How Did Bob Iger Win the Disney CEO Job?

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal say Bob Iger won by refusing to defend the past. He was number two to an unpopular lame-duck CEO, so every board question was going to be why the deputy should get the job. He hired a political campaign consultant and told the board the only subject was the future.

He offered three pillars. Spend time and capital on high-quality branded content, and revive Disney animation and the flywheel, because Facebook and YouTube were about to give people infinite choice. Embrace technology instead of suing it, at a moment when Viacom was preparing a lawsuit against YouTube and the music business was still living through Napster. Expand global reach, especially in China and India, where about a third of the world's population lived and where Disney's scale only works if the stories travel.