Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Male Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Executive Director of HRTS, Dave
Ferrara.
Dave Ferrara: Thank you and on behalf of all of us at HRTS, Happy New Year and welcome
to the Beverly Hilton Hotel for today's very special HRTS Newsmaker Luncheon event. I love
to see the spring portion of our season kicking off with such a full house and welcome to
the many across the country who are enjoying today's event via live stream as well. I'd
like to extend a special thank you to our contributing sponsors, Yahoo, for proudly
supporting HRTS and saluting today's special panel guest, Robert Iger and Brian Grazer.
Thank you, Yahoo.
[Applause]
Dave Ferrara: And additionally, thank to our season sponsor, The Lippin Group and our digital
partners, Limelight Networks, CSG Systems and Digital Rapids for their generous support
of our HRTS events throughout the year. Just a few pieces of housekeeping before we get
going, we're currently hard at work on our next HRTS Newsmaker Luncheon, it's going to
be our Annual Cable Chiefs Summit which is planned for Wednesday, February 27th back
here at the Beverly Hilton. Already confirmed for the event are TNT's Steve Koonin, HBO's
Michael Lombardo, A&E's Nancy Dubuc and we'll be announcing additional panelist shortly.
Tickets and tables will be going on sale starting tomorrow at HRTS.org. We're also working on
a special comedy on television panel tentatively set for late March, combined Hitmakers panel
featuring creators and executive producers of hits from throughout our industry landscape
for April and, of course, our annual State of the Industry event for June. It's going
to be a busy spring so look for our save the date e-mails going out shortly and mark your
calendars accordingly. Now, with all that out of the way, on to our panel. Please welcome
HRTS President and partner, WME, Mr. Sean Perry.
[Applause]
Sean Perry: We both promise to be very short because we want to get to what you all came
here for today. Thank you for your support of HRTS. Thank you all for being here. We're
talking backstage, Dave and I were reflecting on the last couple of decades have been incredibly
trying for people personally for American Corporations, companies and trusted brands
we know and love have faltered and gone away. Our Federal government has had to step in
and save other great brands. But along the way, due to the leadership of Mr. Iger; the
Disney Corporation has had incredible growth. They have gone into new businesses, both domestically
and internationally, have created new brands and seemly been the big engine that could.
So, today, we're going to hear from 30,000 feet how they did it, perhaps with the view
towards what our future is going to be. Quick thank you to Zenia Mucha from the Disney Corporation
who is incredibly helpful, thank you so much, Zenia, for letting me hound you relentlessly
but thank you so much. All right. I'm going to start with our moderator; Brian Grazer
is an Academy Award winning filmmaker and Emmy and Golden Globe winning television producer.
Some of his film credits include A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, American Gangster and 8 Mile.
His television credits include 24 and Arrested Development. His staggering number is 43 Oscar
nominations and 149 Emmy's. Please welcome Brian Grazer.
[Applause]
Sean Perry: Bob Iger began his career at ABC in 1974 rising through the ranks to his current
position as Chairman and CEO of Walt Disney Company. As Chairman and CEO, Mr. Iger is
the steward of the world's largest media company and some with the most respected and beloved
brands around the globe. His strategic vision for the company focuses on fundamental aspects,
generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing latest
technology and expanding into new markets around the world. It is our honor to welcome
back to the HRTS stage, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Bob Iger.
[Applause]
Brian Grazer: Okay. How do we plan to fill an hour?
Robert Iger: Pressure is on you.
Brian Grazer: Not on me. By the way, it's not on you. Congratulations on your stock
price today, it's reached a record high.
[Applause]
Brian Grazer: But I was actually ...
Robert Iger: Does make for a better mood.
Brian Grazer: Oh my God. Appears that every weekend is a good mood for you. But no, that's
great. That's amazing. You've had tremendous success. Congratulations, it's consistent,
it's constant. So to try to find questions are going to be difficult so what are we--what
are we going to do?
Robert Iger: Whatever you want to talk about.
Brian Grazer: All right. Let's start with --you're very well--you're well known as CEO
for many things but definitely for the acquisitions of three very important media companies which
included--or content companies which included Pixar, Marvel and now Lucas Film which rebuilt,
produced Star Wars amongst many other products but I do remember when you--as many people,
remember when you acquired Pixar, there was a lot of--there was--it was--there was controversy
and there was risk involved and I guess I'm curious to understand how you see risk, how
you see it in relation to Pixar and the other acquisitions.
Robert Iger: Well, there's risk involved with most of the things that we do, particularly
since most of the things that Power Disney are creative--are creatively based and there's
always risk in the creative process and that was true with Pixar. Pixar was risky because
it was a $7.3 billion acquisition that was made some months after I became CEO, so on
the surface because it was--its value was all tied up in its future creativity, not
its past which means nothing was guaranteed and it was costly, you know, clearly there
was risk associated but I've learned over the years that while you can't be dismissive
of risk particularly in the corporate world where advisors and lawyers and board members
are all asking about risk, if you are too focused on it then you don't do anything,
you don't get anything done. The CEOs of companies that need to grow or need to evolve cannot
be risk averse, so while I'm always aware that there's risk involved in some of these
big decisions, I focus far more on opportunity and it was the opportunity that Pixar presented
to Disney, that I spent most of my time on in weighing whether we should step up and
buy Pixar and that opportunity was pretty evident to us and that it had established
a great brand, it had made great product and it won multiple Academy Awards and established
itself both creatively and technologically as just, you know, true innovator, and animation
had really started Disney. Walt said it all started with a mouse--it all started with
a mouse in animation and through the years, animation created more value for Disney than
anything else that we did and in the absence of good animation, Disney wouldn't flourish
and as the new CEO of the company, it was clear to me that my legacy, my success would
be tied more to our ability to create great animation and we had had a lean period before
that when except for the partnership with Pixar which existed when I came in, Disney
Animation had been struggling. So I made an assessment early on that I had to get animation
right at the company before I did anything else and in thinking about how to do that,
Pixar loomed large in buying them, not only guaranteed that--we didn't guarantee it but
it--it increased the odds that we'd be successful and in turn, I took the people John Lasseter
and Ed Catmull who were running Pixar and had them run Disney Animation. So was it risky?
On the surface, yes, but I wasn't viewing it as--if--if I was focused on the risk, we
never would have done it. Never. So I've let--my whole career has been like that and the seven
years plus as CEO same.
Brian Grazer: Right. Now, it's proved to be an enormous success as--as have been the other
two acquisitions but--but just standing for a moment because it was--I mean there are
so many different aspects of what would be perceived risk and you were brave enough to
do it. The other aspect was you pretty quickly developed your relationship with Steve Jobs
and were--as--and as he was the largest shareholder, how did you--what was your collaboration?
I mean, you spent hours on it but what was that collaboration?
Robert Iger: I knew Steve somewhat in that Disney had this relationship with Pixar which
he announced publicly was ending because it had had gone through a very difficult period
with the management of Disney before me and was done with the relationship and so I had
to not only try to repair the relationship if it was even, you know fixable and then
figure out what to do beyond that so when I--the day the Board called me to tell me
that I was the new CEO, I called Steve out of the blue. I don't even--I don't even remember
it being totally premeditated. I just decided I'd call my parents and my grown daughters
in New York and a couple of good friends and Steve.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: And said, hello and I said I'm going--tomorrow, it's going to be announced
I'm the new CEO of the Walt Disney Company, I think we need to get together quickly and
talk, see whether there's a relationship to be salvaged and to his credit, he said "Okay,
you know, I think you're just more of the same." I think Steve--everybody knows this
but one of the things you learn about Steve if you interacted with him and got to know
him and I was fortunate to not only I've known him well and--but to become a good friend,
is he is relentless--a relentlessly honest and relentlessly candid and it's--there's
slight difference between the two because not only honest with his beliefs, he speaks
that honesty very vocally and which was good to experience.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: So every once in a while he called in Saturday and he'd say, "Hey, Bob. I saw
the movie you just released last night and it sucked." Thank you, Steve, made my weekend.
Brian Grazer: Right. So he had to be...
Robert Iger: But anyway, I called him and I said I wanted to come up. He kind of was
skeptical because he thought I'd be more the same, I had been COO of the company. Interestingly
enough, we started talking. It was more kind of parrying a bit about what--who we were
and what we might be able to do and then in the middle of that conversation which took
place over a few months and a light bulb had gone off in my mind, I was a big user of iTunes
then and I love music, I have an eclectic musical taste and I listen to it all the time
and I thought wouldn't it be great. This is in 2005, ancient times, if--and I called him
and said this naively "Wouldn't it be great if what you've done to music, you could do
to TV?" One point there's an iTunes TV and every TV episode that's ever been made can
be watchable or accessible on this site or not really a site but a destination. I didn't
think the--the portable device at the time, I was thinking more of a web experience and
he says, "I think we need to talk" and I said okay. He said, "Can I come down?" I said sure.
He came down and he pulled out of his pocket a video iPod. At that point, iPods only played
music. I have one in the car because I--I was going to bring it in to show you. It looks
like such an ancient device today. This was 2005, this clunky box thicker than, I don't
know what, cigarette pack or something and with the screen, it's like a postage stamp.
"So you see this? I'm not showing this to anybody else but this is going to play video
and that idea that you had, we've been working on for like two years. Would you be interested
in--in providing TV shows for it?" I said yes. That led it to a meeting with Anne Sweeney
who's here a couple of weeks later. He came down, Anne and Steve cut a deal in about five
days or maybe less than two weeks after I became CEO of the company, I was standing
on a stage with Steve to announce--he was announcing the video iPod and we were announcing
that we were providing Desperate Housewives, Lost and I think Gray's Anatomy to iTunes
and it was that--it was that subject and that experience that actually ingratiated me with
him more because he realized I was willing to take risks to challenge the status quo
to question our own business models to--if we were going to be competed with, with some
alternative media, we would do it--we would do it to ourselves and that really impressed
him and impressed him that with Anne's help we were able to cut a deal in such a short
of period of time. He had this vision of Disney as being so weighted in bureaucracy and in
risk aversion and suddenly, there's no bureaucracy cut right through it, yes, we'll do it, here's
the deal, yes we'll announce it.
Brian Grazer: Wow.
Robert Iger: It's done and then I said to him I got a really crazy idea and he said
"What's that?" I said I think we're interested in buying Pixar.
Brian Grazer: Oh.
Robert Iger: And he said "That's not that crazy. We should talk." And so on and so forth.
Brian Grazer: Okay. No one else has ever been able--I'm--this is not on my question but
no one else has ever been able to negotiate with Steve Jobs. How do you think--what language
were you communicating that got him to--that got him...
Robert Iger: Mostly Steve language. Well, you know, in negotiations you have to make
choices about what you're going to give the other side that you're negotiating with, how
much interest are you going to show, how much--are you going to be desperate or not.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: Are you going to be, you know, somewhat not disinterested but, you know,
show that, yes, I'm interested but I--you know, if we don't get this--you know ...
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: We have all done that, we have all done on both sides and there is a need
that we had at Disney that was so extreme, save the Pixar relationship, figure out the
future of Disney Animation and decided that earlier on, I'm not going to be able to hide
that from him so Steve Jobs, he knows the cards are on the table, they're my cards and
they're turned up.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: So why not just call a spade to spade, no pun intended but, you know what,
I need to buy Pixar. We--this is something we need to do. Let's figure out whether there's
a path to doing that rather than sort of play some game that not only would not have worked
because it would have--would have been so insincere and dishonest but I just figured
he would end up respecting that and interestingly enough in reading the book that was written
about him, I wasn't privy to the Steve side of that book until I read it and he said in
the book that he was impressed with the fact that I told him exactly where I was the moment
we sat down.
Brian Grazer: Wow. That's great. That created a unique bond with you.
Robert Iger: It did. It probably saved us a couple of $100,000 off a $7.3 billion too.
He was obviously extraordinary to work with and he did through it become our largest shareholder
which was an intense thing to consider, considering how intense Steve was and could be.
Brian Grazer: Yes.
Robert Iger: But I also made the judgment that Disney having Steve Jobs as its largest
shareholder would be an unbelievable asset for the shareholders in the Walt Disney Company
and the people who worked there even though I realized I was leading--I was letting someone
in that had a personality that, you know, sort of followed him.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: Or not followed him, actually preceded him wherever he went. He was known
to be somewhat difficult. I thought he could be so additive rather than the other way and
he was.
Brian Grazer: Yeah. That worked out great for you clearly and then the--congratulations.
And then the other acquisitions--I mean I guess I've wondered and people probably wondered--I
wonder as a friend like what is--is there a characteristic or a common denominator in--that
drives your decision making process, whether it's Marvel or whether it's Lucas Film or
whether it's a cruise line, what--or how--is there a characteristic that drives your decision
making process?
Robert Iger: Well, we've made the three big ones, 7 plus billion for Pixar and 4 billion
and change for Marvel and--and Lucas Film. Those three had all common denominators. They
don't--those common denominators don't necessarily apply to all acquisitions but in those three,
we established the priority as a company, high quality branded entertainment would be
the core--
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: --strategy that govern the company, all three important high or--or two high quality
and branded entertainment, very important. And in Pixar, Marvel and Lucas Film, we--we
had all that so they fit a definition so to speak. We were looking for great people. In
all cases, the people--not everyone but a lot of the people had formed the underpinning
of the high quality branded entertainment came with the acquisition and that was really
valuable because, you know, there--there's no such thing as too much great talent in
a company and I thought if we could recruit more throughout the acquisition process, that
would be great, they all had that. I really believe in brands and I realized that in today's
world with technology basically providing a fire hose of entertainment and information
to everybody, you could argue that stuff breaks through before even has any brand value. Psy
and Gangnam Style was a--maybe a more recent example of that, it may have a brand value
in South Korea but didn't have a brand value to the rest of the world that--that dropped
his music video and song like a--from a fire hose.
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: But in a sea of unbelievable choice, relentless choice, I do think that
you have some advantage if you've got a good brand and we clearly had that in Disney and
I thought Pixar and Marvel and Star Wars all represented that and our film strategy has
largely evolved to basically branded films, franchised branded films, we also like making
films that are leverageable across our businesses and across territories and over time. So when
we think of creating value from a film, we think of it make the movie--think about whether
it can be made or whether we can find derivative product in all of our other businesses, theme
park attraction, games, television, varying forms of consumer products. Think about it
if--in terms of whether it can work globally and think about it whether it will stand the
test of time and it's pretty interesting because that's really what Walt Disney created and
you think that today, you can spy a Cinderella or Snow White DVD, kids all over the world
are still doing--watching those, that's pretty remarkable. There aren't that many products
that stand--have stood the test of that kind of time. Yes, you can watch Casa Blanca today
and enjoy it thoroughly for what it is but it's not still on demand in certain places,
in markets and marketable as much as it was whereas some of the product that Walt made
was. So we think about making things that live--can live a long time and that's mostly
because there's such value creation associated with that.
Brian Grazer: Right. And speaking of Walt, I know that your--you've been a very big student
of Walt, you've read about Walt, you've listened to at least 25 hours of Walt in audio and
how was--how was Walt's philosophy or the way he views the--viewed the--the present
and the future affected your point of view? And--and are--and are there quotes that you
can grab out of the sky that...
Robert Iger: Yeah.
Brian Grazer: --that ...
Robert Iger: By listening to Walt did--Walt Disney died in 1966 and in 1961 he sat down
for a 20-hour interview, not video--not filmed, no video then and it was for the purpose of
writing a book and I've listened to that interview in its entirety and then I've listened to
parts of it again just to remind myself. I like hearing the voice and I like the mindset
and I'm a big believer at the company of respecting the past, not revering it but respecting it
and balancing the heritage that it's that is--that is Disney with the need to innovate.
It's a big deal, that balance is very, very important because if you live too much in
your past, if you revere its past, you get stuck in it and you don't change with the
times or adapt, but a lot of what happened in the past, the values that were created,
the value proposition, the formula can be carried forward in very successful ways and
so I'm--I've tried to sort of pull from that formula that Walt created enough to, I think
can be applied to the present and our future so there's a lot. Walt was an unbelievable
futurist. I love listening--for instance in this interview, the guy said, "Walt, tell
me about your plans for the next year or two" and he said "The next year or two are over.
I'm thinking about the next decade." When you think about our world and our businesses
today and yes, you have to worry about the present a bit and operate in the present for
the obvious reasons but things are moving so fast in these businesses, it's so dynamic
and the world is so dynamic and we're talking just a few minutes ago about a video iPod,
just a few years--it came out just a few years back and now, we think--by the way, the--the
iPad, the tablets, it's just, I think, three years old, two years old and a lot of people--how
many millions have been sold but don't go anywhere without them today. I think there--there
are almost--something that has been around forever. It's--it's new. So the point I'm
making is that Walt thought long-term, I love that.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: You can't predict everything that's going to happen but you need to try
to have some sense of what could happen and have some control of your own destiny. I like
that.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: He was a student of, you know, great quality, great art, you know, quoted
a lot of quotes. I mean Disneyland was a perfect example. He said "Disneyland will never be
finished as long as imagination exists in the world" and he talked very, very freely
about making things that are not finished and he said, "When you make a movie, it's
done. You put it away." Now, he didn't realize what was going to become of those movies years
later but if you don't tweak, you don't tinker with it anymore, it's done you know that...
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: You've been in that business, television shows, yes, they're ongoing episodes
but they're done when they're done. A theme park, you're constantly creating.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: He loved that. I like listening to that because it just drives us to look
at these parks that we build as never being finished and always trying to improve the
experience that people have and invent and innovate whether it's--how they're experiencing
or what they experience so those were just a few things.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: He also believed that story telling needed to be an element of every one of our
businesses, so believe it or not there is a story behind every attraction, behind every
restaurant, behind every hotel that we build. You may not see it, it may not be evident
to you but you actually feel it when you experience the attraction or the hotel.
Brian Grazer: Yeah. If you're going to go to Disney ...
Robert Iger: We know why. I looked at a pitch yesterday for our hotel somewhere in the world,
I won't say where by our Imagineering group and it was an adventure themed hotel and they
conceived it as four great adventurers of the world got together to create their own
lodge, to get together and tell adventure stories, etc., and each wing of the hotel
will be themed based on that adventure's favorite part of the world. It's all laid out so when
we go out and we design this, it's designed with that story in mind and when you experience
it as a guest, you have some sense, there's some theme, it's not just colored paint.
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: And--and he talked about that way back in the people who made Disneyland
were filmmakers first, the Imagineers that created all those original attractions were
the same folks that made his first animated films.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: And we continue to have a--take a filmmaker's approach which--which improves
the story telling of the attractions and improves the experience that people have. And I think
in many ways, not quite secret sauce, because I just exposed it but it's a very, very important
ingredient to the experience that we create.
Brian Grazer: Okay. So what is--what is your--what is Bob Iger's day look like? What is--what's
the snap--just a snapshot of what you--because you--you've got cruise liners and bringing
that into the future and you're flying to China and doing Disney China and you're having
a meeting with Putin which you have to create context for and you have to--your at Disney
Imagineering, experiencing Cars years before Cars, your--
Robert Iger: Yes.
Brian Grazer: --collaborating with other television. How--what is your ...
Robert Iger: It's the one--first of all, it's a life experience.
Brian Grazer: Well, you're a see, feel and touch person so you're doing the micro--you're--how
do you turn that into macro ideas? What is your day like? What is it like?
Robert Iger: Well, first of all, it's phenomenal, its life experience because you've got the
opportunity to run the Walt Disney Company is pretty special and I--so-- I'm so appreciative
to have that chance as sixth CEO of such an interesting company, a company that touches
the world and has touched generations. I'm a grandfather and so interesting to, you know,
think that I grew up on Disney in childhood of the 50s and I raised daughters who are
grown and sons on things Disney. I know we sound all like Moonie's or something, you
know what I mean, and now, grandchildren. That's pretty special to have that experience.
So there's that, there's this satisfaction, gratification. I wouldn't call it the importance
of it all but this is--it's got a special quality. Then, of course, there's the panorama
that I see and the rainbow of subject matter that come across my desk every day, that's
fantastic because I mean one day I could be meeting with a team of folks who are designing
a hotel for some far off theme park or we are talking about the, you know, future of
console video games or, you know, new cruise ship or how to get a Disney channel into Russia
or, you know, TV shows, movies, you name it, fantastic. So there's a variety. With running
a company like this there's a fair amount that goes with it that would--I wouldn't put--put
it into the boring category but much less interesting so there are meetings on piracy
and privacy and benefits and stock dividends and all those things too but essentially you
go into the--the office every day with some sense of what's going to happen and even with
that, you're surprised. And I--I view it, my day as these tickers that are going by
on every level, things constant--and they never stop with subject matter, subject matter,
subject matter or people. It's just not--it's just--it's hard to give a full flavor.
Brian Grazer: Yeah. It's hard. Well ...
Robert Iger: It's never ending and its very--it's--it's always interesting really in--in terms of
the collection of it all but, you know, far more than 90%, easily of all the decisions
that are made in the company or made by other people. You cannot run a company like this
singularly. My job is to define the company, not what it was but what it is today, what
it needs to be and create a strategy that I try to communicate as broadly as possible
and as articulately as I can and set standards, ethics meaning what is the--what are the standards
we expect from our people and our product and hire great people and--and be there for
them to both provide leadership but to give feedback and to be a sounding board and then
you have to let them go. You can't control every decision because there are too many
that need to be made and a company that is in so many businesses and so many places and
so much creativity can't be the result of one person's filter so I try really hard like
I'm there for the details when needed. It's mostly about the big picture but a lot of
what we do, you know, the greatness and mediocrity sometimes are separated by just a few details
and so you have to at times get into what those details are but more than anything I
try to be a kind of an--I don't know, whether uber editor or a sounding board for all the
people that work for me so if they want to run things through me or by me which is bounce
ideas of me, I'm there to do that.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: But yes, there are details that I see and details that I love and details
that I sometimes try to affect but most of my work is about, you know, I'll call it macro
issues and bigger things and it's not that I--I leave not only the details to other people
but I leave a lot of very big decisions to them too.
Brian Grazer: Right. Is that ...
Robert Iger: Comfortably.
Brian Grazer: Yes. Well, you like to--yeah, you like to engage with the people that you're
working with and you encourage them to collaborate with you.
Robert Iger: Well, I--I demand that they collaborate with me. I--I, of encourage them to collaborate
with one another, you know that.
Brian Grazer: Do you--do you--do you have--I mean, you might just have covered this but
do you have a sort of like governing principles or manifesto that--that ...
Robert Iger: I don't--the only thing I've ever written as--as a manifesto that I've--I've
shared with a couple of people as I, at one point, years back, I wrote down a risk taking
manifesto that was just to encourage myself to take chances and I--I ended with my saying
something like--I put in it that you're always walking a tight rope without a net under you
and I think--I think I ended it by saying remember, you're the show or you're--not you're
the show, you're the--I have to remember. Other than--other than that, my manifesto
is mostly be accessible, treat people fairly, take chances, I like that. I like being thoughtful.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: And what I mean by that is I like having a--a point of view that is the
result of some study meaning my own so that I try to take the time to learn enough about
the issues that pass through me or by me every day so that when I render an opinion, that
opinion at least has the weight of some thought and some study. So I think the--the notion
of being thoughtful as a leader is often mistaken for someone who's simply as thoughtful or
kind or about people, thoughtful--
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: --sort of odd word. I like to view it as I've studied something, I can render
an opinion that is based on that. It's not a shoot from the hip. It's not, you know,
fly by night or it's--it has been thought out.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: I like that but mostly if I had a manifesto, that's sort of a collection of
them, I like being direct and I like people knowing what I'm thinking, particularly about
where I believe the company should go. I don't think there needs to be things that are hidden
so I share--I end up sharing a lot even with--some companies would regard as deep secrets, we--we
worked on the Lucas Film acquisition, you know, steadfastly for months, I shared that
will all of my direct reports well in advance of when it was announced so trust becomes
a big component as well of either my leadership style or the way I am. You know, trust people
implicitly until they prove otherwise. Some leaders don't trust anyone until they prove
they can be trusted. I like doing it the other way.
Brian Grazer: What--I mean, this is--I don't know how you want to answer this but there's
got to be--how do you view competition? What is competition?
Robert Iger: Constant. It's ever--these days, I think of this room--I--I was head of ABC
in primetime starting 1989, so the job that Paul Lee has--Paul's here--I had it at one
point, I sat in this room in 1989 with the heads of Fox, CBS and NBC talking about my
primetime schedule. Thinking that I was sitting with fierce competitors, Brandon Tartikoff
was one of them, and then the competitive set was basically three other people and now,
poor Paul and everyone else in this room, your competitive set, I mean can't even--you
can't even name them all. I mean many of them don't even have faces, it's just--and some
of them just crop up by the day, it's incredible so it's constant, it's vast but I--I end up--because
of that, you can become very quickly daunted by competition it's so omnipresent, I think
what I--I like is be competitive meaning work really hard to be seen as a competitor to
everyone else out there.
Brian Grazer: Oh, that's interesting.
Robert Iger: But don't focus on your competition.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: Because there's little you can do about it. You have to just focus on what--what
you're making, what you're doing, who you're working, who you're hiring, where you're going
as a company. You don't have time to focus on what the competitor is doing. I've ran
into a lot of people who are obsessed with competitors. I like being obsessed with competing.
So compete all the time but don't--what can you do about what CBS is doing, YouTube, Google,
I go on and on and on.
Brian Grazer: So you like having an agenda in the sense of where the future is and...
Robert Iger: Make stuff great, be formidable as a competitor with the great stuff that
you're making, the way you're marketing it, the way it's entering the marketplace, what
you're offering your customers, beat everyone else at, you know, making your stuff great
and making it accessible and all those things but don't--if you--if you're obsessed with
what everybody else is doing and you're not obsessed with what you're doing and you're
far better off being obsessed with what you're doing.
Brian Grazer: Yeah, you've done that very successfully.
Robert Iger: So I like--I'm a fierce competitor, I believe.
Brian Grazer: Yes.
Robert Iger: But I'm not fiercely focused on what others are doing.
Brian Grazer: Right. And then tech--you--you're--I know you to be very--to be driven by curiosity
and interested and/or obsessed with technology, how would you address that? I mean I know
that you--you said earlier that you're--I think 12 days after you were--you were--you're
standing on stage with Steve Jobs and introducing content to a digital format but--and now you
have--what--you have the magic band, I am curious about that, what is that?
Robert Iger: I am obsessed with--I like technology and curiosity, another attribute of Walt's
by the way--he talked about curiosity driving the company forward, I--we have to be all
curious. It's what enables us to change and what enables us to--enables to learn more
and go new places and I'm a big believer in that, enables us to be better competitors
really for curious. I like that. I'm born--I think I was born with that so that's pretty
helpful. I happened to like technology, usually look at it as more opportunity than threat.
It's been a great opportunity--provides great opportunities for our company in many ways.
It allows us to reach more people, whether it's through iPads or whatever. It allows
us to make our product better, that's evident when you go to our parks, it's evident when
you watch, you know, 3D or a high-def or all kinds of different things and I like to make
the company more efficient and, of course, lastly, get closer to our customers, get to
know them better and vice-versa so that's all part of who I am. The magic band is--it
was--you brought it up. I can give a quick--I don't want to talk about it too much but there
was a big article in New York Times recently--
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: --about a major initiative of ours that's going unfold shortly over at Orlando
and what we started to do is we charged ourselves about five, six years ago with how do we--we
have people coming into our parks that are being raised in far different ways particularly
with media and entertainment and when they come, they're going to expect better experiences
because of that, they'll be less tolerant about crowds, waiting on lines, etc. They'll
be expecting more in terms of personalization and customization. They'll want to be more
known than anonymous when they visit. They'll--people I believe, even though I know there's a great
debate about privacy, generally speaking will be generous with information about themselves
if they believe that information can be used or will be used to make their experience better.
I'm getting to the magic band. So if you give information to Amazon and they then show you
things that you might like, books that you might like, things that you bought etc. they're
going to enhance that experience. If it's suddenly results and you're getting spammed
by 8,000 people are trying to sell you ***, you're not going to like that.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: So in thinking about that, we thought how can we make this experience at
our parks better? In many different ways, using technology and one of the things that
we hit upon was what if we--everyone who came in to the park had a band that connected to
the sky, server--and servers, the Cloud really in some form and had stored in the Cloud information
about themselves and about their visit that would make the visit better. Could we do that?
And the result is a band that's been developed that you would get when you reserved--when
you bought a ticket in advance or you--or reserve rooms at our parks and you would provide
information and you'll decide how much of it you want to provide us, who you are, where
you're from, etc., but what if we let you from home reserve time on our rides and plan
your trip in advance and reserve reservations at restaurants and maybe wait much less on
lines for instance, so you know when you came that you had all these things and you'd spend
less time looking to do things and more time doing things. Actually, ride more attractions,
have more fun, enjoy the experience much more than before. All designed for enhancing guest
experience and we created this technology that I'm actually very, very excited about.
It's also going to let us know who you are so if the Grazer family is walking down Main
Street, we will make--we'll be able to go up to you and say, you know, Mr. Grazer, we
understand it's your birthday and that you like Jack Sparrow and we've arranged for a
special ride on Pirates for you to celebrate your birthday at 2 o'clock or come this way
or that sort of thing, little touches like that. We think we'll--I know that sounds trivial
but the collection will go a long way and then you could take--we'll take us way in
advance. Let's say you go--you're going to eat lunch with your family of 10 at a fast
food restaurant but we'll let you order all that food in advance. Go in the restaurant,
sit down at the table, we'll know because of the GPS positioning, we'll know where you're
sitting, we'll know what you ordered, you don't have to go up to the counter, someone
will show up at the table and say, "Grazer family, here's your lunch." You will--and
it is also your wallet so you don't need cash, you don't need a credit card, it's everything
and that's what we've developed.
Brian Grazer: Wow.
Robert Iger: So you'll be able to--it's kind of interesting, fairly risky, very expensive
but I believe in--we're--we're all--you know, this technology that is now omnipresent in
our lives has--it could drive you crazy and does for me occasionally. My wife is here,
she knows. Seems--everything seems to breakdown in our house weekends but the convenience
that it has created for us, it's just--it's phenomenal and we need to provide that to
our guests so that's what it's about. I was using a Starbucks app, trying the other day,
you don't have to take cash into Starbucks, just put it up to this little device and boom,
there it is and you don't have to fumble for a wallet, worry do I have enough cash, what
about change, are you going to change a 50, do I have my credit card and all that, it's
right there. The other thing it does is you're on the corner of--I don't know, Montana and
17th Street, you want a Starbucks, boom, you click it and shows you where Starbucks is.
Brian Grazer: That is the Starbucks.
Robert Iger: You realize there are like 50 of them within a 10 block radius.
Brian Grazer: That was actually where Starbucks is.
Robert Iger: It's like shooting fish in a barrel. If anybody doesn't need that... So
we just charged ourselves with giving people a better experience, not only the experience
they've come to expect in their lives today but the experience they have always expected
out of Disney.
Brian Grazer: Amazing. What--because this is large--I think predominantly, a television
group and as you said, we know you started in television, ABC Sports then--and head of
ABC.
Robert Iger: Yeah. My history is ancient but go ahead. Don't remind me...
Brian Grazer: And ESPN ...
Robert Iger: By the way, I joke when I got Paul's job ...
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: My--my predecessor Brandon Stoddard had a license plate. It said "35SH", 35 share,
that was sort of then, you know, the ultimate and I--when I left the job, my license plate
said "12SH". Paul, I don't know where yours is, I haven't seen your car lately. That's
true, he did have 35SH. I didn't even have the guts to even choose one because it was
falling so fast. Go ahead. Where are we going with this?
Brian Grazer: The television world has changed but where do you think it's going--where do
you think it's going? The either distribution or content or, you know, any way you like
to ...
Robert Iger: Well, I think in many ways.
Brian Grazer: --speak to.
Robert Iger: It's go--it is the true golden age of TV and I know that's a real cliché
but think about it, it's a golden age TV for the consumer because there's never been more
of it, more choice and never been higher quality. I think the array of quality that exists today
is just extraordinary. So if you are a viewer, a customer, whatever you want to call them
today--you know, hard to call them viewers these days--never had it better. And aside
from the fact that you've got this array of choice, more and more you can see it in more
places so, you know, these watch apps that our media networks have so geniusely created,
you know, take your program wherever you want to go is fantastic so that's great. I think
if you're a creator, it's also the golden age because with all this shelf space, even
though I realize some of it is not as obvious in terms of how monetizable it is and it's
a little bit more--less forgiving in an environment than it used to be, mediocrity--maybe finds
its way in the--maybe it finds its way into the environment more readily but doesn't last
as long, that's tough. On the other hand, you have so many more places to go with your
creative voice, with your creative vision, that's exciting. Think of your programmer,
you could think about it as a golden age because with the programs that you program, you can
reach more people in more places, both globally and in different platforms, that's kind of
exciting. I think it's a little less the golden age because of what I talked about earlier,
much more competition and I think it would be--it would be ridiculous to have blinders
on in terms of the challenges to the business model so the business model that TV programmers
today face while interesting because of the growth of new revenue streams, mostly from
new technology platforms and alternative uses. On the other hand, the advertiser side of
that revenue or the revenue stream that is advertising is challenged more than it ever
has before and I believe that programmers today need to take real chances, take--both
with the programming and with the manner in which their market--they're monetizing it
and try to really figure out as I know--and Gary Marsh is here from ABC and Michael Riley
from ABC Family--they're all working to figure out how do we serve advertisers better who
are still there with a lot of money with the demand to reach more and more consumers but
they have to figure out how to best do that so I think it's the golden age except for
that fact which I think is, you know, we've--we've got to come to grips with, so we got to figure
out. There's no question that TV can provide real advertising, can provide real value.
We're interested if we're big buyers and we're big sellers of advertise--television advertising
time so, you know, we're both kind of victim and perpetrator, we're in both sides of the
equation. We got to figure out how to best reach people in an era where they're watching
television in so many different ways and different places and in some cases, they're doing it
on multiple--they're doing things in multiple screens at one time which is a whole other
issue that has to be dealt with. So I don't necessarily envy the programmer of today but,
you know, I think there's some interesting opportunities.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: But it's incumbent upon us to figure out what is the new--what is a newer,
more modern, more technologically forward thinking manner of serving the advertiser
and serving the viewer and protecting a revenue stream that is vital to what you've done for
years and what--what I've done for years.
Brian Grazer: Right. And I think you just said inside of all of that, I think it's something
that you do refer to is--oh, yeah--it could be involved in management but you say I always
believe in challenging my--a business model or the business model.
Robert Iger: Yeah. Because if you don't challenge--if you're being challenged all the time so if
you--if you--you know, if you don't challenge yourself and your own business model, it's
going to happen to you anyway. I don't know the--there's a kind of an obscure British
poet and essayist named William Ernest Henley who said "I'm the master of my fate and the
captain of my soul." I like being the master of the fate so challenge your own business
model so you have some control of your own fate. I mean some things are going to happen
to you that are exogenous in nature that you're not going to control, that are outside the
realm of your--your sphere of control, that's always going to happen but there are a lot
of things that with risk taking and being forward thinking and being curious and adopting
technology that by trying things out early, you learn quicker and you may figure them
out faster and have some control and you could be a master of your own fate.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: It's a great--by the way, it's--it's a great poem, Invictus was the poem. A favorite
of Winston Churchill ...
Brian Grazer: You just know too much. I mean I remember taking--this has no--nothing to
do with the question but I remember thinking, oh, this would be fun to take Bob to dinner
with Malcolm Gladwell, we'll have all--just have a good time, I remember you and Malcolm
talked about a--a battle in Gettysburg for an 1-1/2 hour at Apollo.
Robert Iger: No, no, no.
Brian Grazer: Yeah, you did.
Robert Iger: I'm not that--I'm not that good and I'm not that boring. It was Chancellorsville.
Brian Grazer: Oh, God. I knew it was something.
Robert Iger: It was another civil war.
Brian Grazer: Okay. Oh, god. Okay.
Robert Iger: Are you running out of questions or are we running out of time?
Brian Grazer: Both, both. ESPN--ESPN has risen to the greater-- sustained great heights right
now and in terms of its success as a profit center and you have managed that and how--what's
your point about the ESPN Sports and--and it relates to other television.
Robert Iger: Another great brand, another great business. Our most profitable by the
way as a company, real innovators although they're not complacent as successful as they
are. I like to think they're not arrogant. They don't rest on their own laurels. They're
challenging themselves constantly. If you look at what they've done in digital platforms
for instance where they've really been at the forefront, that's a great example of what
our company--and there are many but a great one of a business that was willing to put
its own business model at risk with products that they are making and I think that they've
managed to maintain brand strength and a competitive edge at the same time which is fantastic.
I'm a big sports fan. Fortunately, I have a couple of boys in the house that are as
well so it's a, you know, good part of our lives but it's quite a business and they--you
know, that's another business by the way, is facing more and more competitors but they're
working really hard to stay as formidable as a competitor as they possibly can.
Brian Grazer: Now, we are running out of questions and time but do you wanted to--do you want
to talk about brand protection or--or growth?
Robert Iger: No.
Brian Grazer: Okay. All right. Okay.
Robert Iger: I'm kidding. Whatever you want to talk, I mean, in a world--the most fascinating
part of my job is how do you manage a brand that was created in 1923 by Walt Disney and
manage to keep it relevant in 2013 and beyond. How do you that? If you look at the world's
great brands over the years, there aren't too many lists you can find from the 20s but
you could find good list from the 40s, 50s, 60s. You'll be shocked to see how few companies
are either still left or still appear as a top brand. Many that were part of our lives
back when, General Motors, still a brand but it's not top brand. Back in the--in the 40s,
50s, 60s, I mean there were airlines, PANAM Airlines ...
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: Think of that--that brand and Xerox at one point was a pretty big brand.
A lot of them been eclipsed by new brands, mostly powered by new technologies. The list
today is pretty stunning when you see how much new technology appears on it from Apple,
the Google and others but Disney is still up there. We do a lot of research globally
on brand equity and you'd be amazed at how often we appear as a top five brand in markets
all over the world and I think that's because of great people and great creativity and innovators
and being forward thinking and never letting a brand rest on what it was and always thinking
about what it is today and what it could be.
Brian Grazer: Right.
Robert Iger: It's really important so I try to bring that culture and that demand to Disney.
I'm kind of a--in a way, I'm a brand manager. I do that more than anything else so there
isn't a day that passes when some issue related to the brand doesn't come up. It can be a
standard. It can be variety of other things, think of something relevant to the last 24
hours. At a meeting yesterday on violence in video games which is a subject that's come
up more recently because of what happened in Connecticut and guns and wanted a good
sense from our video game folks, to kind of take stock of everything that we've got that
could be considered, you know, near the line or over the line. Fortunately, as Disney,
there's very little but I still want to make sure that we're asking on ourselves the right
questions in terms of that standard and also that we're willing to be part of a dialogue
in today's world that I think is pretty necessary in terms of what our role is or what our role
should be. That's a good example. That's--
Brian Grazer: Yeah.
Robert Iger: --more on the brand. It was operating as a responsible citizen of the world for
the purpose of managing the brand successfully.
Brian Grazer: All right. So you must feel amazing. You--in 2015, all these success,
your stock at the highest point that's ever been and in 2015...
Robert Iger: You are borderline sycophantic here or something?
Brian Grazer: I'm trying to be cool. Okay. But honest, so in 2015, you're going to have
Robert Iger: I also put Cop Rock on ABC which--11 episodes and I don't know how many millions
we lost. And there's--there's another side. I've got a dark side. You're building me up
with some ...
Brian Grazer: I'm insulted.
Robert Iger: --knight in shining armor.
Brian Grazer: All right. Well, we're so closed.
Robert Iger: Certainly all of us have this--in these resumes, the longer you're around, the
more failure you've got ...
Brian Grazer: No.
Robert Iger: --on your resume.
Brian Grazer: So this--this ...do you ever--other than, you know, Max & Will's basketball game,
do you ever break into a sweat? Does anything keep you up at night?
Robert Iger: I don't--I'm not that fearful person and I--I like everybody though. I got
my array of anxieties. I'd say in terms of the company, the only thing that I ever really
worry about is just our ability to sustain creative success and nothing bothers me more
than walking out of a screening or seeing something that we've done that we all look
at each other and kind of know--I like honesty by the way when it comes to criticism. We
all know it could have been better so let's look at it and say boy that could have been
better and kind of share the disappointment a bit. I hate that really, it just feels awful
because no one sets out to make anything bad so if I get--I don't really lose sleep over
it but if anything bugs me about what I see every day, you know, it's--or anything that
worries me I think really was the question, it's that. It's not making enough things that
are good and, you know--
Brian Grazer: Okay.
Robert Iger: --I'm going to do my best to make sure that doesn't happen but it's bound
to.
Brian Grazer: Well, oh, look, I think we're done. Congratulations.
Robert Iger: Thank you. Thank you.
Brian Grazer: Thanks.
[Applause]