Disney's struggling CEO Bob Chapek with prior successful CEO Bob Iger. Photo: Disney

It’s a quandary. How do you survive your financial needs today while building an amazing future. But without surviving the challenges of COVID, lockdowns, staffing, and inflation today, tomorrow isn’t possible.

Disney is undergoing a similar challenge. Mouse fans have been complaining loudly about current CEO Bob Chapek. A petition to remove him has, for instance, garnered over 90,000 signatures. But is his replacement warranted?

One of the complaints about Chapek is Disney’s aggressive pricing, with many formerly free offerings now costing extra. Chapek does have a reputation for pinching pennies: a painful but perhaps necessary attribute in the current environment. Disney, has lost billions of dollars in revenue during the COVID shutdowns, and the company’s balance sheet has to be righted in order for it to remain viable. But what Chapek seems to lack is vision.

Walt and Roy Disney worked together, each at his strength: Walt thinking up new offerings and Roy managing the money. When they passed away, company leadership fell to businessmen, not creatives. The lack of vision led to trouble: lackluster product and a hostile takeover battle that ended with a creative ([Michael Eisner) taking the reins.

Eisner was, in many ways, like Walt. Boyish enthusiasm, charismatic, and teeming with ideas. He and Walt even had similar last names (Disney & Eisner). In partnership with the more business focused company president (Frank Wells), Disney experienced an era of explosive growth. Eisner’s visions worked for many years, but eventually, in an era of austerity, and without Wells at his side, Michael lost focus and resigned.

His replacement, Bob Iger, was quieter but also a visionary. Iger had looks, charisma, humility, and was perfectly balanced between creativity and costs. I remember attending one town hall for us Walt Disney World managers, for instance, were Iger explained his strategy: reliance on brand identity and Intellectual Property (IP) to deliver future success. The purchases of Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th Century Fox aligned with this strategy.

When Iger retired, Chapek was named CEO and the complaints began. Chapek is not Iger level handsome, or an inspiring speaker, or particularly charismatic. Nor does he have a creative counterbalance like Walt and Michael did. The complaints about him focus on the lack of creativity: cost cutting and an overreliance Iger’s IP strategy.

Will Chapek survive. Who knows. He was clearly the right CEO for tough financial times. Is he the right one for creative future visions? Likely not without a visionary by his side.

Balancing costs and creativity may be your problem too. The challenge is to do both: balance costs and vision so you can survive today AND build an amazing future. If you're good at one and not the other, perhaps it’s time to partner. Although a focus on costs sustains today, creativity ignites the future.