At Disney, a Loyal No.

2 Gets to Try His Hand at Magic

By LORNE MANLY

The New York Times

Published: March 14, 2005

Soon after being named president and chief operating officer of the Walt Disney Company in January 2000, Robert A. Iger was treated to a celebratory dinner by a friend, the Hollywood producer Brian Grazer. Sitting in Toscana, a restaurant in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, Mr. Iger related how thrilled and grateful he was to be picked for a job that had proved treacherous before in the Eisner era, according to Mr. Grazer. Given the fate that befell the last president, Michael S. Ovitz, whose messy departure in 1996 after just 14 months is still generating bad publicity for Disney, Mr. Iger said he was not taking anything for granted. "He made a choice not to make a lot of noise in the press, and to be a loyal No. 2," said Mr. Grazer, the producer of films like "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind." "He stayed true to his word." In a business in which loyalty is not always rewarded, staying true to his word officially paid off yesterday when the Disney board named Mr. Iger (pronounced EYE-gur) to succeed Michael D. Eisner, the polarizing chief executive of the company, who has held the position since 1984. Perhaps more remarkably, Mr. Iger will assume the top job after Mr. Eisner himself publicly questioned his suitability in the past. Now Mr. Iger must show both independence and his own brand of leadership while undoing any lingering resentment he incurred in carrying out his boss's vision. He will inherit a company that has awakened from a recent slump: Disney's media network division is growing again, courtesy of some recent hits on ABC like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," while Disney's ESPN networks have seen continuing success, although the ABC Family Channel is still struggling. Its movie division has been solid and occasionally spectacular, with films like "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." And visitors have even been returning to Disney's theme parks. But the longer-term effects of Mr. Eisner's last few years at the company may be harder to overcome. Mr. Eisner, a difficult and capricious taskmaster with a eye for the spotlight, feuded widely, driving many of Disney's best creative minds out of the company and stretching to the breaking point profitable relationships with people like Steven P. Jobs of Pixar and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax. One of the big questions hanging over Mr. Iger will be whether someone so closely associated with the later and more tumultuous years of Mr. Eisner's reign will be able to attract, keep and stimulate creative people.

"I don't think he's a bad choice," said Dennis B. McAlpine, the managing director of McAlpine Associates, an independent research firm specializing in media and entertainment companies. "The real job he's going to have is moving from underling to the boss man." Mr. Iger was born in 1951 in Oceanside, N.Y., on Long Island, and attended Ithaca College, where his career dreams included becoming a correspondent for CBS News. But after a brief stint in front of the camera - he was a weatherman and feature news reporter in Ithaca, N.Y. - he joined ABC in 1974 as a studio supervisor in New York City, where he worked on a variety of programs, including game shows and a Frank Sinatra special. He later spent 12 years at ABC Sports, working his way up to vice president of programming, responsible for all scheduling and program acquisitions. And it was at the sports division where he caught the attention of two men who would serve as mentors and father figures before Mr. Eisner: Tom Murphy, the former chairman of Capital Cities/ABC, and Daniel Burke, the chief executive. "Working to please them really ended up driving me," Mr. Iger said last fall. He was promoted to executive vice president of the ABC Network Group in 1988 and the next year became the president of ABC Entertainment. Another promotion came in 1993, when he was named president of the ABC Television Network Group. He added the title of president and chief operating officer of ABC the following year, putting him in a strong position after Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC in the mid-1990's. During his tenure, shows like "NYPD Blue" and "Home Improvement" helped ABC increase its profits, performing particularly well among those coveted viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. Although his work overseeing ABC would propel Mr. Iger into the president's job at Disney, the network would also prove to be the biggest question mark over whether he would get the job he yearned for, to be Mr. Eisner's successor. In 1999 and into 2000, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was a television and cultural phenomenon, instilling the zen (and shirt and tie collection) of Regis Philbin into the national consciousness, plus catch phrases like, "Is that your final answer?" Mr. Iger was among the Disney executives who decided to ride the show's success as hard as possible, putting it on as often as four times a week. The profits flowed in, but overexposure killed the franchise. Without encouraging shows in the pipeline, ABC soon fell into a swoon, and until recently its losses fell between $300 million and $400 million a year. And the top-down management style of the corporate suite was often blamed for the network's sagging performance. For example, "The Apprentice," NBC's hit reality show with Donald J. Trump, could have belonged to ABC. Mark Burnett, the show's creator, offered it to ABC first, but when the negotiations turned into a price-cutting effort, he went elsewhere. Mr. Burnett and other producers and entertainment executives who have dealt with or worked for ABC said last year that the curbs on decision-making autonomy and spending put in place mainly by Mr. Eisner and Mr. Iger had hurt the network.

"It's a little frustrating as a producer," Mr. Burnett said last year. "I honestly get a sick feeling in my stomach going over there." Disney executives, including Mr. Iger, have disputed the characterization. Ted Harbert, the president and chief executive of E! Networks, said he never felt micromanaged by Mr. Iger when he worked with and for him for about a decade at ABC. "It's not Bob's nature or intention to micromanage," said Mr. Harbert, who added that the impetus for any overly interested style in recent years would have come from above. (E! is 40 percent owned by Disney.) Mr. Harbert is among those who give Mr. Iger much of the credit for Disney's improving fortunes internationally and at its theme parks, parts of the company that do not get the front-page treatment its movie and television division do. "He is very low-key, and in a town where self-promotion is supposed to be a job requirement, he's never been very good at that," said Mr. Harbert. Nonetheless, ABC's turnaround this season - thanks to "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," shows championed by the former ABC management of Lloyd Braun and Susan Lyne - could not have come at a better time for Mr. Iger. It removed the largest cloud over his performance as a Disney executive. Even though Mr. Iger called "Lost" a "waste of time" that would not work as a series, according to James B. Stewart's new book "DisneyWar," the naysaying apparently did not stick. Mr. Iger has also overcome the doubts Mr. Eisner expressed from time to time about his fitness for the top job. Sometime his boss damned him with faint praise. In a 1996 memo to directors, Mr. Eisner wrote, "He is not an enlightened or brilliantly creative man, but with a strong board he absolutely could do the job." In proving to Disney cast members, the financial community and his peers that he has both the vision and drive to succeed in his new job, Mr. Iger is likely to rely on some of the characteristics that got him to his new position: a strong work ethic and an insatiable appetite to gather information. Mr. Iger, who is married to the television journalist Willow Bay, with whom he has four children, is up at 4:30 in the morning, works out and arrives in the office by 6:30. He is knowledgeable about Disney and pop culture, friends and colleagues say. When Mr. Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment is producing "The Cinderella Man" with Disney (and Universal Studios), met with Mr. Iger and Mr. Eisner to get their thoughts on the project, Mr. Iger knew seemingly everything about James J. Braddock, the boxer whose life inspired the movie. "Iger knew every single blow of the fight," said Mr. Grazer, referring to the 1935 title fight between Mr. Braddock and Max Baer. But Mr. Iger will need more than a nose to the grindstone to succeed at Disney. "For a restive soul like Eisner, it was easy to continue to stir the pot of creativity," said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, an associate dean at the Yale University School of Management

who runs its Chief Executive Leadership Institute. "The same with Murdoch, Ted Turner and Sumner Redstone. Those moguls are fantastic at pushing a frontier." The challenge for "buttoned-down managers" like Mr. Iger is to find others who can identify talent, Professor Sonnenfeld suggested. "This is more like a Prometheus unleashed - give him a chance to light his own torch." Eric Dash contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/business/media/14iger.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1