The rivalry between Bob Iger and Bob Chapek continues on to the written word.
On Thursday, the first pair of excerpts from former Disney exec Chapek’s forthcoming memoir, “Behind the Castle Walls,” were published and, to the surprise of nobody, both focused heavily on his ire toward Iger. In The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair’s tastes of the book, Chapek accused Iger of backstabbing and undermining him during his rocky three-year tenure as CEO.
In an excerpt in THR, Chapek writes about the CNBC interview he and Iger held in February 2020 on the day he was announced as Iger’s successor.
“Bob usually appeared confident and optimistic in interviews, but he clearly didn’t feel that way during this one. I quickly understood I needed to do everything possible to avoid making the situation a fiasco. I could almost feel the daggers Bob was hurling my way,” Chapek writes, describing Iger’s demeanor as cold and his body language as miserable. “Bob Iger was botching the handoff because I believe he didn’t want to let go of the ball.”
In VF’s book sample, Chapek accuses Iger of engaging in a three-year effort to “undermine” him and set him up to fail to win back power. “While I was under pressure to keep the company afloat with no revenue and mounting debt, he appeared to actively work against me. As I pushed for bold streaming strategies to transform Disney into a streaming media powerhouse, he fueled an ego-driven power struggle.”
Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally?), Iger did a friendly interview the same day the excerpts dropped for the Harvard Business Review with former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria (the executive chairman of Thrive Capital where Iger’s an advisor).
Iger discussed the Chapek succession, without naming him.
“We had a process back in 2019 and ’20 when we chose my successor. Looking back, perhaps it wasn’t as thorough as we thought, in part because we thought we knew the person extremely well,” Iger said. “In our zeal to check a box with succession and enable me to move on, first as executive chairman and ultimately to leave, I’m not suggesting that we ignored some of the issues, but I think we discounted them a bit more.”
Chapek’s tome comes out next Tuesday. Let’s see if Iger has any media appearances.
