On this episode of Back To Biz, Katie Couric talks with Bob Iger, executive chairman of Disney. During his tenure as CEO, Disney acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, and launched their immediately popular streaming service Disney +. In February 2020, Bob announced that he would be stepping back as CEO, but when the pandemic hit the U.S., he found he couldn’t step back quite as far as he imagined. Katie hears about how he helped steer the complex company through the pandemic, and also gets into his early career as a weatherman and a production assistant, what he’s learned from his mentors, how he thinks technology is changing the way people consume media, how he responds to criticism of CEO salaries in a time of increasing income inequality, and much more.
Disney + racked up more than 60 million subscribers since it launched in November; Katie wonders why Disney didn’t get into the streaming game earlier. Bob says it’s easier said than done: When an innovative idea might not be profitable right away, and completely disrupts your existing businesses in the meantime, it’s extremely difficult to get all the stakeholders involved on board. But it was inevitable: “Technology has completely disrupted the way people consume media and entertainment,” he points out; the consumer has more authority than ever before about what they watch, how they watch it, when they watch it, and how much they’ll pay for it. “The industry needs to pay heed to that, and go where the consumer is.”
His rise from weatherman in Ithaca, New York to the head of ABC News to the CEO and now executive chairman of Disney would be impressive in any context, but Bob did it all while maintaining a reputation for being “one of the nicest guys to work for.” How did he manage that? Katie wants to know. Bob replies that it’s not about being nice; it’s about being kind. “Kindness is recognizing the human being in everyone and never forgetting that….I think it’s an important quality in a leader.” He shares some of the most important lessons he’s learned from his mentors, the secret he kept for Steve Jobs, the time he had to deliver Listerine to Frank Sinatra, if he’ll ever seek political office, and how he feels about the polarization in journalism; hear all these incredible insights and many more from one of the most successful businessmen in the country on this episode of Back To Biz.
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