Robert Iger, Chairman & CEO, The Walt Disney Company, 4/14/15

so now it's my pleasure to introduce our moderator and our guest for this evening so it's gonna be returned in a minute here melody Hobson is president of Ariel Investments a money management firm where she is responsible for firm-wide management and strategic planning overseeing all operations outside of research and portfolio management melody is an advocate for financial literacy and is a regular CBS News contributor on financial issues melody also serves on numerous boards including DreamWorks Animation SKG the Estee Lauder companies and Starbucks she is very civically involved here in Chicago serving as chair of afterschool matters a not-for-profit that provides chicago teens with high quality out-of-school time programs she's a board member of the Lukas museum of need of narrative art the Chicago publication the Chicago Public Education Fund and Sundance Institute where she's been appointed emeritus trustee melody is an active member of the Economic Club currently serving on the program committee and we're delighted that she's agreed to mama to moderate tonight's conversation tonight's honored guest speaker is Bob Iger chairman and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company which represents the world's largest media company and and many respected and beloved brands around the globe his strategic vision for the Walt Disney Company focuses on three fundamental pillars generating the best creative content possible fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology and expanding into new markets around the world during Bob's tenure the Walt Disney Company has been recognized as one of the most reputable companies in both America and the world by Forbes magazine for the last eight years running Bob himself has been named one of Fortune Magazine's 25 most powerful people in business one of the top gun' CEOs by Forbes magazine and the 2014 CEO of the Year by chief executive magazine bob serves on numerous boards including Apple the us-china Business Council the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Inc and in June 2010 President Barack Obama invited appointed him to the President's Export Council which advises the on how to promote US export jobs and growth Bob's also a member of the partnership for a new American economy a coalition of Mayors and business leaders from across the United States that supports comprehensive immigration reform ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming Bob Iger and Mellody Hobson I wouldn't go back to the beginning twenty four-year-old weatherman on local television yes I was a weatherman what were you thinking your life was going to be well I always had a desire to be a newscaster and in the in the 70s late 60s early 70s it was all about being Walter Cronkite and so that was my that was my dream job so I started out at the very bottom I guess weather is the bottom where I worked had really bad weather so I wasn't the most popular guy in the world I taught predictor well I taught me how to give people bad news I know that and I discovered pretty early on that the career that I dreamed of at least in terms of being a journalist a television journalist was not going to pan out the way I thought because frankly the feedback was not that great that wasn't as talented as I thought I was so I gave it up and I became a production assistant at ABC actually at 23 in 1974 and so 41 years ago I joined the company which ultimately was bought by Disney in the mid 90s so you're a production assistant and you're just thinking it's a job then I'm enjoying it well it was at least in television which is where I wanted to work I had no idea where it was going to take me I didn't know really what I wanted to be at that point but I showed up one day in the summer of 1974 eager to work and I guess there is this history is this you know looking back it's it's it's interesting because it's an odyssey of sorts in terms of the places I've been and the things I've seen things I've been able to do but in in another sense it just happened so fast that it's almost hard to you know get a grasp of exactly exactly how I got where I am today it just happens you know it's there's one day at a time one week at a time one job at a time and suddenly you find yourself writing the Walt Disney Company the success I mean let's jump to today from the weatherman to the CEO you've been CEO since 2005 the results are stunning the breathtaking I mean record stock price record revenues record EPS I mean I could go through the list your your return under your ten-year over 400% the S&P 500 just over a hundred pushing one hundred and seven dollars a share in stock price when you started you were in the low 20s I mean this is a phenomenal story and yet I read you say that part of the reason you think that you were so successful is because you had the ability to embrace your failure what failure have you seen in this story I mean I can't find any well over the course of a 41 year career there are many things that I've done that didn't work out and sometimes it was you know through fault of mine just some bad decision-making fortunately nothing that brought me down I guess in terms of my career I'm a big believer in in facing up to your shortcomings and an admitting mistake I was able to do that yeah at a young age right I remember working at ABC Sports where I spent 13 years of my life at one point running a program called Wide World of Sports which is ironic this was about the thrill of victory and the agony to feed my experience both and and making a big mistake we had post-mortem meetings on a weekly basis to see what we did right and what we did wrong in the weekend sports and something went terribly wrong and the guy was running ABC Sports at the timer in Arledge said what happened and I said well was my fault and the room was silent and I I must have been 24 at the time and I realized that no one in the room it had ever said that but I lived to tell it you know I lived to tell more tales and to work more days and that was very empowering I'm just a big believer in like you you don't get where you are that were where I am today by doing everything right you learn a lot from your mistakes and and I you know perfectly willing to admit the day that they've occurred and so when you looked in the last 10 years of CEO is there something where he said dang I just missed this I wish I had done this better that you can think of you're putting a lot of pressure on me now well sure I mean in the 10 years you know we've had movies that have failed things that a lot that I am things that I said yes to that didn't work that caused you know losses and that would be considered significant for most businesses you know a lot of things that you know you you what happens in jobs like this you you say no to a lot of things and you're really glad looking back you said no to and they kind of fade into the past and you don't even remember what they were and you said yes the things that had that produced wild success and yes the things that didn't give you I give you an example you know we made a movie called Lone Ranger a few years ago it doesn't sound big but it I think lost a couple hundred million dollars that's a big number fortunately it was followed by our first Avengers movie which made a billion six or something like that quickly so I owned up to the failure of Lone Ranger but everybody forgot about it very fast I remember by the way I put a show on at ABC fond of talking about this somehow or another I got it into my head that there was room in America in the 90s for a for a television musical not a special or a movie but a series so I put a singing police musical on ABC called cop rock which lasted for 11 weeks and is gone and I've but I you know you learn from these things and I learned by the way that don't make us singing the police musical haven't done another one no one has done another but isn't it particularly important in a creative environment to be careful about you how you handle mistakes because you need that creativity that thrive so how do you deal with that with the people around you well that's a very good question what happens in a company like ours that's driven by creativity mostly almost everything we do starts with a creative idea and finishes with a creative endeavor that either the world likes or doesn't like and there's no science to it I'm not actually a big believer in even trying to apply science to it which most cases involves research it's people's passion people's vision create a vision people's instinct and the ability as a company to give people the chance to fulfill those creative visions or passions or instincts and so with creativity comes the inevitable failure failures and there have been there have been a lot of them over the years and you have to in our business learn how to tolerate those if you don't then people just don't want to create in the environment that you're giving them because it's too on it can't be unforgiving creativity must be a forgiving environment meaning forgiving of mistakes and failure it has to be now if someone fails time and time and time again it doesn't mean they're never going to be successful again but you start to think twice about giving them more room or more freedom but for the most part when there's failure it can be followed very quickly by the same people with incredible success and I like running an environment that is that recognizes the inevitability of failure that recognizes the fact that usually particularly the creative side as a result of mistakes that are honest mistakes in a sense I like giving people second chances for that by the way even on the business side and not really ringing hands over it or second-guessing it I mean I'm fine saying well why did we make Lone Ranger because in the end I'm the only one that I could have stopped it but I haven't beaten anybody up for making it no one at the studio still don't don't make another Western or don't try that again you know it just doesn't make sense to do that just and so I like the fact that at Disney it's okay to to try new things to bring us great ideas and we all hope for the best but no it doesn't work all the time and it doesn't mean you can't come back and try again well I want to pick up on this idea of trying new things because technology innovation I mean you're on the cover of fortune as it related to technology some people think of you as being the chief technology officer of Disney because you don't have one individual you have the CEOs within the business unit but technology has been a big driver of success for you at Disney and I read in your most recent shareholder letter you said there has been more transformational change in the last five years than in the 35 years of my career combined yes and you were talking about innovation and technology no you were super early in embracing these changes I don't know if most people know that you were the first media company to give content to iTunes you gave them reruns of Desperate Housewives and lost yeah and you saw something that I mean people were appalled at the time that you did that I mean you got heat from everyone mm-hmm what are you saying and what did you see then that has made this idea of technology trying new things in an innovation be so front and center for you well I'll go all the way back I'll cover the decision on with Apple but I'll go all the way back to the time that I got this job where I was asked by the board and a pretty rigorous succession process what direction I believe the company needed to go what were my probably what would my priorities be what strategy what strategies would we deploy at the company to move it forward and it was clear that as I mentioned before that from a value proposition perspective is mostly about creativity and storytelling but we had been through a rough decade at the company for a variety of reasons we were challenged and one of the things that we were not I don't think managing particularly well was the changes that were starting to occur in the media space from created by technology it was there were disruptions already visible but not nearly as profound as I was quoted as saying in the last five years and so a decision I thought needed to be made are we going to view technology as foe or friend would it be vast challenge or would it be vast opportunity and it occurred to me that when I looked at the businesses and I looked at the history of the company that technology really drove a lot of the company's success even though storytelling was the headline well going all the way to back to Walt Disney's day and some of the technologies he used to make great animated films as a for instance or the technologies that were deployed in our theme parks early on whether it was ride technology would be an example and so I felt part of it came from within because I was just curious and a lover of technology that we should declare technology as opportunity and friend and not the opposite and I'll start with creativity and George Lucas your husband is a perfect example of this one of the world's great storytellers yet one of the most effective people at using technology to tell stories and even more profound greater more more dramatic ways the technology is an unbelievably used well is an incredibly powerful tool for the storyteller if a storyteller has a vision often they will challenge the techni technologists to deliver the technology to help them fulfill that vision you look at the visuals of frozen and how you make snow in an animated fashion to make it looks or ice to make it look so real or you go all the way back it's every flake is different in the movie yes and you go all the way back to Star Wars in 1977 and George had a vision and wanted to tell a story and what he used from a technology standpoint enabled him to do that and had he not used technology the story I don't think would not would have been as memorable as compelling as effective as it was so the first thing I thought we should do is let's it let's embrace technology to tell better stories that was one second we were in a world that was starting to change in terms of access to storytelling and distribution of story telling Walt Disney was fond of saying that the purview of the storyteller would be much wider thanks to modern telecommunications and technology and boy was he right so we were starting to see like iTunes these incredibly new robust platforms that we could use to deliver our stories to more people in more places in a much more accessible way and you think about the last maybe not five years but ten years of mobile technology so for instance well that I could sit two weeks ago in a hotel room in Shanghai and watching ESPN basketball game on my iPad and so for instance or that you can watch well Desperate Housewives on a video iPod so I thought wow how phenomenal is this going to be we have all these great stories and people are going to be able to enjoy them more often so let's put them let's go where the people are or where the technology could take us in terms of accessing more people and so stepping up and it was viewed as unbelievably disruptive because what you're doing is you're challenging the the parent of the current business models whether it's the motion pictures or the television affiliates cable systems satellite systems the big-box retailers had issues because of the sale of DVDs everybody felt challenged but I'm also a big believer in be it disrupt yourself you're gonna get disrupted anyway you might as well do it to yourself because one you'll control it a little bit more but you'll learn more about it faster and those lessons are will be really valuable and then of course the third in terms of technology is getting closer to the customer and knowing who they are giving them product that's more customized more personalized using personal information obviously to grow your business as well really important but just generally making the creating an intimacy with a customer that we never had before the technology is enabling so you mentioned ESPN 95 million households ten years from now will there be cable well I think ten years from now people will get television channels and you're already seeing this in many different ways one they won't be as linear in nature - you won't have to watch them as is already the case on a fixed television set in your home or in a bar or whatever if it's sports 3 you won't have to necessarily subscribe to cable or satellite you could and get a bundle of channels and that could be fine for millions of people around the world but there are many people that may not want it that way they just may want a subscription just to sports or the ESPN or they may want to watch just for a weekend or a week or a month and that W the unbundling that no because they yes pianist gets the more the highest per cell right yes yes yeah and gets on a further would have called expanded basic channels ESPN gets the highest sub fees in the land yes and drives a huge revenue from that because their primary reach to customers is through that multi channel subscription model which is great and I hope it lasts forever but it's not going to there's too much disruption out there it will last forever for a lot of people but it's no longer a one-size-fits-all world where you can't just expect that everybody's going to accept everything the same way there will be people that want it completely differently either for economic purposes or whatever they also there's a lot more authorities now in the hands of the customer than ever before the the creator and the distributor have less power authority than they used to that's because of Technology so embrace that change allow it to happen but it also I think has shaped us as a company in terms of the businesses that were in in particular the focus on what I'll call branded content or entertainment I think in a world with such disruption and with far more choice than ever before there's a great there's a even greater value of brands now you can't rest on brand laurels you still have to nurture brands and feed them but when you think about Disney today and you think about Disney you think about Lucas star you think about Pixar you think about Marvel you think about ESPN those are really popular powerful valuable primarily entertainment brands that people will want provided we do the right things creatively forever no matter how they get them no matter where they get them it's no longer it's not going to be about the distribution mechanism or even the device and I think that so we believe that and again it's been fairly purposeful that we're pretty well positioned to weather the called a storm of disruption I'd try not to even though I know I'm a weather man talk about it refer to as a storm as much as it is you know change of climate so human just Star Wars I can't overlook that one the first time I've been in a room with George where there was reference to Star Wars on a screen and he's sitting there I must admit to being just a little nervous well we'll ask him later and what he thinks so tell me about I remember the breakfast you can tell the story Disney worlds that you were opening up your ride and the three of us went to a restaurant that was shut down Brown Derby Brown Derby we were the only three people in there in the restaurant I have that power it's kind of yeah it's pretty crazy breakfast and there was no one in the restaurant it was just a table for three people so you said do you ever saw the company we'd buy it mm-hmm George said you never know maybe he was kind of casual about it you were kind of casual about it we went onto the next subject you had the Pirates of Caribbean coming up that weekend Arum and we were talking about that and now you own it tell me about the heat of Star Wars because I was astounded by 110 million downloads of a trailer that was released on Thanksgiving and then 40 million fan films were made about the trailer this is insane I mean I've never seen well look it says once it says greatness really that's actually does that worry you or you think slam dunk no I never think slam dunk but I don't and I'll live my whole life worried I care but I don't worry I have a very strong sense of response an obligation or a sense of great responsibility but I think you have to start with you think of the world that or the businesses that we're in and you could call them crown jewels however you want to call them but there are just a few things out there that not only have risen above over the years but continue to remain above all the din everything else all of that choice and it's usually because they are so great and they come with you know an extremely passionate fan base and there's not only a love of a love affair for them but they're part of people's lives and what Star Wars is and I must say it has exceeded my expectations I had a strong sense but I had no idea that it was this strong Star Wars stands out if I've thought about it a lot I've done a lot of learn I've never been on there's been a lot of learning even since that breakfast you think about the great mythology that's been created over centuries in this world and you think about it be focused just on the 20th century it's probably the greatest mythology that was created in the 20th century and to have the opportunity to even be associated with it isn't just incredible as a company as an individual and in thinking about what the Walt Disney Company might be able to invest in we think about growth a lot that goes back to my belief that it should all start with great creativity great storytelling and high-quality brands there's really nothing that is on that level really and what you did the statistics that you cited the number of downloads for a teaser trailer that I think was 88 seconds long I came out just after Thanksgiving I think speaks volumes so I thought when I you know we're lucky as a company that success has delivered a lot of capital and we think hard one of my big responsibilities of CEO is how do we deploy that capital to create more value for shareholders over time but I also think about it in terms of how do we keep a company that was created by Walt Disney in 1923 and a brand relevant not just successful but relevant and popular not just in the United States but all over the world was the global interest that we've had he's in part because we believe that some of these stories in today's world can be told even more broadly than ever before and so I thought if we ever had a chance to own Star Wars well I I don't think there was anything else that came close and so with a fair amount of nervousness I will admit I may not have seemed it at the breakfast but I know we were we were reopening Star Tours which is very successful attraction that we had at Disneyland in California and in Disney World and we've also had also have it in other parks Oh Tokyo and France and I knew George was going to be there to dedicate it so I decided to go down and dedicate it with him as I thought have an opportunity to sit with George who I've known since the mid 90s going back to ABC putting on a show called young Indiana Jones and just broach the subject that if he ever had a thought about selling a company that I knew was you know very much a part of him that we would be interested I thought we would not only be a good steward for the brand and the storytelling just generally be a good home and that we would respect it because it deserved it very very obviously you know very hard thing it's part of your life now and I took it really seriously and and as you know George and I talked again some six to eight or nine months later I guess what after he thought about it more it's his story to tell too and we worked out a deal that led to the acquisition and when I think about you know the things that I've been able to do in this job buying Pixar from Steve Jobs in 2006 and buying Marvel in 2009 and buying Lucas in 2012 and the stories yet to be told really about our stewardship of Star Wars because the first movie will be out in December and so we haven't proven but the other great it has and they far exceeded our expectations and we believe with those we've managed to respect the value that was created not alienate core fans create growth in numerous ways and you know and deliver the returns and then some that we thought we would when we invested we hope the same about one other movie so frozen yes before we do that I can adjust I will say that this week is Star Wars Celebration in relay and Anaheim which is a fan convention of sorts that we don't really run it just runs and I'm told it's it's a religious experience I've actually been celebration before I'm going and we actually announced today that we're we're gonna webcast it for fans around the world to see it because they cast and the director of the Star Wars The Force awakens which is the first film were sorry with a seventh film in the Star Wars storytelling will come out in December and we're showing them for the first time I think it's a minute 27 second teaser trailer another one that will be shown to them and then it will come out with Avengers on May 1st in the United States and I'm hoping that there is they're gonna rise from their seats after they see this trailer again I'm gonna be there when they see it it's probably in a costume as what are you both fat I haven't decided I think I'll just be a stormtrooper maybe I don't know it's my face so speaking of another movie frozen unexpected success I mean giant yes I have to ask just the most inane question why do all the toddlers love Elsa and that gets no toddler love well that's that all the costumes were also hurt yes wildly exceeded our expectation of dresses all by the way the calls that I got from extremely important people in the world looking who I had to have an Elsa dress for Christmas or whatever it's fascinating I'm sorry that I wasn't a dressmaker I can't made a lot of money I think if you look at that story but it did also was sort of the bad girl even though she becomes the heroine at the end of the story and she and she had the power and she was more the protagonist and Anna was sort of the good girl very perfect now yes extremely perky and of course I also had that great let it go number and that dress well I heard the parents you know because it's on repeat they hate the song because they've heard it so much I'm not gonna bit that so I wishes let it go I guess right right let's let it go you some people say Disney Shanghai is going to be your capstone that if you looked at the investments that Disney has made the biggest investment had ever made was an ABC almost twenty billion dollars then Pixar at seven just over seven and third supposedly is the expense of Shanghai no we're not supposedly it is third and you say the castle is the biggest castle the the you know that it's going to surprise delight and amaze people as never before why so much attention time energy on this one part well first of all money you're looking about at China the most populous country in the world billion three plus people and Shanghai the most populous city in the world and in 1998 or 1999 I was head of Disney International and Michael Eisner gave me the task of paving a road so to speak to build a park in Shanghai we were just developing and building getting ready to build a park in Hong Kong but my mission the mission that I was given was to plant a Disney Land stake in China and so I started an exploration really with the government of China really I guess in 99 that led to a 10-year negotiation ten years that led to an agreement with the government of China that led to a groundbreaking that has led to a colossal construction job right now to build to take Disneyland that iconic experience and brand that Walt Disney created opened in 1955 fact we're gonna celebrate the 60th anniversary keep mentioning George but he was there an opening day but to be able to take Disneyland to Shanghai to China felt to me like not only an unbelievable accomplishment for the company but what an opportunity because the Disneyland the Disneyland experience is where people experience our brand in the most immersive way and so the connection to Disney and the characters and the storytelling the experience it's so memorable and I thought the only way China will appreciate Disney yes they appreciate frozen and Cinderella is a huge success there and we and we bring our movies and you can buy Mickey t-shirts and Elsa dresses and some of our TV shows are available the only way we could really I'll call it embed the brand or plant the brand was a digit with a park and so it's if isn't necessarily going to be a book but if I ever write a long story I'll tell this story because I've dealt with three presidents of China and a few vice presidents and multiple party secretaries and mayors and other government officials because the government's our partner and we now today probably right now we have probably about 12,000 construction workers living and working on the site building a park that's going to open in about a year we said spring of 2016 and I'm my excitement is enormous but they're too any responsibility is huge we have got to get this right and the charge that I gave to everyone there was let's build something people have said well what did we bring Disney Land to China is it's the same as an Anaheim what is it what are you doing and so I actually I came up with these words because I had need we needed a press release when when we announced the deal let's build something that is authentically Disney but distinctly Chinese and that's what we're doing that became the I guess the mandate for our Disney Imagineers who really build design this and the stories in it and the food and the iconography and the languages that we use and the storytelling and the experiences and the creators we have a lot of shows that are directed by Chinese artists a lot of performers so it will really be authentically Disney but distinctly Chinese there will be a castle there will not be a Main Street the Main Street in our parks was modeled after a street in Marceline Missouri which is where Walt Disney grew up actually he was born in Chicago but I didn't think that bringing Main Street USA to China in 2016 made sense at all I thought there was it wreaked a little bit of cultural imperialism which I wanted to avoid but they loved Mickey Mouse and interestingly enough the government wanted they want Disney and the people want Disney but we can't go in and and and not be respectful of mindful of a huge amount of Chinese spirit and nationalism which includes pride in their own culture and a desire to own their own culture very very tricky yeah but I'm feeling good about it but there's a we have a lot to do still a lot of responsibility I want to shift gears and ask you about some people so the first person I want to ask you about is Steve Jobs you ended up having a very close relationship with him and there's a new book that's out that says for the first time that 30 minutes before the deal was to be announced the purchase of Pixar he told you that his cancer was back that he swore you to secrecy yeah and that the only people who knew were his wife and doctors and even his own children didn't know and I read you responded why are you telling me this what was going through your mind at that point well we were we had done the deal to buy Pixar 7.3 billion dollars and I was obviously really excited about that but fairly nervous I was I was named CEO at Disney in 2005 and I became CEO in October October 1 and my first board meeting as CEO I actually approached the subject with the board of buying sar but you don't quite do was the your first meeting as CEO but there was a sense of urgency right because it had been a disastrous relationship before that I've had a rough elation coming up they were you needed them we had a rough relationship with Pixar that had led to a lot of value but was not only fraying but announced that it was ending and then I came and I wanted to create a bridge with Steve in some form to see whether it's salvageable and I had spent a few months trying to figure that out in a typical Steve fashion he was trying to figure it out in a way that made a lot of sense to him and very little to us and not quite in the same vein as bringing up with George the possibility of buying Lucas but not all that far off I called him one day and I said I've really got a crazy idea we're trying to figure out how to keep a partnership alive I got it I want I'm thinking something else and I said what is it I said it's really crazy he said well what is it I said what if we buy Pixar there was a pause I was actually really nervous and they said well that isn't the craziest idea in the world why don't you come up and we'll talk about it and we stood at a whiteboard and the Apple boardroom for about five hours listing pros and cons and getting into all kinds of things and we ended up closing a deal so that led to I can't remember was January or February of 6 when we had done the deal our boards Pixar was a public company that Steve owned 50% of but our boards had approved it we were gathering at Pixar for the announcement we had called members of the press members of the investment community Wall Street etc to tell them that we were gonna have a press conference and he said I'd like to take let's go for a walk and I thought he either wants more money because I knew he was capable of asking or he's changed his mind and I was just I was really trying to figure it out what if one of what's in store we sat on a bench at Pixar he put his arm around me I didn't really know Steve that well but we had created a very quick trust that led to him selling and he was becoming our largest shareholder - and he said that he had had pink it announced it had operable pancreatic cancer which is rare in 2005 2004 rather and he had had had operate he was operated on he announced that it had been cured and this was 2006 and he said I need you to know that my cancer has returned and I I was stunned and I did say why are you telling me he said I'm giving you a chance to back out of the deal and I looked at my watch and I realized it was 12:30 and we were announcing it at 1 o'clock and that words know and everything and I'm and I'm bah bah it's just me meaning and I thought he said to me I I feel that I'm about to become your largest shareholder and you may not want to go forward with this with this knowledge and I said you need to tell me more and he told me they didn't no one had known and I he said well what do you mean I said how long are you gonna live do you know and he said I have a 50/50 chance of living for five years and he said but I am determined to live to see my son Reed graduate high school so when does he graduate he said four years you were very practical with your question I had the cockpit there was this beating there was a clock that was ticking very loudly and then I'm thinking you know it was the post Enron era where you've got all these responsibilities in terms of what you disclosed publicly and I'm trying I can see all these things flying at me - what responsibility did I have he says I need I'm taking into my confidence you can't tell anybody can I even say yes to that and go through through with the deal you did tell your GC I did so anyway he seemed so committed to living I know that sounds really odd but this one this is a guy we know is when it was one of the most determined people in the world at least I had seen that and known that and I just believed I just believed in him and I didn't know for sure and nor did he but I thought if anybody's going to try to overcome this it's going to be Steve and so I said we can't back out of the deal I don't even know what I would tell what would I tell my board I spent four months convincing him to let me spend 7.3 billion dollars and I say 30 minutes after you know before I'm sorry cold feet not you know not happening couldn't happen without my telling the truth so we broke up what walked back to our collective groups to get ready for the announcement and I called my general counsel and I said listen I know it worked for me for a long time I trusted him this is between us what do I do do we back out of the deal or not and we quickly determined that we were buying Pixar not Steve and the assets we were buying we're really Pixar in the films and the directors and their ideas and their technology and their building and and we agreed that we did not have an obligation at all to tell anybody and we didn't so you were so close at one point I read that he told his wife I love that guy and he asked you to take his seat well what happened was I didn't know her half of the story but he died in October of 2011 five years after we did the deal five and a half and there was a very small burial in Stanford or Palo Alto and I think Steve must have done the invitation list of people who could go to the cemetery and I was one of them and we convened that a plot of land in the cemetery or I'm not sure I'm allowed to say where it is and Lorraine asked whether people wanted to speak and it was clear that I didn't have much of a choice Steve Jobs funeral and I don't have it and I haven't come with prepared remarks and I've got to talk and I told this story about what happened that day as a means of describing him as a truly honorable person I had another story which was described me as a truly crazy person did both and when it ended Lorraine came to me and said that night when you announced the Pixar deal he came home for dinner and we went through dinner and at the end of dinner she has Steve well did you tell him and he said well what do you mean she said did you tell Bob about your cancer because they had discussed he had asked her permission and he said I did and she said can we trust this guy we barely know him and he said to her this is her words to me I love that guy so that's where that came from it didn't he didn't never told me he loved when you were told he wanted you to take his seat well he asked me before he died like you can't say no right well he asked me before he died we had one of these memorable sessions and might have been the last time I saw him alive if I would join the Apple board which I could not do while he was a member of Disney's Board you know because the interlocking boards and they don't let that happen anymore everybody gets too cozy I guess and so it was it was out of the question that I could join his board while he was on the Disney board and he said I'd like you to join the board after I go and he gave me to us and I said well you're not gonna make that decision he said oh yes I will we had that discussion did we go to governance I know I was asked so either at the cemetery Tim Cook who was CEO and the chairman of the board art Levinson approached me and asked me to join the board and then Wow at the cemetery at the cemetery and but what I said to Steve was so Steve said but I've got if you join well when you join he must have said I have two assignments for you you might get a kick out of this being on a board or boards and so what are they and he said you when I die you can't let the board try to run Apple because you know boards can't run companies and I said well thanks okay I know that boards can't run companies but I have never even been in the on the bored of Apple and I said what's the other assignment he said well Tim Cook is going to be my successor and if he's not doing well the board might be intimidated or timid about firing him because he was my choice you need to lead this charge so I said on one hand I'm his protector on the other hand of his executioner it was I've told Tim and the Apple board it took me a while to have the guts to tell the board what my real is my mission was what surely I haven't had to do either tim has done a great job as a CEO of Apple fantastic and it's a you know the privilege for me to be on the board and the board is a great board and they all do they do know that boards have a role at companies that I think is really important but you don't try to run a company as a board member or as a board it just doesn't work I had two questions and we have so little time and I have so many questions but two that are really important so everyone's asking you the proverbial what's next you extended your contract from fifty fifteen or sixteen to eighteen right and you've had this phenomenal success which we've already documented and talked about and you've been imprecise on your answer but so I'm gonna ask it to you a little bit of a different way if someone came to you and said you could be President of the United States tomorrow and not run would you take the job somewhere in this room is the head of communications for the world's corporate communications for the Walt Disney Company she's saying please do not please please Zegna wherever you are I feel the forces with us and yeah I feel that wherever you are hypotheticals you know I just that I am stepping down definitely in 2018 by then I will have been CEO of the company for 13 years but president and CEO or CEO for 18 years I'm a big believer in change at the top generating energy and person new perspective fresh air no matter what I'm going I do not have any plans at all I have not really thought about what life would be like after Disney I have a license plate by the way that says there's life after Disney people get a kick out of but I've made no plans I don't really know I don't really want to run another company I couldn't think of another one that would be as much fun for instance and I have I don't presume to have the talent or the ability to be President of the United States I've seen over time business people who think they can be government govern and government people who think they can be business people and there are a lot of times they're wrong not all the time but a lot of them are wrong so for me to you know I don't know that I have the skills the intellect the at then I'll be 67 years old the energy to presume that I could even do that job and I've never taken I've taken jobs that I knew would require my stepping up to the challenge and I've been driven by that my whole career but I have never presumed before I've taken a job read that were never known before I've taken a job that I could actually do it and I it would be wise of me to avoid making that kind of mistake in my life at this point so now as you sit here and I know corporate communications is breathing a sigh of relief right probably what is your dream for yourself from this point I've you know I'll continue to dream fortune I hope that I will have a long time to do it I have four if I had I had dreams as a child and that they were never to run the Walt Disney Company they were to have lead a fulfilling life you know to lead a life that had challenge that enabled me to satisfy what I think has been in an innate and somewhat powerful curiosity to enable me to prove to myself that I could do well and do good to be able to raise children have a successful marriage and just generally enjoy life in a meaningful and fulfilling well there some of them are works in progress they're not over I hope they will continue and improve I don't know in terms of new dreams you know there when you run a company like this as I'm sure a lot of people in the room can relate or when you when you work really hard it can be all encompassing and occupy so much of your waking time and energy and thinking that I'm looking forward to a time in life where I have the freedom to play a little bit more dream a little bit more think a little bit more even relax a little bit more spend more time with my loved ones pursue perhaps some other things that might excite me but I don't I don't really I don't know I don't have plans other than hopefully to continue to lead a life that is thoroughly enjoyable and and then I fortunately have had the opportunity to share that enjoyment with a lot of people that I'm close with we all would say you've earned that right thank you ladies and gentlemen bye-bye thank you thank you very much

Channel: The Economic Club of Chicago

Views: 24,261

Keywords: The Economic Club of Chicago, EconClubChi, Chicago, Robert Iger, Bob Iger, The Walt Disney Company, Mellody Hobson, Disney, Pixar, disruptors, technology, innovation, Star Wars, Marvel, Frozen, George Lucas, Avengers, Creativity, Animation, iTunes, ESPN

Id: gDVAMDRA4aw

Length: 50min 56sec (3056 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2018