Bob Iger reasserting control at Disney as much of business is shuttered

My reading of this, and ignoring the headlines which make it sound like he's taking over again, makes it sound more of a reaffirmation of what he was already doing.

He is NOT taking the CEO job back, but he is still (and was always) the Chairman of the Board and the Executive Chairman. The Executive Chairman portion of his job is what's "different" and it just means he was in charge of the more creative side and his position as Chairman of the Board he is responsible to look to the future of the company.

This dynamic of a Creative and Business Type (Iger as Creative and Chapek as Business) is the dynamic that the company has had whenever it has done the best, all the way back to Walt and Roy.

So far Bob Chapek is still responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company (though those have dropped drastically due to isolation) and Bob Iger is responsible for the long term goals of the company.

Pretty much he is just doubling down on that and working to figure out how the company is going to look moving forward. And he even states that he will be working closely with Chapek to come to those decisions (as he would even without a crisis)

Executive chairs generally seem to oversee a transition period, which he is doing, but I do think he'll be more hands-on than he would have been otherwise. He had said previously that his goal was to dial in the creative side of the business, but now it sounds like he'll get his hands dirty a bit more in terms of operational direction.

He’s not the only person who is dialing back or rescinding retirement due to the current state of affairs. Doesn’t really seem all that salacious to me. And I can’t even begin to understand hinting that the business challenges facing Disney right now had anything to do with Iger not paying attention. Ugh. The incessant need to blame anytime something bad or uncomfortable happens really gets old. </rant>

“Regardless, any decision about staff reductions will be made by my successor and not me,” he added.

This quote toward the end takes a lot of the salaciousness of the article. I think it’s unlikely that the transition would have looked much different without the crisis.