Disney this week introduced Josh D’Amaro, its parks chief, because the winner of its very public race to be its subsequent CEO; he’ll take over for outgoing chief govt Bob Iger in March. However together with the glory of the CEO crown and the monumental job of working the complicated leisure large, D’Amaro faces a tough personnel problem: turning into the boss of his former peer. Dana Walden, Disney’s TV and leisure chief, was reportedly a fellow CEO contender he beat out for the job.
The Fortune 500 is plagued by examples of wanna-be CEOs who left their corporations after being handed over for the highest job. And leaving generally is a pure response to such a snub. Famously, when GE named Jeff Immelt CEO in 2001, the three different inside candidates ultimately departed the corporate for prime jobs elsewhere. Former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson left to change into CEO at J.C. Penney when the tech large named Tim Prepare dinner CEO in 2011. Simply final month, Walmart introduced that its worldwide CEO Kathryn McLay, thought-about a CEO contender, was leaving the corporate following the appointment of John Furner because the retail large’s subsequent chief.
However in Disney’s case, Walden appears prone to stick round, a minimum of for some time. In saying D’Amaro as CEO, Disney additionally promoted Walden, a revered Hollywood insider, to president and chief artistic officer. She’s the primary to carry that title within the firm’s 102-year historical past, and it provides her oversight of all of Disney’s films and streaming collection. Together with praising Walden’s artistic and storytelling bonafides, the Disney press launch notes that she “will report directly to D’Amaro,” the man who beat her out for the CEO job.
And there’s the rub. Even for probably the most confident executives, that dynamic may show awkward. The CEO runner-up has to nurse a dented ego whereas answering to the succession race’s final winner. The incoming CEO, in the meantime, has to handle a group that features somebody who wished their job.
On paper, a minimum of, Disney has arrange D’Amaro and Walden to navigate the various pitfalls such a state of affairs poses by giving the brand new CEO and chief artistic officer roles which might be distinct and complementary.
“She’s on the creative side, whereas D’Amaro is more on the financial and parks side,” says Susan Sandlund, a managing director at Pearl Meyer who leads the agency’s management consulting observe. Walden “brings value in a whole different way than D’Amaro does,” she says. “In combination, it’s a pretty powerful team.”
It may very well be argued that Disney’s new double-barreled management association, which attracts on the executives’ strengths, is akin to a co-CEO construction however higher, Sandlund says. “You have one reporting to the other,” she says. “The minute you have equal CEOs, you are begging for ambiguity and potential conflict.”
Nonetheless, distinct titles and designated realms of affect gained’t assure a clean partnership. The onus is on D’Amaro to decide on a standard, shared aim that he can rally his new group round and to delegate significant duties to Walden, says Emma Zhao, an assistant professor of commerce at UVA’s McIntire College of Commerce. “That helps put aside some of those individual concerns and motivations.”
A wildcard in all of this, for course, is Walden’s private emotions concerning the state of affairs—her ambition and whether or not she’s decided to at some point be a CEO. If that’s the case, her new place and a one-time award with a goal worth of $5.26 million might solely preserve her at Disney for therefore lengthy.
Sandlund, who has recommended executives in Walden’s place earlier than, suggests her finest technique is to take a seat tight. “My advice is don’t make any rash moves right now. A lot of people will be calling you for other CEO roles, which you could jump at immediately,” she says. “But if an executive really likes where they are, they love the culture, they’ve been there a long time, then they often want to see, what can the company do that would make it worth sticking around?”
