Bob Iger
发布时间 2020-12-05 04:32:28 来源
摘要
Bob Iger, Walt Disney Co. executive chairman and former chief executive officer, talks about what he wants to do after he leaves the company in December of 2021. He says nothing is off the table. He also discusses his rise from weatherman to Disney CEO, his success as CEO, and the impact COVID-19 has had on Disney and his departure from the company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This is Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg Best is about the insight and the context that we get from our guests. It's a great way to catch up on some of the stories you might have missed on the Bloomberg. Stories you're not going to find in any other news organization. Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg's Best Stories of the Week, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries around the world.
这里是彭博最好的节目。彭博最好的节目可以让我们从嘉宾那里获得深度洞察和上下文,是一个非常好的方式来了解一些可能错过的彭博新闻故事。这些故事在其他新闻机构中是找不到的。彭博最好的节目,由来自120多个国家的2700名记者和分析师提供本周彭博的最佳故事。
I'm Ed Baxter and I'm Denise Pellegrini on this weekend edition of Bloomberg Best.
我是 Ed Baxter,这是布隆伯格最佳周末版节目。还有我的搭档 Denise Pellegrini。
I wanted to make sure I was there for him to help him through what is obviously particularly challenging time. Bob Iger on handing over the reins during a pandemic. Get a job on camera, work the way up from there, all the way to possibly becoming a network anchor man. Albert Walt Disney executives career began as on-air talent.
我想确保我在他身边,帮他度过这明显具有挑战性的时刻。鲍勃·艾格在疫情期间交接工作的事宜上如是说。从拍摄工作开始做起,在职业道路上逐渐发展,最终有可能成为网络新闻主播。艾伯特·华特迪士尼公司高管的职业生涯始于在镜头前的才能。
I gave it some serious thought. Actually, post the election of Donald Trump, I gave it a lot of thought. And Iger for president, all this and more coming up in the next hour of Bloomberg Best.
我认真考虑了一下。事实上,在唐纳德・特朗普当选之后,我特别仔细地考虑了。伊戈尔竞选总统,以及更多内容即将在彭博最佳一小时内呈现。
All right. And if there's anybody associated with Walt Disney besides Walt Disney himself and of course Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, that person is Bob Iger. Yeah. Denise and you know, he's still executive chairman of the company.
好的。如果除了华特·迪士尼本人以及米奇和唐老鸭之外有任何人与华特·迪士尼相关,那个人就是鲍勃·艾格。对。丹尼斯,你知道他仍然是公司的执行主席。
Now, we had a chance to hear from him in depth on the David Rubinstein show, peer-to-peer conversations. And Iger talks about how hard it's been to separate himself from Disney's, his role changes and also about his political ambitions.
现在,我们有机会听到艾格在David Rubenstein节目中深入谈话的经历,这是一种点对点的对话方式。艾格谈到了如何与迪士尼的角色变化分离自己,以及他的政治抱负。
David begins here by asking Iger about his long and successful run at the world's most well-known media giant.
David问艾格有关他在全球最知名媒体巨头担任长期成功领导的一些问题。
During the time that you were the CEO, the stock market value of the company went up about 40, 450 percent. And the market capitalization about 400 percent during that 15 year period of time.
你担任CEO期间,公司的股票市值增长了约40,450%,市值增长了约400%。这15年间,发生了这样的变化。
So my big regret is that I didn't back you and buy stock. But you must be very pleased with what you accomplished in the 15 years that you were the CEO.
所以我最大的遗憾是我没有支持你并购买股票。但你肯定对你在担任CEO的15年中所取得的成就感到非常满意。
Yes. A proud would probably be the right word to use. You know, I inherited a company that was renowned and had been quite successful, but also had gone through a period of difficulty on a variety of levels. And there was a lot of work to do. And my sole goal was to not only improve the lot of the company, but to ultimately leave the company in great hands for my successor.
是的,"骄傲(proud)"这个字应该是最适合的。你知道,我继承的是一家闻名并曾经非常成功的公司,但也经历了一段困难的时期。有很多工作要做。我的唯一目标不仅是改善公司的情况,而且最终要把公司留给我的继任者,并让它在优秀的团队手中继续发展。
But you weren't as successful in leaving the company because you had wanted to leave a few years earlier and then the board said, no, you got to stay longer because you did the Fox acquisition among other things. So why were you so good at running the company, but not so good at leaving the company?
但您在离开公司方面并不像之前几年那样成功,因为您曾经想离开,但董事会说不能离开,因为您还帮忙完成了收购福克斯等其他事情。那么,您为什么在管理公司方面效果很好,但在离开公司方面效果却不佳呢?
I'm told that that's a common ailment of CEOs that have had decent tenure. And so I failed leaving a few times. The first time we had had a succession process that didn't work out as we had hoped. And so I agreed to stay on a little bit longer. And then the last time was solely due to the largest acquisition that we'd ever made. And that was most of the assets of 21st century Fox. And I knew when I proposed doing that to the board, which was, you know, close to when I was supposed to step down that they would say, well, we will support you in this effort as long as you agreed to stay. And we would not want them for good reason to go through a CEO transition just at the time we were making the biggest acquisition we'd ever made.
我听说这是有过相当任期的CEO普遍出现的问题。所以,我曾经失败退出过几次。第一次,我们进行了一次继任过程,但并不如我们所希望的那样成功。所以我同意再留一段时间。然后最后一次是因为我们进行了有史以来最大的收购,那就是21世纪福克斯的大部分资产。当我向董事会提出这个提议时,已经接近我应该离职的时间了,我知道他们将会说,只要你同意留下来,我们将在这一努力中支持你。有很好的理由,我们不希望他们在我们进行有史以来最大的收购时经历CEO交替。
It was rumored in the press and in your book that you were thinking of leaving Disney to run for president of the United States. So whoever heard of a businessman running for president of the United States. So where did you get that idea from?
有传言说你在报纸上和你的书里提到你考虑离开迪士尼去竞选美国总统。但是谁听说过商人竞选美国总统呢?那么你是从哪里得到这个想法的?
Well, there was some truth to that. Both before the 16 election and then after the 16 election, I gave it some serious thought actually post the election of Donald Trump. I gave it a lot of thought and actually did a fair amount of homework to study the feasibility of it. And I'm not sure I would have gotten as far as actually running because as the realist in me was sinking in, I was starting to think more and more about how difficult the path might be in the Democratic party for a businessman to actually get the nomination.
其实,这话有一些道理。在16年选举前和选举后,我都认真考虑过,实际上特朗普当选后我更是深思熟虑了。我非常认真地思考过,并进行了大量的研究,以探究这种想法的可行性。但我不确定我会真的参选,因为随着现实主义思维形成,我开始越来越意识到,在民主党中,一个企业家想要获得提名,这条路会有多难走。
What would you say is the chance that you would be interested in serving in a senior position in a Biden administration? Would that be something of any interest to you? Or you wouldn't want to come to Washington for that kind of thing?
你觉得你有没有兴趣在拜登政府中担任高级职位呢?这件事对你有吸引力吗?或者你不想为了这类事情来到华盛顿?
Well, I've always thought about what the next chapter in my life might be post Disney because there will be a post Disney soon. I'm not going to fail stepping down again. And giving back in some fashion, serving our country in some fashion is certainly something that I would consider seriously, but a lot of it would depend on what it is, what the opportunity is and whether I thought it would be something that I would both be stimulated by and and be good at.
嗯,我一直在想离开迪士尼后我的人生下一章会是什么,因为离开迪士尼的日子很快就要来了。我不想再次失败离开。以某种方式回报社会,为国家服务的想法当然是我认真考虑的,但很大程度上取决于机会是什么以及我是否认为它会刺激我的同时也具备我的优势。
So let's go back to the Disney situation. You announced that you're going to step down finally at the end of 2019, become executive chair and then COVID hit comes along and did COVID make it possible for you to leave as the same way you thought you were going to be able to leave or do you have to spend more time at Disney when COVID hit?
那么让我们回到迪士尼的情况。你宣布你最终会在2019年底下台,成为执行主席,然后COVID疫情爆发了,这是否使你能够像你原本以为的那样离开,或者COVID疫情爆发后你必须在迪士尼花更多的时间?
Well, what actually happened was I stepped down from the CEO position as you mentioned to become executive chairman and to focus all of my time and energy on our creative process because I thought obviously what we create is the most valuable product that we have. I thought that the best thing I could do in terms of enabling my successor to succeeded the job would to hand him a very, very rich pipeline of great creativity.
嗯,事实上发生的是,就像你提到的那样,我辞去了首席执行官的职位,成为执行主席,把所有的时间和精力都集中在创意过程上。因为我认为,我们创造的东西显然是我们最有价值的产品。我认为,我能为我的继任者成功完成工作做的最好的事情就是把一个非常非常丰富的伟大创意管道递给他。
And in fact, I have spent almost all of my time since I stepped into this role doing just that. However, I also wanted to make sure he was successful in in other respects as well. And he had not handled a crisis that was anything like this by the way, nor had I. And so I, you know, I wanted to make sure I was there for him to help him through what is obviously particularly challenging time not only for the world, but very specifically for our company. And I've done just that so he's been the CEO, he's been running the company from the day he stepped into that role.
实际上,自从我担任这个职位以来,我几乎所有的时间都花在了这件事上。不过,我也希望他在其他方面也能成功。顺便一提,他以前从没有处理过像这样的危机,我也是。所以我想确保我在他身边,帮助他度过这显然对整个世界,特别是我们公司来说都是特别具有挑战性的时期。我已经做到了,他自从担任CEO以来一直在经营公司。
I feel confident that he is doing a good job and will do a good job into the future. And I've probably been there for them a little bit more than I might have expected. I think one of the hardest things is in passing the baton on to someone else, you know, you expect that you're going to spend some in a situation where I was going to continue as an employee and executive of the company. I expected I would spend more time with him, meaning being more physically present as an advisor and as a support for him. That obviously has not happened. It's been a little bit more challenging.
我相信他在做好他的工作,并且将来也会做得很好。我也可能为他们提供了比我预期更多的帮助。我认为最困难的事情之一是将接力棒交给其他人,你知道,你期望在我继续担任公司员工和高管的情况下会有一些时间。我本来希望我会花更多的时间和他在一起,成为他的顾问和支持。显然,这一点并没有发生。这对我来说有点更具挑战性。
So if somebody was an outsider and they say, well, COVID is hitting the United States hitting other places. The kind of companies that aren't going to do well or companies that say are in the theme park business, the live entertainment business, the cruise ship business, the hotel business. And those are all the businesses that you're in yet your stock has really rallied and done reasonably well. Why do you think you haven't been as hard hit financially as you might think on from the outside.
如果有人是外部人,他们会说,新冠疫情正在美国和其他地方造成影响。那些不会做得很好的公司就是那些从事主题公园业务、现场娱乐业务、邮轮业务、酒店业务的公司。可是你们的股票确实有很大的上涨,表现还不错。为什么你们在财务方面并没有像外部人可能想象的那样受到严重打击呢?
I think the reason our stock has been resilient and the company has been resilient is we were on extremely solid footing as a company going into this. Meaning our businesses were all doing well and their prospects for the future were actually quite bright. And so I think the street has looked at us knowing that we've been affected in dramatic fashion by COVID, but also realizing that when it ends, we will have the ability to rebound in a significant way. In addition to that, we had pivoted in a very significant way in the direct to consumer digital entertainment direction, meaning we launched Disney plus ESPN plus and in the acquisition of 21st century Fox for a controlling share of Hulu.
我认为我们的股票和公司都很有韧性的原因在于,我们作为一家公司进入时已经站稳了脚跟。这意味着我们的业务都很好,并且未来的前景实际上相当光明。我认为市场看着我们,知道我们受到了COVID的巨大冲击,但也意识到,当疫情结束时,我们将有能力以显著的方式反弹。此外,我们在直接面向消费者的数字娱乐方向上有了很大的转变,我们推出了Disney plus ESPN plus,并通过收购21世纪福克斯获得了控制Hulu的股份。
So we moved into a space that is not only very exciting in many respects, the future of entertainment, but one that invests the investment community is looking at very positively.
我们搬进了一个在许多方面都很令人兴奋的空间,它是娱乐业未来的方向,投资社区也对它非常乐观地看待。
So how did a nice Jewish boy from New York wind up running Disney? Let's go through that. You grew up in the New York areas. That right? Yes, it is cut by the way, it's a pinch, a pinch yourself moment. And I grew up in a relatively modest background lower middle class. My dad was a well educated man, the advertising business, but he suffered from terrible manic depression and it made it very difficult for him to hold a job. My mother became an employee at a junior high school library, later on in my childhood to help support our family, but it was modest background, but I love, I never felt poor and I never felt deprived of anything, including love, by the way, my family.
所以,一个来自纽约的不错的犹太男孩怎么成了迪士尼的负责人呢?让我们来看看。你是在纽约的区域长大的,是吗?是的,顺便说一下,这让人有点难以置信,它是瞬间就让你感到不可思议。我在一个相对简朴的背景中长大,属于中低收入阶层。我父亲是一个受过良好教育的广告业人士,但他患有严重的躁郁症,这使他很难保住工作。为了帮助我们的家庭,我的母亲在我童年时期成为了一所初中图书馆的职员,但这是一个简朴的背景。但是我从来没有觉得自己贫穷,也从未感到自己缺少任何东西,包括家人的爱,顺便说一下。
Your parents didn't say you need to be a lawyer or a doctor or something like that. They didn't say that to you. There was a little bit of a push for me to be a doctor because my mother's oldest brother was, but no, my father and my mom were pretty good at letting me pursue my whatever my dreams were. And my dreams early on were to become a Walter Cronkite or a television news anchor person. I actually became a weatherman when I left Ithaca college for a local TV station there.
你的父母没有说过你需要成为律师或医生之类的,他们没有对你有这样的要求。我原本稍微有点被推向成为医生的方向,因为我母亲的最年长的哥哥就是医生,但是,我父亲和母亲还是很好地让我去追求我的梦想。而我早期的梦想是成为沃尔特•克朗凯特或电视新闻主播之类的。实际上,当我离开伊萨卡学院去一家当地电视台工作时,我成为了一名气象学家。
And that was sort of the start, get a job on camera and then hopefully work up, work your way up from there all the way to, you know, possibly becoming a network anchor man. Well, that didn't happen. I lost confidence in myself and my ability to actually fulfill that dream. And so I pivoted and took a job behind the scenes in production at ABC in the middle of 1974.
那就是开始,先在摄像头前找到一份工作,然后希望能从那里向上升级,一直到有可能成为一个网络主播。但是,这并没有发生。我失去了自信,认为自己无法实现那个梦想。于是,我转换了方向,并于1974年中期在ABC公司担任幕后制作的工作。
So if you ever thought you could have been Al Roker, if you were really good at being a weatherman. That's true. Yeah. So, you know, I tease every once in a while. I'll go into one of our TV stations or visit a good morning American. I warn them that, you know, my next job may be theirs. And I may, you know, I may become the weather person on good morning America.
如果你曾经认为自己有可能成为 Al Roker,如果你真的擅长当气象员的话。那是真的。是的。所以,你知道的,我有时会开玩笑。我会去我们的电视台之一或者拜访《早安美国》。我会警告他们,你知道的,我的下一份工作可能就是他们的工作。我可能会成为《早安美国》的气象员。
So initially you were doing some production at ABC and so forth, but eventually went into the sports area. So did you think your career was going to be basically one day running ABC sports and that would be the highest that you would have rise to? What have been fine with me? Actually, there are a number of steps along the way that if I had achieved them, I would have been absolutely fine with that being kind of the last job..
最开始,你在ABC做了一些生产工作,后来进入了体育领域。你曾经认为你的职业生涯基本上会是一天运营ABC体育,这将是你能够达到的最高境界吗?对我来说这样也是可以的。实际上,我在这个过程中有许多步骤,如果我实现了它们,我会完全满意它成为我的最后一份工作。
Yes, I would have loved to have been president of ABC sports. Interestingly enough, I never got that opportunity. The people who had purchased ABC from capital city's communication, Tom Murphy and Dan Burke actually took me out of that role and sent me out to LA. I was the entertainment division of ABC or primetime programming, which is a huge step for me into an area of the business that I had very little familiarity with. But they believed in me and gave me that shot.
是的,我真的很想成为ABC运动的总裁。有趣的是,我从未有过这个机会。从资本城通讯公司购买ABC的人,汤姆·墨菲和丹·伯克,实际上把我从那个职位中拿走,派我去了洛杉矶。我被分配到ABC娱乐部门或黄金时段节目,这对我来说是一个非常大的进步,因为我对这个业务领域几乎一无所知。但他们相信我,并给了我这个机会。
So when you you're doing very well out there, then ABC says you're doing so well, we want you to come back to New York and kind of help run the whole company. Did you want to go back to New York at that point?
当你在那边做得非常好的时候,ABC说你做得很好,我们想让你回到纽约来帮忙管理整个公司。那时你是想回到纽约去吗?
I did. I was ready. I had done my four and a half years stint at ABC entertainment. But I was ready to go back to New York and they offered me the job to be president of ABC, the ABC network.
我已经准备好了。我在ABC娱乐公司工作了四年半,但是我已经做好准备回到纽约。他们提供给我担任ABC电视网络总裁的工作。
Now you're the big shot and you are going to be you're running the whole company and not all of a sudden, cap cities people say, guess what? We're going to sell the company to Disney. So was that something you were happy with there? Did you think there was a role for you then?
现在你是高管,你即将经营整个公司,但突然之间,Cap Cities的人说:“猜猜?我们要将公司卖给迪士尼。”那时你是否感到高兴?你是否认为那对你有帮助?
Well, it was an incredible time. It was the summer of 1995 and I had been told by Tom Murphy who was in chairman that it was likely I'd become the next CEO. Which I thought was great Warren Buffett, by the way, was our largest shareholder. And I thought he had some enough faith in me. But Michael Eisner approached us and made an offer that not only we felt we couldn't refuse, but we thought was in the best interest to the shareholders of the company turns out we were right and look in the back of my mind. Even though Michael made it very, very clear that they were never going to be a guarantee. I thought if I played my cards right, if I performed well, I could potentially run the Walt Disney company at some point.
嗯,那时候真是非常不可思议。当时是1995年的夏天,我被主席Tom Murphy告知我很有可能成为下一任CEO,这让我感到非常棒。值得一提的是,我们最大的股东是沃伦·巴菲特,我想他对我的能力很有信心。但是迈克尔·艾斯纳找到我们,提出了一个条件,我们觉得不仅无法拒绝,而且符合公司股东最佳利益。最终事实证明我们是正确的。虽然迈克尔非常明确地表示,这一切都并非保证。但我心里想,如果我把牌打好,表现得足够好,有可能某一天掌管华特迪士尼公司。
So eventually, Michael Eisner decides to retire a little earlier than maybe he had thought he was going to retire. The board says we have to go look for somebody to run the company. Did they just call you up the next day and say it's your job? Or did you have to kind of go through a little beauty contest?
最终,迈克尔·艾斯纳决定比预期提早退休。董事会说我们必须找人来管理公司。他们是否在第二天打电话通知你这是你的工作?还是你需要进行一场小选美比赛?
Yeah, a little beauty contest would be an understatement. Now, we, as I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion, we had gone through a tough period of time. And the board felt that and rightfully so looking back that they had to be expansive in their thinking about who the next CEO should be. And they created a true contest. They considered a number of outside candidates, they interviewed outside candidates. And they said to me that I was the only inside candidate, but they made pretty clear at the beginning that not only was not a guarantee, but it was less likely that I would get it because I had been COO for five years. And they, they seemed intent on bringing change to the company because they felt it was needed. And so as the insider, I actually had the outside track, not the inside track. Eventually they call you up and say the job is yours.
是的,小小的选美比赛不足为奇。正如我在讨论开始时提到的,我们经历了一段艰难的时光。董事会也意识到这一点,回顾过去觉得他们必须在寻找下一任CEO时思维更开阔。他们开展了一场真正的竞赛。他们考虑了许多外部候选人,并面试了他们。他们告诉我,我是唯一的内部候选人,但他们一开始就很明确地表示,这并不是保证,而且由于我已经担任首席运营官五年,获得这个职位的可能性更小。他们似乎决心给公司带来改变,因为他们认为这是必要的。所以作为内部人员,我实际上走的是外部的道路,而不是内部的道路。最后他们打电话给你,告诉你这个工作是你的了。
And subsequently, as I mentioned the outset, your stock is up about 400 plus percent and market caps about 400 plus percent. Then anybody ever call you up and say, hey, we made the right decision. We're sorry we made you go through that process. Does anybody do that?
之后,正如我一开始提到的那样,你们公司的股价上涨了约400%以上,市值也增长了约400%以上。那么,有人打电话给你们说,“嘿,我们做出了正确的决定。我们很抱歉让你们经历了那个过程。”有人这样做吗?
No one said that we're sorry we've made you go through the process. They, they, on the number of occasions board members were very generous in their compliments of me and, and to me about the job that I was doing. I think, you know, looking back, I think they thought they made, they made the right decision. And look, I think that the numbers speak for themselves and the position of the company today is, you know, far different than it was back then. And, you know, a lot of that was due to strategy that was laid out even in that succession process because they discussed some of the things I wanted to accomplish and being able to execute that strategy over the years.
没有人说过我们为让你经历这个过程感到遗憾。他们,他们,在许多场合,董事会成员对我非常赞赏,并对我对工作的表现给予赞赏。回过头看,我认为他们认为他们做出了正确的决定。看,我认为数字代表了一切,今天公司的位置与当时大不相同。而且,你知道,其中很多都归功于当时继任过程中制定的战略,因为他们讨论了我想要完成的一些事情,并能够在多年中执行该战略。
In your book, you point to four acquisitions you made. Let me try to go through each of them with you. One of the first ones was Pixar. You, Disney had a complicated relationship with Pixar. How did you convince Steve Jobs to sell you Pixar and was that an easy decision to convince the board to buy Pixar? It was thought to be a pretty high price.
你的书中,指出了你做出的四项收购。让我试着和你一起回顾一下。其中最先收购的一项是皮克斯。迪士尼和皮克斯的关系一度比较复杂。你是怎样说服史蒂夫·乔布斯将皮克斯卖给你的,说服董事会购买皮克斯是一项容易的决定吗?一般认为价格偏高。
Yeah, we paid over $7 billion for Pixar and it was an idea that I had right, right away. In fact, I laid that idea on the table to the board and my first meeting at CEO of the company, which I'm not sure it's the right way to start.
是的,我们花了超过70亿美元收购了皮克斯,这是我的一个想法,我立刻就提了出来。事实上,在我成为公司CEO的第一次会议上,我就把这个想法放在了会议桌上,但我不确定这是否是一个合适的开始。
But we had gone through a period of time where Disney animation had been faltering. And almost a decade. And we had a very good. We had had a lot of success with Pixar and what was basically a joint venture with them.
但是我们曾经经历过迪士尼动画陷入低谷的时期。这个时期长达十年。不过我们很幸运。我们和皮克斯一起进行了一项联合计划,并取得了很多成功。
That was ending and Steve Jobs, you know, in a very, very difficult and kind of in your face manner told us publicly, meaning he made an announcement publicly that the Pixar relationship with Disney would end.
那时,史蒂夫·乔布斯以极其困难和有点直白的方式向我们宣布,即在公开场合宣布皮克斯与迪士尼的关系将结束。
I felt that I had to address Disney animation that it needed, it needed huge improvement. And I thought the fastest way to accomplish that all be at the riskiest and the most expensive was to buy Pixar.
我觉得我必须说一下迪士尼的动画需要大大改进。我认为最快实现这一点尽管风险最高、代价最昂贵的方式就是收购皮克斯。
Not only to bring Pixar in as part of the company, but bring the executives in that would create it all the success of Pixar and have them turn Disney animation around. And that was my pitch to the board.
我的建议是不仅让皮克斯成为公司的一部分,而且还要把那些能让皮克斯成功的高管引进来,让他们推动迪士尼动画的复苏。这就是我向董事会提出的提案。
And it took on the board side, it took from October to January to convince them it was the right thing. And a lot of. I used up all the capital I had and they didn't have much because I was a brand new CEO.
"这需要花费了很长时间,从10月到1月才说服董事会支持这件事。我用尽了我所有的资本,但他们并没有很多,因为我是一位全新的CEO。"
But I also was able to convince Steve Jobs that it was a good idea when the notion of buying Pixar came to me.
但是,当我想到收购皮克斯的想法时,我也能说服史蒂夫·乔布斯认为这是一个好主意。
And I called him up. I was actually quite nervous. I got him on the phone and I said, I've got a crazy idea. Can I come up and talk to you about it?
我打电话给他时,其实有点紧张。我接通了电话,然后说:“我有一个疯狂的想法,可以来跟你谈谈吗?”
I didn't think I should broke the subject on the phone. Well, I don't know how well you knew Steve, but anyone who knew Steve would know that if you said to Steve, I have a crazy idea, he would have to hear it right away.
我觉得我不应该在电话里提出这个话题。你对Steve了解多少我不清楚,但是任何认识Steve的人都知道,如果你对他说“我有一个疯狂的想法”,他就必须立刻听听。
So the notion that I would say that to him and then say, but I'll come up and talk to you was ridiculous. And he made me tell him on the phone, like in a minute. What was my crazy idea? He said, well, it's not that crazy. Why don't we, why don't you come up and we'll talk about it.
所以说,我会对他说这样的话,但又说我会来和你谈谈,这种想法是荒谬的。然后,他让我在电话里告诉他,只用一分钟。我的疯狂想法是什么?他说,嗯,不算太疯狂。我们为什么不一起去谈谈呢?
And that led to a very, very interesting discussion with him on the subject us buying Pixar and Steve becoming the largest shareholder of the Walt Disney company, a member of our board and a true friend of mine that was just a simple result of that process.
这导致了我和他之间关于我们购买皮克斯以及史蒂夫成为华特迪士尼公司最大的股东和董事会成员,同时也成为我的一位真正朋友的非常有趣的讨论。这些只是那个过程的简单结果。
Before the Disney board is about to approve the acquisition, he tells you something about his health that he has his cancer had returned. So did you ever think about changing the procedure, proceeding to go forward with the deal or not?
在迪士尼董事会即将批准收购之前,他告诉你他的癌症已经复发。那么,你有没有考虑改变程序,继续进行交易,还是不进行交易?
Yeah, actually we were on the Pixar campus, basically preparing for the announcement, which Steve and I were going to make.
嗯,实际上我们当时在皮克斯公司的园区,主要是为了准备宣布一件事情,这件事情由我和史蒂夫来宣布。
And he said, can we go for a walk? And he told me that he was going to tell me something that only his wife and his doctors knew. And that was that the cancer that he had had a few years earlier.
他说,我们可以去散步吗?他告诉我,他要告诉我一些只有他的妻子和医生知道的事情。那就是他几年前得过的癌症。
That he was operated on had come back in a different form. And he wanted me to know it because he wanted me to he wanted to give me a chance to back out of the deal.
他曾经接受手术的事情以不同的形式回来了。他想让我知道这件事,因为他希望我有机会退出交易。
At that point, I looked at my watch and it was incredible. It was 30 minutes before we were announcing a seven plus billion dollar deal that everybody that needed to approve it had approved.
那时,我看了看手表,不可思议的是,在我们公布一个七十多亿美元的交易之前,还有半小时,所有需要批准的人都已经批准了。
It's not like I had an opportunity to phone anybody and ask for their advice because he demanded confidentiality.
我并没有机会给任何人打电话并询问他们的建议,因为他要求保密。
I mean, I made a decision kind of on the spot, which is that we were buying Pixar that while Steve was important in the acquisition because he would become a board member and a shareholder.
我是说,当时我是即兴做出了一个决定,那就是我们要收购皮克斯,虽然史蒂夫在此次收购中非常重要,因为他将成为董事会成员和股东。
He was not material to the Pixar deal itself. And therefore, I thought that I was exercising the right set of responsibilities as the CEO of the company and and and asking shareholders ultimately to approve a large acquisition.
他本身并无关系于Pixar交易。因此,我认为作为公司CEO,我在行使正确的职责,最终要求股东批准一个大型收购。
And so, while we went to make the announcement with me carrying that incredibly heavy news inside me and it was a secret actually that held for a few years that the world didn't know.
所以,当我们去宣布消息时,我背负着那个极为沉重的秘密,实际上这个秘密持续了几年之久,世界并不知道。
And that was in early 2006 and he lived until October of 2011. So I had the benefit of not only his friendship and his advice and his position on the board, but you know of the of the wisdom that Steve job brought to any room, any situation wisdom and incredible talent and instinct.
那是在2006年初,他一直活到2011年10月。因此我不仅受益于他的友谊、建议和在董事会上的地位,而且也受益于史蒂夫·乔布斯带给任何房间、任何情境的智慧、令人难以置信的才华和直觉。
And so, I personally has a lot of characters, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, so forth. Why did you need to go by the characters from Marvel Entertainment? That's was your next big acquisition, another comic book series of characters. Why did you feel that was such an important deal?
所以,就我个人而言,我有很多人物,唐老鸭、米老鼠、米妮老鼠等等。你为什么要选择漫威娱乐的角色呢?那是你们接下来收购的一份大规模漫画人物系列。你为什么觉得这是一笔如此重要的交易呢?
And in 2005 when I became CEO, we were starting to see a very, very disrespected, huge amount of disruption to our business. And one of the things that mostly thanks to technology and one of the things that new technology was bringing was an explosion of what was being produced of creativity and consumer choice in the entertainment field.
2005年我成为CEO时,我们开始看到业务方面非常非常不受尊重的巨大干扰。这主要归功于技术,其中新技术带来了一种爆炸式的创造力和消费者在娱乐领域中的选择。
And I thought that with so much more consumer choice, that high quality branded entertainment would be even more valuable. So after the Pixar acquisition was successful, we created a list of acquisition targets at Disney. And they all were consistent with what I just laid out. We were looking for high quality branded entertainment and Marvel and Star Wars were at the top of the list.
我曾认为,由于消费者拥有更多的选择,优质品牌娱乐会更具价值。所以在皮克斯收购成功后,我们在迪士尼制定了一份收购目标清单。这些目标都符合我刚才所言,我们正在寻找优质的品牌娱乐,而漫威和星球大战则名列榜首。
So you then went to talk to George Lucas and said, by the way, I'd like to buy your company and we will make Star Wars in the future. And you can watch the movie, but we're going to make it. Was that hard for him to give up the creative control of Star Wars? It was, but again, you know, we saw in Star Wars something that was extraordinary like Marvel and like Pixar and like Disney, as I talked earlier, and the difference being that George was the creator of it and the sole shareholder of it.
那么,你接着去找乔治·卢卡斯说,顺便说一下,我想买下你的公司,我们将在未来制作《星球大战》。你可以看电影,但我们将制作它。他放弃《星球大战》的创意控制权很困难吗?是的,但我们看到了《星球大战》的非凡之处,就像漫威、皮克斯和迪士尼一样,正如我之前所说的。区别在于,乔治是它的创造者和唯一的股东。
And it was really who he was. And I think he explained to me at some point that, you know, when he passes this, it will say Star Wars creator George Lucas, this was, you know, like selling his birthright. It was an incredibly difficult thing for him. I had a lot of empathy for him, but it was hard. And I don't know whether he has has second thoughts about he's never he hasn't expressed that to me, but I would guess that it's worked out really well for him for his family. It certainly worked out well for us.
他真的就是那个人。我记得他曾经向我解释过,当他把这个交出去时,人们会称他为《星球大战》创作者George Lucas,就像把他的产业卖掉一样困难。我非常理解他,但这对他来说很艰难。我不知道他是否有所犹豫,他从未向我表达过这个想法,但我猜想这对他和他的家人来说,一定很成功。对我们来说,这当然也非常成功。
I can't speak for him, but I think he's happy with the stock price increase that he got from from the acquisition. But again, I can't speak for him.
我不知道他的想法,但是我觉得他应该很高兴,因为收购导致股价上涨。但是再说一遍,我不能替他回答。
Let me ask you about the last acquisition. You know, the ones he've made, they weren't what I would call bet your company kinds of acquisitions. They were expensive, but they weren't exactly 50 and 60 billion dollar acquisitions. So when Rupert Murdock said he might be interested in selling part of his company, did you worry about, you know, if it didn't work out, it could be the end of your job and the end of your career and things like that.
让我问一下你最近收购的事情。你知道,他做的那些收购并不是我所说的那种非常大胆的收购。它们很昂贵,但并不是价值五六十亿美元的收购。所以当鲁珀特·默多克说他可能有兴趣出售公司的一部分时,你是否担心,如果不成功,这可能是你的工作和职业生涯的终结之类的事情。
No, look, I've gone into every one of these acquisitions with a level of confidence that not only were they were the right acquisition, the right price that, but that we could execute the vision that we had when we laid out the reasoning behind the acquisition. Maybe it had too much confidence, I don't know, but so far so good.
不,你看,每次我们进行收购时,我都有着足够的自信,相信这些收购不仅是正确的选择,而且价格也合适,我们可以根据当初制定的收购理由去实现我们的愿景。也许我的自信过度了,我不知道,但目前为止一切都很顺利。
So now as executive chairman, you have a little more free time than maybe when you had the CEO. And if you don't go into the Biden administration, what are you going to do to top what you've done and to keep yourself energized? I read you just went on to the board of a new food company. What do you want to do to top what you've already done?
现在作为执行主席,你比担任首席执行官时可能有更多的自由时间。如果你不进入拜登政府,你打算如何超越你已经做的,保持自己的精力?我看到你刚刚加入了一家新食品公司的董事会。你想做些什么来超越你已经完成的?
I don't really have a need to top what I've done at all. I'm extremely satisfied with what I've accomplished. And I wouldn't, if I could do it again, I wouldn't change anything. I don't think. So I'm really, I'm not looking to do that at all. I'm looking for things that are stimulating, as I mentioned earlier, whether that's in the public or the private sector. I don't know.
我真的没有必要再超越我所做的了,我对自己所取得的成就非常满意。如果我再来一次,我不会改变任何事情,我想。所以我真的不想再去这样做。我在寻找激励人的事情,就像我之前提到的,无论是在公共部门还是私营部门。我不知道。
If you considered the highest calling of mankind, which is private equity as another career, you know, I'm not ruling anything out. I know, I know private equity has served you extremely well. I've had some feelers from that space. I've not made any decisions about what I do next.
如果你把私人股权看作是人类最高的职业使命之一,那么,你知道,我不排除任何职业。我知道,私人股权让你得到了极大的好处。我已经收到了一些对这个领域的询问。我还没有就接下来该做什么做出任何决定。
I think I'm very excited about the next chapter, you know. I'm sure it will be a sorry day for me to leave Disney because it's been my home for 46 years, almost 47 by the time I leave. On the other hand, there's a whole world out there and I still have a lot of energy and a lot of huge amount of curiosity. And I'm looking forward to it.
我觉得我对下一章非常兴奋啊。我肯定会为离开迪士尼而感到遗憾,因为我在那里已经生活了46年了,到我离开的时候将近47年了。但是另一方面,整个世界还在等着我,我还有很多精力和好奇心。我非常期待未来的生活。
That was Bob Eiger, current executive chairman and former CEO at Walt Disney on the David Rubenstein show, Peer to Peer Conversations. And that's it for this hour of Bloomberg Best. I'm Ed Baxter. And I'm Denise Pellegrini. This is Bloomberg.
那是沃尔特·迪士尼公司现任执行主席和前首席执行官鲍勃·艾格在戴维·鲁宾斯坦展示中进行的点对点对话。这就是本小时的彭博精选。我是艾德·巴克斯特。我是丹尼斯·佩莱格里尼。这是彭博电视。