How Disney was built on the back of Bob Iger’s relationship building capacity?
Disney bought Pixar in Jan 2006..
Disney bought Marvel in 2009..
Disney bought Lucas Films in 2012..
All these buyouts were in billions of dollars and on the face of it, one would think that it was simply money being offered on the table which sealed the deal…
However things don’t really work like that…
In 2005, Bob Iger, a top guy and later the big boss at Disney knew that animation was the way forward for Disney…but his team was not upto the levels that he wanted them to be..
His philosophy of having the best people on the job was being tested because he realized that the best were working with Pixar under Steve Jobs — the eccentric personality who did not give a damm about the bureaucratic Disney bosses..
But Bob had a previous history with Steve Jobs…
During an earlier episode in their lives, Steve Jobs had pitched the idea of putting Disney video content on Apple Ipods..Bob was in sync and had the content up and ready within 5 days..This quick turnaround time by cutting across bureaucracy in a large legacy organization had left an imprint on Job’s mind…he knew Bob was the guy who could get things done and understood the power of technology…
So when Bob reached out to him in November of 2005 with the bold plan of buying Pixar and bringing it under the Disney stable, Jobs could not refuse…he had belief in Iger and once the common goals were realized the deal was inked within months…
Later the Lucas Films buyout would also be facilitated by Jobs assuring George Lucas that the Bob and his team at Disney were exactly the kind of people that the creative industry needed and for storytelling to go forward…
In effect, it was the relationship building capability of Bob which led Disney to lofty heights..a trait which often gets lost out under the billions of dollars…
