Returning Disney CEO Bob Iger announces plans for sweeping overhaul of company as it prepares to compete with Netflix, Amazon
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NEW YORK — Bob Iger announced sweeping changes to the Walt Disney Company Monday, vowing to be first in an era of “radical disruption” and to be an “emperor without a kingdom.”
“As we look forward to the future, the most common request I’ve received is why, and what is the value of this company,” Iger said. “The value to our company is the people. I want everyone to feel part of this family, to be valued, appreciated, and rewarded.”
“So I’m announcing a bold new strategic plan for Disney and I want to make three things clear:
We’re going to have 100 years of Disney. We will never be an independent company. We are going to compete in an unprecedented way with Netflix and Amazon. We’re going to compete directly with them.
We are going to take Disney’s long game to the next stage. We’re going to spend our time focusing on the next decade and beyond.
And we’re going to invest in our people. That is who we are.”
These would be some difficult changes for Disney in terms of both personnel and capital, and Iger sounded like a man who was being pushed out of the throne, rather than being removed entirely.
“These changes won’t happen overnight, and they will not be easy or simple. They’ll mean the end of a lifetime to me, but they’re not going to happen because they’re the right thing to do. In the past 10 years, we’ve gone from being a company with a very lean organization to one with over 200,000 people.
“This is a company with $71 billion in assets. This
