Disney Reportedly Considering “Radical Shake-Up”: “They Bet on the Right Horse at the Wrong Time”

The future of the Walt Disney Company seems quite uncertain, leaving Disney CEO Bob Iger with a sticky situation on his hands.

Bob Iger, the current CEO of the Walt Disney Company, is a name synonymous with visionary leadership and success. His tenure at the helm of the entertainment giant solidified his place as a transformative figure in the industry, and he carved out a name for himself in Disney history. Mr. Iger is most well known for his ability to take risks, which led to acquisitions like Pixar and even 20th Century Fox.

However, Disney has been navigating choppy waters lately, and some are questioning whether the company will have to take some “radical” steps to make it work.

A recent article for The Guardian questioned the possibility of the Walt Disney Company and Disney CEO Mr. Iger bringing the company back to even a fraction of its reputation during its heyday.

When Disney CEO Bob Iger returned to the helm, his job was to clean up the mess left in former Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s wake. “There is a lot to do,” Iger is known to have told staff at the meeting heralding his official return.

“The challenges we are seeing for all media conglomerates reflects the pace of change in the world, which necessitates a new approach for everybody,” Josh Berger, former president of Warner Bros UK, Ireland, and Spain, shared. “We are still experiencing the convulsions from the onset of the digitization of media, the most profound of which has been the streaming revolution. It is a different economic landscape, and big traditional media companies, who haven’t been known to move incredibly quickly, are just trying to keep pace.”

Not only this, but other analysts have more to add about how transformative this time is for the Mouse House. “Disney is one of the most successful companies and brands in the history of the world, but it is now facing a fork in the road,” says Dan Ives, analyst at US-based Wedbush. “Disney has faced many challenges in its 100 years, but this is the defining period.”

Disney’s struggles with maintaining profitability for its streaming business is well known. It’s not entirely surprising, despite fans’ frustration with the situation, that Disney has been cracking down on password sharing and increasing costs for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, although this has led to many unhappy customers canceling their subscriptions altogether.

“They bet on the right horse at the wrong time in terms of streaming and the digital business,” Dan Ives added.

The question remains: Will Bob Iger actually manage to bring Disney out of its funk and deliver it into the next phase? the CEO’s track record paints a fairly hopeful picture.

How Did Bob Iger Become CEO of the Walt Disney Company?

Robert Iger’s career began in the 1970s when he landed a job as a weatherman for a local television station. In 1974, Iger joined the American Broadcasting Company (ABC)—which would later be acquired by the Walt Disney Company during Michael Eisner’s time. Mr. Iger explains in his biography that his first task was performing menial labor on television sets for $150 a week (now over $700, adjusted for inflation).

Bob Iger was an ambitious and intelligent worker, though, and he rose through the ranks. For example, in 1988, Mr. Iger served as the senior program executive for the Calgary Winter Olympics.

After this, Bob Iger served as the President of ABC between 1994 and 1995 and followed this by serving as president and chief operating officer (COO) of Capital Cities/ABC from 1995 until its acquisition by Disney in 1996.

Bob Iger was an astute businessman and incredibly charismatic, and perhaps for these reasons, was named president of Disney in 2000, succeeding Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005, after a slightly tragic end to Eisner’s reign.

How Many Times Has Bob Iger Been CEO of Disney?

Bob Iger has been the CEO of Disney twice. His first stint at the helm ran fifteen years, from September 30, 2005, to February 25, 2020. In that time, he set himself apart from his predecessors by taking some calculated risks that paid off for Disney in the long run—think the acquisition of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, etc.

Mr. Iger’s second stint began on November 20, 2022, and is presently continuing. He was brought back to man the ship after former Disney CEO Bob Chapek was ousted from his position due to the financial straits the company found itself in at the time.