Leaders for a Disruptive World: Talking With Bob Iger and Magic Johnson

A few days ago I had the opportunity to speak to a pair of legends as part of an event series designed for visionary leaders to share their experiences with smaller audiences. I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of their insights in a larger forum … because it was a heck of a talk.

Disney Executive Chairman and former CEO Bob Iger led The Walt Disney Company through the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox; the landmark opening of Shanghai Disneyland; and the highly successful launch of the Disney+ streaming service (which has saved many a pandemic parent, myself included).   

Earvin “Magic” Johnson is not only the best point guard that professional basketball has ever seen, he’s also an investor, entrepreneur and world-changing HIV advocate who has focused on marginalized and underserved communities. 

An added bonus of this pairing was that Bob and Magic have been good friends since Magic’s days as a Laker in the eighties. So in addition to their individual insights, we got a window into a longtime friendship and professional collaboration. (At one point Magic confessed, for the first time, that he’d poached four of his organization’s key employees from Disney, and Bob’s reply was, “You’re buying lunch next time.”)

Here are some of the highlight takeaways from the Zoom conversation:

The Importance of Mentorship. I asked both leaders about the surprises/lessons on their journey to the CEO’s chair, and Magic went right to mentorship, talking with passion and gratitude about the mentorship he’d received as a young player. Importantly, he took the initiative to create those relationships. “I knew I had to learn about business while I was playing basketball … so I got a lot of phone numbers from the CEOs who sat at Laker games.” 

Bob, who says he’s actively mentoring seven or eight people right now, also voiced great enthusiasm for the power of mentorship. “When you set aside time to take people under your wing … it’s quite powerful,” he said. “And the feedback loop is great. It’s mutually beneficial.”

The Impact of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone, but Bob and Magic, whose businesses include restaurants, theme parks, live sporting events, and the production and theatrical exhibition of movies, definitely felt the impact. But they spoke less to the business measures they’d had to take, and more about the effect of social unrest, particularly last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.

Magic noted that as corporations stepped up their support in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, it was apparent that there was a lot they could contribute, from increased commitment to diverse hiring and inclusive culture, to partnering with minority-owned businesses. He pointed to investing with Black-owned banks as a way to empower those institutions to make a greater difference in underserved communities. 

Bob talked about how he, and Disney, made efforts “to listen to our employees.” A lot of good, he said, came from deeper discussions about ways Disney can make a difference. “For instance, we’ve committed to more diversity from the entities we buy from and work with,” he said. “We have a decent track record, but there’s still a long way to go.”

The Changing Nature of Leadership. Talk about the pandemic and social crises led to a discussion of how expectations of companies and their leadership are changing. Bob noted that for some years, he was hearing more employees voice their concerns about the social or political climate, such as fears around immigration issues. At first it surprised him, but he realized that people have less confidence in government institutions — which recent polling data has definitely confirmed.

“I felt a greater sense of responsibility to listen to them, to be there for them,” he said. “I think we will see more and more of that. I’m not sure it’s a good thing, in the sense that companies are not necessarily built to do that. But it is a reality.” 

Creativity in a Remote-Work World. We closed with some questions from the audience. The last, and one of the best, addressed the challenges of maintaining a creative environment in our current virtual, remote-work world.

Bob said that creativity can thrive in a remote world: “We managed to produce an entire season of The Mandalorian during this pandemic, and we’re very proud of that.” But he noticed that while creative collaboration is still possible, it’s also more difficult to give criticism to creative people. “We have good relationships, but to not be in the room, reading body language … is not optimal.”

Magic agreed. “I like to be able to feel the temperature of the room,” he said. “And honesty is kinda tough. People can hide behind the machine.”

All that said, I thought the conversation was a great example of the power of remote collaboration. Both Magic and Bob gave candid answers about their careers and beliefs, and they demonstrated a great rapport (fueled in part by their long relationship). And we were able to share the conversation with leaders across the country who wouldn’t have been able to sit down with them in, say, a Disney conference room in Burbank.

We have more of these intimate leadership conversations in the planning stages, and I’ll be sure to share highlights here.