Since becoming chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, Bob Iger has transformed the company into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. In this episode, Iger discusses his rise at the company, the constantly changing world of entertainment, and the importance of keeping diversity and inclusion at the forefront of the work Disney is doing.
Iger on what has helped him most throughout his career: “I never knew that I would have this job. I was not one that created a long term plan for myself. There were people who believed that I would get somewhere, but I never quite saw that far into the future. I would say that there were a few things that I learned… Nothing beats good hard work. I know that sounds really trite, but I came to my adult life with a modest intellect, but a tremendous work ethic and that served me extremely well.”
Iger on his priorities at Disney: “I believed in brands and branded storytelling because I thought that there was going to be a proliferation of storytelling and the more choice people had, the more important brands would be, because it’s a quick way of knowing what something is, if whatever you make with that brand on it embodies the brand attributes.”
On the importance of making Black Panther: “I felt that it was time for Marvel’s storytelling to much better reflect the world we were doing business in. I’m a big believer in that -- whether you call it diversity or inclusion. But the bottom line is that doing so is good for commerce. The world is obviously multi-colored, multi-natured, and multifaceted. The more we infuse that into our stories, the better off we are.”
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