[SIZE="1"]Again a translation from Wirtschaftswoche 32/14[/SIZE]
Lots of reading spread over three posts. This took hours to translate, alltogether maybe 5. If you find a sentence that looks really weird, it's probably an unintentional teutonism. I apologise for a probable myriad of typos. I hope at east someone is interested in this.
[SIZE="3"]Fun Avalanches With All Guns Blazing[/SIZE]
[SIZE="3"]Walt Disney|How does the US corporation manage to turn figures like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Iron Man and Darth Vader into money printing machines? And how long will it go well?[/SIZE]
His people are blasting a deep crater - probably envisioned as a setting for a battle - in the otherwise quiet desert of Abu Dhabi. Additionally Jeffrey Jacobs ("J.J.") Abrams is overseeing the construction of a kind of extraterrestrial weekly market not far from the district Hameem, populated with many-eyed creatures and bizarre space lifeorms: on his command 600 actors, statists, technicians create intrgelactic bustling in the mid of the wasteland of Rub al-Chali.
At the sime time the American movie director has the Pinewood Studies in the English countship of Buckinghamshire hermatically closed off. Only a simple poster on the grey outer wall of the studo with the puzzling inscription "VII. Now filming" tells insiders that Abrams is currently directing the seventh part of the science fiction classic Star Wars. Even though every one on the set is listening to his command, Abrams ist just one small figure in a far greater play. In it Bob Iger is pulling the strings. The smart man with the short grey hair is chairman of Walt Disney - and boss of Abrams, all Star Wars-heroes, but also of countless figures of global pop culture from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck over to Mowgli from the Jungel Book movie and Kermit the Frog up to Iron Man, Hulk, and the evil fairy Maleficent.
The 62-year old, just the sixth ruler of the media corporation founded in 1923, is on the height of his career. Disney had a revenue of 45 billion $ in the last year of business, employs 175000 people, is worth 150 billion $ at the bourse and with 6 billion $ raked in as much gains as never before. Mid of July Iger could ring the closing belll at the New York bourse, a US magazin had just voted him "chairman of the year".
Never before was Disney as good at pulling the money out of adults and children's purses alike worldwide. The recipe for this seems simple: no other media giant pumped itself so full with intellectual property like Disney from Burbank in California.And no one else has perfectionised the ability to monetise a successful theme over all available channels to the same degree - from films over to CDs, holiday parks, musicals up to toys and PC games. "Disney is the ultimate multi-platform-business in the world of media. We reach consumers deeper and better than everyone else", chief of fiance Jay Rasulo blows the trumpet. "Disney is running at full speed", says Frank Beck, president of the investment company Beck Capital Managemint in Austin, Texas.
But how long will it go well?
Because Iger has reached this special position amidst the global media revolution which evermore displaces the weights in the favour of technology giants like Google Amazon or Apple, less out of own strength but rather because of billions-heavy acquisitions: Iger spent alltogether more than 15 billion $ on acquiring the animation studio Pixar, Star Wars-creator Lucasfilm and the comic empire Marvel - money DIsney will, if at all, only be able to rake back in in years, when Iger has long since left the ship. In 2016 the frontman will abdicate on his own will. Chief financial officer Rasulo and the boss of the holiday branch Tom Staggs are the candidates for his succession. The 64,000$ question is this: do they ahve Iger's format? Will they prove a similar knack for creatives? Will they dare quetioning functioning sources of revenue and revalue buiness relationships as radically? Or may Disney find itself in the crossfire of acquisition fantsies like Time Warner by the competitor 21st Century Fox?
But back in the fall of 2005, when Iger moved to the top positon, barely any expert trusted that he could bring the rolling tanker back on course. Predecessor Michael Eisner left a weakened enterprise after 20 years at the top,w hich amongst others just had to defend itself against a hostile take over attempt of cable network operator Comcast.
CHIC, BUT CLUELESS
Eisner may have lifted the corporation to new heights especially with the purchase of TV providers - for example ABC. And under his aegis Disney created some blockbusters like "Beauty and the Beast" or "The Lion King". But the thread of success is tearing. Internally critics accuse Eisner of only looking for the fast dollar and to hurt Disney's reputation with lacklustre sequels to successful movies.
Additionally Eisner fell out with the important partner Pixar. In the mid-90s he signs a distribution contract with a small animation studio from Silicon Valley. At first Pixar produces the blockbuster Toy Story, where toy figures turn to life and experience adventures. Disney bring sthe film to cinemas, costs and yields are shared. But Disney claims the rights for the story and sequels for itself.
On top of that Eisner quarreled with Apple-founder Steve Jobs, who was leading Pixar since 1995. He also blew it with important Disney stockholders such as the founder's nephew Roy Disney. September 2005, Eisner leaves in dispute.
Iger came out on top against external candidtes on the search for a successor. AMongst other things he led the channel ABC and most recently worked as chief operating officer for Eisner. Critics call Iger, who started his lng career as weather presenter (note by me: lol, American dream come true), a tuffed suit - chic, but without brains.
But inf act Iger brings with him a plan to completely turn Disney inside out. Internally by playing it risky and putting managers on new positions: for example he let the board members Rasulo (back then holiday parks) and Staggs (back then finances) change positions. A good manager, thus Iger's credo, would ahve to be good in all disciplines. This gives both a deeper view into the corporation - and DIsney's owners today more choice when looking for a successor.
More deciding, however, is Eigers tact with unwieldy business partners. Already on the day of his appointment, it is said, Eiger called Jobs at Pixar, to end the running battle. Iger knows: he needs Pixar to rescue Disney. He had his moment of awaking shortly before, in the fall of 2005.
UNLIMITED LIFESPAN
Hundreds of Disney fans line the streets of the newly opened Disney holiday park in Hongkong, as the parade of the comic figures begins. Amidst the viewers there is also Iger standing with his children.
Iger looks, marvels - and then he notices it: back then he may see Mickey Mous, ovr there a giant Donald is walking and winking. But the figures are old. Everything younger than ten years was created by their partner Pixar, like clownfish Nemo or Cowboy Woody from Toy Story. In this moment, as Iger later tells Pixar's creative director John Lasseter, he decided: he had to buy Pixar.
Iger convinces Jobs and the Disney board of directors. January 2006 the corporation announces the acquire Pixar, who in matters of creativity and wit is overshadowing Disney by far, for a sum of 7,5 billion $. A high price, but Iger already knows the Pixar pipeline with "Cars", "Ratatouille" and "Up", the movie with the grumpy grandpa and the boy scout - all movies which will play in billions.
Iger's coup made Jobs with more than 7% the temporarily biggest single shareholder of Disney; Jobs' successor Tim Cook is member of the Disney board of directors since the death of Apple-founder Steve Jobs. Apple profits too, because Disney not only distributes their movies and TV shows as DVDs, but as one of the first media corporations also used Apple's online retailer iTunes from the beginning. "We follow our customers", Iger says and risks trouble with old distribution partners like retail store chains. "Just holding up the status quo is not a strategy, at least nt as far as it concers us; the world is changing".
At the sime time the Pixar-deal is changing Disney fundamentally and creates the blueprint for further acquisitions. While the corporation still claimed the arrogant primacy of doing everything better than others under Eisner, Iger turned this inside-out: he promises the leading Pixar managers Ed Catmull and Lasseter not to touch Pixar's creative culture. To the contrary: he appoints Lasseter as the boss over Disney's own animation studio - just like small Nemo would swallow the great whale.
"It would be absolutely wrong to force our culture on other businesses who have done quite well without us", Iger says. This surprises Lasseter: "usually the big businesses influene the small ones they acquired - Iger wanted the opposite." When Iger announces Lasseter as their new boss to Disney'as animation specialists, cheering broke out. The strategy works: together with Pixar Disney is taking up their old successes. Last year's winter movie Frozen (note by me: based on an old Danish tale by Hans Christian Andersen btw, if someone actually didn't know yet[i]) brought in 1,25 billion $ to this date, which makes it one of the five most successful movies of all time - and into a franchise that Disney channels through through their complete machinery, down to toy stores: 9 of the 10 most-selled products recently in Disney stores worldwide had a connection to Frozen, Rasulo says.The glittering rags drove the turnover of the second-smallest business branch up by 9% to roughly 3,6 billion $, operative yield climbed up by 19% to 1,1 billion $.
Successes like this one make Iger able to even cope with million-$ flops like the science fiction movie "John Carter" or the strange comic western "Lone Ranger".Iger is bringing the Disney princible, drafted by founder Walt himself in complex sketches, to the boil: "we take a creative idea and make more out ofit - a comic turns into a movie, this into a videog ame and this into an attraction at a holiday resort."
The Disney boss announced a Frozen-musical, fromw hich he expects certain revenue for years to come. In the from Disney's perspective best case the lifespan of such a brand can be extended over generations of cunsomers - even when clasical Disney figurs like Mickey Mouse are interally driven away. Instead Iger puts his money on these new mega brands ([i]note by me: I'm personally just waiting for the day when they go back to the old classics - these new "mega brands" have a far too specific appeal compared to the old all-rounders - they should take care not to dillute their corporate image). Especially characters coming from the acquisitions of Marvel and Lucasfim. Here too the Disney boss has proven to have a good nose, even though analysts have ocassionally reacted skeptically: "the acquisition of Marvel 2010 was a shock", says for example meda analyst Jessica Reif Cohen of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Because the corporation seemed to spend 4 billion $ for a business that was well-known for its superheroes (note by me: DC Comics all the way, bow down, Marvel peasants) but sold all the movie rights for tis most successful figures like Spider-Man and X-Men to other film studios like Sony Pictures and Fox. What could possibly come off that?
cont. in post 2