The Reading Room

The Ride of a Lifetime

Robert Iger

Published: 2019, Transworld Publishers

In this book, Robert Iger (also popularly known as Bob Iger) shares the lessons he learnt from his corporate career to date. ‘The Ride of a Lifetime’ takes you inside the mind of one of the smartest people in the corporate world and how he managed to navigate right from the bottom of the corporate ladder to the top. It is a must read for those aspiring to take up the top job.

He starts the book by narrating his childhood struggles, and how he built a strong character in those formative years owing to his circumstances. He also gives credit to his parents for the way he was brought up and how his father, despite suffering from depression, nurtured him to be the person he is today. Throughout the book, he keeps mentioning how his father had a huge influence on his success.

At the very beginning of his career, it was by chance that Robert Iger landed his first job at ABC. He started right at the bottom and would do everything that was needed of him. During this stint with ABC, while working on a concert, he made a connection with the studio supervisor of ABC sports, which was the most profitable unit of ABC at the time. This connection helped him move to the sports division of ABC, which was a crucial move in his career.

After 10 years at ABC, he was promoted to Vice President of ABC sports. At the same time, ABC was purchased by Capital Cities Communications. With this acquisition, the biggest challenge for Robert Iger was the change in management. At this time, Robert planned to quit his job, but he was retained by the ABC president by promoting him to Senior Vice President. This proved to be a key decision in his career.

During his tenure as Senior Vice President, programming the Calgary Winter Olympics to be broadcasted on ABC got affected due to warm weather conditions. It was at this time he advised his team to start running human side stories of the athletes in the free slots. This move gave them more than usual television rating point ABC’s management was impressed by Iger’s performance, and eventually, he was promoted to become president of ABC’s entire entertainment division.

When he took over as the president of the entire entertainment division at ABC, the company was struggling to keep up with its competitors., At this point, Robert Iger took a risky decision to commission a series named Twin Peaks despite ABC’s creative directors having their doubts about it. At the inception, the show got very high TRP’s but eventually, it lost the plot and faded away. However, this move earned Robert Iger great respect in the Hollywood industry, with big directors reaching out to him because he gave creativity more importance and took a chance.

In September 1994, Robert Iger was promoted to chief operating officer at ABC, and again this came at a crucial time when Disney’s CEO, Eisner, started showing interest in acquiring ABC. In 1996, the deal was closed at approximately USD19.5Bn and ABC merged with Disney. After the acquisition, he was made the head of Disney’s media division. It was a tough time for Disney since it was hurting from high budget films failing.

This merger was a tough phase in Iger’s career, and unhappy with the management, he decided to quit Disney. Before he quit, then CEO of Disney, Eisner, offered him to become the COO of Disney since they wanted new creative ideas to help Disney grow. This prompted Iger to stay.

Eisner made a series of bad decisions, and in this phase, Eisner also had a fall out with Pixar, which had created few of the biggest hit animated films for Disney. Pixar vowed to never work with Disney again. Eventually the shareholders lost confidence in Eisner, and he had to step down.

This meant that the top position at Disney was now vacant, and Robert Iger was determined not to let this opportunity go. He hired a political consultant to help him, and on his advice, he created a presentation showing a future road map for Disney. His pitch worked, and in 2005, Robert Iger was made CEO of Disney.

After taking up the top job, when Disneyland Hongkong was inaugurated, he noticed that there were hardly any new Disney/Pixar characters in the parade. His keen observations made him realize the importance of making amends with Pixar. He reached out to Steve Jobs and eventually made an offer to acquire Pixar. Although Steve Jobs initially disagreed, he finally agreed when Robert Iger managed to convince him with a clause that the creative heads at Pixar will have all the freedom with no interference from the management. This made Steve Jobs believe in Iger, and the deal went through.

There was no looking back from here. Iger’s charisma, wisdom and risk-taking ability saw many such decisions. Disney went on to acquire Marvel; this acquisition gave biggest hits for Disney by popularizing new Marvel characters. Under Iger, Disney acquired a stake in BAMTech media to foray into the streaming world, eventually launching Disney+. They also acquired rights to the Star War films (Lucasfilm), and finally, in their biggest acquisition went on to acquire 21st Century Fox, consolidating itself in the movie making industry. Against all odds, his tenure also saw Disney launch their amusement park in mainland China. All these strategic moves by Iger and his team saw Disney see new heights.

Key takeaways for me from this book:

1) Always keep your eyes open for new opportunities and never let a good opportunity pass.

2) Good professional relationships help accelerate your corporate career and most important learning is that a great network is built by your actions and not by chance could be your ethics, creativity, drive, trustworthiness, honesty etc.

3) Lead by example, always be proactive, let people do their jobs without interference.

4) A great leader is always a great risk taker, no big success comes without taking risks.

I hope the above summary intrigues you to read this book, I would strongly recommend one should check this book out.

November 2024

Sagar Kanal