000 cast members at Disney theme parks while enacting pay cuts for the company’s senior executives. The executives’ pay was restored in August 2020, however, when the theme parks were still shuttered and the employees were still furloughed.

Chapek took a 50% pay cut, but Iger went further and took a 100% cut. Guess which executive gained more respect from the workforce during this time?

As for Iger’s warning of doing no harm to the creators, Chapek erred badly in badmouthing Johansson when she filed a lawsuit against Disney over a contract dispute over compensation related to the “Black Widow” release last spring. The company sought to badmouth Johansson by claiming her lawsuit showed a “callous disregard” to the pandemic and leaking the scope of her compensation, which was never previously publicized.

As a result of that approach, Chapek’s Disney received a rare public rebuke from the National Association of Theater Owners and several prominent film industry figures — including Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. (Johansson settled her lawsuit out of court with Disney last September while Feige patched up his differences with Chapek.)

A later report in ScreenRant cited unnamed “multiple insiders” in criticizing Chapek for his handling of the matter, claiming that his previous corporate focus on theme park management made him too inexperienced to deal with high-profile talent while adding “he didn’t think it would blow up in his face.”

Into Innovation: Iger also confided to Variety that he could “understand how difficult it is for companies operating in a traditional space to be innovative. Not only are you potentially disrupting your own business and the bottom line, but sometimes it takes you spending money, which comes off the bottom line.” Nonetheless, Iger has been praised for putting an increased priority in the streaming space.

Under Chapek, however, Disney has been slow to embrace new high-tech endeavors. It didn’t issue its first non-fungible token until last November and didn’t get around to putting someone in charge of its Metaverse initiatives until last month’s appointment of Mike White as senior vice president of next generation storytelling and consumer experience at Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution — three months after Chapek previewed the company’s focus on this realm during a quarterly earnings call.

When asked specifically about Chapek, Iger mused: “As the world changes and continues to be disruptive, he will be faced with circumstances, challenges and opportunities that are going to be very different than those I’ve been faced with. So he’s going to have to be facile. He’s going to have to have the ability to adapt to a changing time. I’m not presuming he has to do this a certain way.”

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Political Theater: Chapek’s inability to adapt to a changing time was on display with his handling of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” controversy in Florida, where he was caught off-guard by both an internal revolt by employees against the company’s LGBTQ workforce and their allies and was then pummeled by both sides of the controversy when he did speak out. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed him for being “woke” in his opposition to the legislation while the LGBTQ-focused Human Rights Campaign rejected his $5 million corporate donation for not being vocal enough o the issue.

The Florida controversy was the first test for Chapek’s new chief communications officer, Geoff Morrell, who serves as Pentagon press secretary during the George W. Bush administration’s Iraq war. Whether Chapek has the right ally in any attempt to improve his public-facing image remains to be seen. It's unclear if Morrell brought Bush-era indifference to LGBTQ rights to Chapek’s handling of the controversy.

And Chapek and Morrell have another potential political firestorm that is being sparked by the National Legal and Policy Center, an activist shareholder who accused the company of "complicity in China genocide" and demanded that it conduct an annual due diligence report "evaluating the human rights impacts of its business and associations with foreign entities."

If there is a nugget of golden advice that Iger shared with Chapek — and any corporate leader, for the matter — it might be to stay as far ahead of the proverbial curve as possible and not be pummeled by those questioning the direction being mapped out.

“A leader has to declare what transformation is necessary and then be more resolute than you can imagine,” Iger said. “In other words: ‘This is the direction we are going in, and everybody needs to get out of your way.’ Essentially, you don’t take no for an answer.”

Photo of Bob Chapek courtesy of Disney