There are certain things in life that stick out as memorable. These are the things where people remember where they were and what they were doing when something happened. For many Disney fans, the announcement that former Disney CEO Bob Chapek had been fired and that Bob Iger was returning fits that bill. While this wasn’t on the scale of other moments where people remember where they were when something happened, like when man landed on the moon, the news was huge in the world of Disney. Once again, Bob Iger was back. This time, he would stay in the top job for four years before a much smoother transition to the current Disney CEO, Josh D’Amaro.
This week, it was announced that Bob Iger will be releasing another book about his second time running The Walt Disney Company. Called ONE LAST TIME: Managing Crisis and Building Resilience at Disney, this book will delve into Iger’s experiences and lessons learned upon leaving retirement to lead a Disney that was much different than what he left. Not only was the company now facing proxy battles, but it was also seeing challenges in the landscape in which it existed. This included a media world that was moving increasingly faster into the world of streaming, the rise of A.I., and a thorny political environment that led to the suspension of late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel.
“This is a comeback story,” Iger says. “It’s about what Disney needed to find its way back to its core values and what that journey taught me about leading in a time of unprecedented challenge and change.”
This is a book where Iger explores how leaders own up to mistakes and persevere through constant crisis. During his four years as the Disney CEO this second time around, he would discover that he would have to be more resilient, innovative, and most importantly, creative, if he wanted to survive and, with him, if the century-old House of Mouse would survive as well.
ONE LAST TIME: Managing Crisis and Building Resilience at Disney will be released on March 2, 2027, and published by Random House. It is available for preorder now.
ONE LAST TIME: Managing Crisis and Building Resilience at Disney Official Description
An inspiring, candid memoir of leadership in times of adversity—by the former CEO of Disney and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ride of a Lifetime
Robert Iger was less than a year into his retirement when he got an urgent phone call from the chair of the Disney board: Would he be willing to return to his job as CEO? Finances were shaky, leadership was flagging, morale was dangerously low, and the brand was tarnished. They needed him back.
It wasn’t going to be easy this time around. The entertainment industry was facing existential threats: movie theaters had suffered in the pandemic, traditional TV was fading, and audiences were moving, at alarming speed, toward streaming platforms and short-form content. It was harder to deliver profit, let alone growth. Legacy media everywhere was being split up, getting swallowed by other companies, or simply running itself into the ground. When Iger agreed to return, he did so with one goal in mind: to put the failed succession behind him and put Disney back on firm footing. To survive, the company—and Iger himself—would have to become more resilient, innovative, and, above all, creative. Iger would also have to learn to be a new kind of leader, and he would be challenged in ways he never imagined.
How do you lead through periods of adversity? How do you regain the trust of employees, customers, and shareholders? Iger would have to develop a new playbook, for a new era, and he would make his share of mistakes along the way. One Last Time is the story of the sometimes bumpy, never boring journey to reconnect a great company to its core values, while building a new, lasting foundation in a highly disruptive and rapidly changing world.
Previously, when Bob Iger originally retired from The Walt Disney Company, he wrote and released The Ride of A Lifetime – Lessons Learned From 15 Years As CEO of The Walt Disney Company. This is a book that is as much about leadership as it is about his life and is definitely worth reading.
What do you think of this new book from Bob Iger? Are you going to read it? What do you most hope to pick up from it? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
