Last Friday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Disney's Bob Iger Officially Resigned from Apple's Board of Directors on September 10th." Next week Bob Iger's book titled "The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company." The CEO of Disney, one of Time's most influential people of 2019, shares the ideas and values he embraced to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world and inspire the people who bring the magic to life.

Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever, and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger - think global - and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.

Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era.

Today Vanity Fair ran an excerpt from Bob Iger's book wherein he reminisces about his unlikely friendship with Steve Jobs, its mercurial founder—and how their radical visions aligned to save two companies – Disney and Pixar.

Patently Apple doesn't want to spoil Iger's excerpt by only presenting a snippet or two. Iger's excerpt should be read in full from start to finish in order to get a better understanding of just how deep the relationship was between Iger and Steve Jobs. I encourage everyone with an interest in the late Steve Jobs to read it here.

Whether there will be more about Steve Jobs in Iger's book launching next week is unknown at this time.  

In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger also shares the lessons he's learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership, including:

• Optimism. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming.
• Courage. Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity.
• Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale.
• Fairness. Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them.

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