What is common between Marvel Entertainment, National Geographic, Pixar, Hulu, 21st Century Fox, and Lucasfilms (Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchise)???
They are all owned by Disney.
Also, Disney owned none of these brands before 2005.
The ride of a lifetime is the autobiography of the CEO of Disney (2005-2020). He takes us to the start of his corporate journey, 45 years ago, at the bottom of the corporate ladder. He shares his adventures and struggles as he makes his way up, how he survives multiple corporate acquisitions, his promotions, his appointment as CEO Disney, and how later he transformed Disney. He also shares his thought process as he approaches and executes multi-billion dollar deals, some of the biggest in the entertainment industry.
During his tenure as CEO, the entertainment industry went through pretty turbulent times. It was the era of emergence of online streaming platforms (Netflix, HBO Plus, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) as they overtook conventional media platforms and ensuing turf wars. The industry also went through shocks of “MeToo” movement during this time. Despite all this, he managed to increase Disney’s market capitalization from $47 billion in 2005 (when Bob became CEO), to $328 billion in 2020 (when he retired). A 600% increase.
I like to read business books, partly because of my background training in finance, partly for my interest in the interplay of wealth and human life.
I like to read biographies because they give us stories and lessons to learn from real life. I like autobiographies even more as they give biographies in the first person perspective; not as the world sees it, but directly as the main action figure sees the story.
This autobiography has its unique place among business books. Business books like those by Jim Collins (Good to Great etc.) or Walter Issacson (Steve Jobs etc.) give good research findings, but they lack the first person perspective. Autobiographies, such as Shoe Dog (by Phil Knight, Founder of Nike) and Losing my virginity (by Richard Branson, founder of Virgin group) give that first person perspective, but they are written by people who were owners (CEOs) of their business from day one.
The ride of a lifetime fills that unique void of a book by a business leader who wasn’t owner / CEO of the business from day one, nor had he attended any fancy business school to join organization as a top or mid tier executive; rather someone, who joined organization at an entry level job, and by play of sheer hard work (and extraordinary luck) made his way right to the top. And then delivered phenomenal results for 15 years straight, as CEO.
The book is also very well arranged. At the start of the book he has given list of what he believes to be the 10 most important leadership principles. At the end of the book he has given a summary of the lessons he learnt in his journey at all levels through his career progression.
To conclude, 5 things I learnt from the book:
1. Aim high; the guy pitched the idea of buying Pixar to Steve Jobs.
2. There is no substitute of hard work; reading the book I got the impression, he worked 25 hours a day 8 days a week.
3. Being CEO is not “the only good place” to be at in an organization.
4. Pursue perfection; no matter how big or how small the task is.
5. Act with integrity; nothing is ore important than integrity in both professional and personal relations.
Happy reading