Bob Iger's method at Disney was to buy the talent rather than try to out-create it. Over his time running the company that approach turned a respected legacy studio into the dominant force in global entertainment.
Pixar. Marvel. Lucasfilm. Then most of 21st Century Fox. Each deal brought in franchises worth more than some studios, and taken together they redrew the map of the industry — while leaving the acquired creative teams enough independence to keep producing what made them valuable.
His genius was acquisition as strategy: buy the storytellers, then give them room to tell stories.
Streaming came next, because audiences had stopped waiting. Disney+ was the answer, launched into a market Netflix had defined, and it had to be built while theme parks and a declining television business still needed managing.
He handed over the job and then came back to it, which told everyone how much of the company had been running on him personally. What his tenure is taught as is a masterclass in renewing an old brand by acquisition and franchise-building rather than reinvention.