The Magic of Storytelling - Bob Iger | Highlights | In Good Company

Thank you very much, nice to be here.

Well, I think first of all, the fact that we've touched people's hearts for, as you cited, over a hundred years is meaningful. Because when you tell stories that have the kind of effect that our stories have on people, they become memorable, they become, you know, part of the fabric of people's lives. And they're also stories that are frequently shared with other people, so you have basically a number of people enjoying our stories together, and that also I think compounds the impact of our storytelling. We've also, you know, managed to stick to our core values, and I think that's really important. You know what you're going to get when you see the name Disney on a product, and I think that goes a long way to enabling us to be relevant for over a century.

Well, as Walt Disney used to say, you know, people often like to either experience things or hear stories told that enables them to essentially distance themselves from their daily lives and their daily responsibilities. There's an escapist quality, but I think in many other respects with Disney stories, you know, there are things like relatability, common experiences that are reflected in our storytelling. There's the whole notion of fantasy and igniting people's imagination and creating magic. There's also I think something that's very, very unique to Disney, and that is that we make things that can be enjoyed by multiple generations all at once.

You know, we try to essentially tell stories that are as accessible as possible and that best reflect the world that we are telling stories to. I think that's really quite critical.

What inspired some of his earliest greatest stories were inspired by the great European storytellers of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, for instance. So I think he had a respect. He also liked to travel, and he traveled around Europe. And in many respects, some things that he built at Disneyland came from the inspiration that he got through travel and learning about cultures and learning about places, and wanting the world to feel like a one world instead of a world that was completely broken up.

Empathy is the biggest key. You have to understand that when a creator has pitched you a great story and you've given them the ability to go out and tell that story, you've given them the resources, the money, the tools, the place to tell that story, that story is often coming from within them. It's a passion of theirs, it is the invention of their own mind and their own heart. And you have to understand then just how delicate it is to manage someone who is essentially creating something that comes from within them, that is inherently theirs. And while we have a responsibility on behalf of the company to make sure that they're telling their stories right and they're pursuing the extent possible of perfection in terms of storytelling, and that sometimes requires us to lean on them more in order to get the results that we want, you have to always do so by putting yourself in their shoes.

Occasionally I see something that's really good that ends up surprising me on the upside because it resonates a lot more than even I thought it might for some reason. That happens more often than the opposite, than seeing something that failed where I didn't think it would fail.