Mount Rushmore: Disney Succession
From the 2017 archives: Seven years ago, Iger was only on his third delay in finding a replacement; the Paramount-Skydance deal that wasn't; Sony's search for a new CEO
This week we introduced Mount Rushmore, a series of encore columns from Richard Rushfield with resonance today. On Feb. 8, 2017, just months into The Ankler’s birth in what Richard called its “super-special Beta era,” he took on a number of topics that now, seven years later, are incredibly still with us.
Yesterday, Disney inched forward — yet again! — with a succession plan for CEO Bob Iger, with the Disney board naming James Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s executive chair, to lead the succession planning committee (and in a rare move, ousting the current director, Mark Parker, from his role chairing the committee). What is Disney succession if not without high drama?
Gorman ran a high-profile process last year to replace himself after 13 years as CEO of the $163 billion market cap investment bank. During his time leading Morgan Stanley, its business had grown much more complex (sound familiar?), and Gorman ran a process to name his successor from three internal candidates “methodically — and somewhat publicly” according to Fortune. It also played out in a mere five months after he said he’d step down in a year.
So, as we await the next plot twist in Hollywood’s longest running spinoff, Succession: Disney, it felt apt to revisit Richard’s acid commentary on the state of Iger’s efforts to replace himself a mere . . . seven and a half years ago. Plus, given that almost everyone reading this was not an Ankler subscriber at that time and this edition is not readily available on the internet (Richard wrote his early Ankler straight into an email to friends, not on a platform), stick around as well for the Skydance-Paramount-Pitt-Fincher drama from back in the day, and the era’s hunt for a new CEO at Sony! And much much more.
Enjoy and let us know what you think.
Slightly abridged from the archives of Feb. 2017, with a few pieces of new art. Note Richard’s OG logo.
OPENING STATEMENT: If there’s anything we’ve learned from the Oscars, it’s that there’s nothing Hollywood likes more than the heartwarming redemption tale of a past his prime producer, executive, star or director, ripped from premature obsolescence to ride back in to save the day, again.
For the past few weeks, what with Trumpian dystopia madness, Streaming Babylon, disgruntled overlords from the far east and from up north, it’s really seemed like it might just be curtains this time for poor old Hollywood.
But suddenly, it feels like we might be a little less doomed — like we’ve got a ray of, to quote Star Wars, hope.
Because the rest of the world might have their newfangled apps and global dominance, but we’ve got some of the most well-liked executives anywhere in media, and they’re not giving up so easy. So get ready for your third act entertainment industry: The late-middle aged baby boomer hero execs are going to kick ass and file some revised quarterly projections!
Bye of the Iger
Yes, he said, on the Disney Q1 (disappointing) earnings call, “We have a good, strong succession process underway.”
But on the other hand, when you’ve got a good, strong process like that in place, what you really want to do is sit back and enjoy it; savor the process, perhaps with a good Cabernet.
Knowing how important it is to let these processes bubble and percolate and rise in their own time, Robert Iger revealed that he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. If it must be so, he would be willing to extend his time as Disney CEO a bit longer. But for heaven’s sake not because he wants to. No no no. This is about what’s best for Disney. As he said in response to a question from an analyst: