When Bob became CEO of Disney in 2005, he inherited a hostile takeover attempt, shareholder revolt, board conflict, and fizzling performance. Since then, he has overseen 202% shareholder return through 2013 (stock price raised from $23.81 to $79.23) and a market cap of $130 Billion. When accepting the award he said, “One of the real reasons why Disney is so successful today is that we look at change as an opportunity, not as a disruption. We believe that it’s really important for us to welcome change because we’ve learned that resisting it, trying to will it away is futile – and trying to protect the status quo – that’s never really a winning strategy.”
How did he grow the company to $45B and 175,000 employees? Some key decisions:
• After buying Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 Billion, Marvel in 2009 for $4 Billion, and Star Wars in 2012 (in addition to the previously purchased ESPN and ABC), he decentralized them to individual business units;
• Invested in a huge market potential by building Shanghai Disney resort;
In preparing for his successor, he identified two succession candidates: Thomas Staggs and Jay Rasulo. He had them switch roles between CFO and Resorts Chairman a couple years ago to better prepare both of them on operations and financials.
May the force be with Bob!
