当艾格遇上乔布斯：一段伟大的友谊，两家成功的公司

    正如《财富》最新一期的封面故事所述，罗伯特•艾格与已故的史蒂夫•乔布斯的关系，在一定程度上影响了这位迪斯尼首席执行官的技术战略。这家娱乐公司率先在iTunes平台推出了完整长度的电视剧，它还是第一批采用iPad、iWatch等其他苹果产品的公司之一（一款米老鼠版的iWatch正在设计当中）。乔布斯一直担任迪斯尼董事会成员，直到他于2011年离开人世。就在他自感时日不多之际，乔布斯还要求艾格在其去世后接替自己在苹果董事会的位置——这个位置至今仍由艾格担任。但这两位首席执行官六年的合作，并不局限于商业领域，他们还是经常交流想法的亲密好友。

    实际上，艾格最珍视的收藏之一，就是他与乔布斯在2005年video iPod发布会上握手的镶框照片。就在此前不久，两位高管达成了一项史无前例的交易——将迪斯尼的ABC电视节目放到苹果的iTunes上。【而就在几个月后，迪斯尼以74亿美元的价格收购了乔布斯的另一家公司：皮克斯动画工作室。】在随后的几年中，两人就在工作和生活中成为了伙伴，常常就两家企业涉足的交叉领域交流想法。

    艾格对《财富》说：“他让我接触到了许多想法和技术，我感受到了他对于品质的不懈追求。”

    第一次见到乔布斯时，艾格还是迪斯尼的首席运营官（碰巧的是，乔布斯曾经同艾格妻子的大学室友约会过）。在2005年3月一个周六的下午，迪斯尼董事会告知艾格他将出任首席执行官。在这一消息公诸于众之前，他只告诉了很少几个人：他的家人、他的前老板和乔布斯。

    艾格回忆道：“我认识他，但并不了解他。由于种种原因，迪斯尼和皮克斯、迈克尔•艾斯纳（迪斯尼的前任首席执行官）和史蒂夫•乔布斯之间的关系一直很紧张。所以，在接近首席执行官这个位置，或者说试图争取这个最高职位时，我思考的事情之一就是如何挽救这层关系。我非常欣赏乔布斯在苹果做出的成就。”

    艾格打电话告诉乔布斯，迪斯尼不会“一切照常”，一个崭新的时代很快就将开启（到那年10月，艾格才能正式上任）。乔布斯对这个电话有点惊讶，但他接受了艾格抛出的橄榄枝，并让艾格有空来一趟苹果的总部库比蒂诺。艾格照做了。

    然而，他们讨论的第一件事与皮克斯毫无关系。实际上，艾格想要和乔布斯讨论把ABC的电视节目放到iTunes平台上的事宜。艾格表示：“我当时（对乔布斯）说，我觉得把你经营音乐的方法搬来经营电视节目，也就是把所有拍摄的电视节目放到iTunes上来卖，会是个很好的机会。他说，这确实是个有趣的想法，他也一直在考虑类似的事情。”

    于是，两位首席执行官就迪斯尼与皮克斯的关系，以及将电视节目放到iTunes平台上的想法展开了磋商。“乔布斯最后带了个东西来（迪斯尼总部伯班克）找我们，并对我说：‘我要给你看一个只有苹果员工才见过的东西，因为我信任你。’那就是video iPod。”

    艾格与乔布斯一拍即合。上任伊始，实际上是出任CEO的第一周，他就去拜访乔布斯。两人花了不到一周的时间，敲定了交易的细节。

    艾格表示：“这极大地巩固了我们的关系，我们在五天内就搞定了交易。我愿意挑战现状，试着把我们的内容放到一个甚至还没发布的平台上。”

    ABC和iTunes的交易也促使双方就皮克斯的未来展开了更好的谈话。几个月后的2006年，迪斯尼宣布以超过70亿美元的价格收购这家规模较小的动画公司。这次收购带给迪斯尼的，远不止一些成功的系列电影。迪斯尼自身表现挣扎的动画部门也有了新的领导（皮克斯的共同创始人埃德•卡特穆尔和约翰雷斯特）。此外，由于皮克斯的文化和乔布斯对于完美和细节的擅长，迪斯尼有了从量到质的理念转变，而这正是该公司所急需的。

    艾格说：“专注于质量，而不是数量，这种理念对我们这家公司产生了很大的影响。没有人会因为你的优秀电影延期上映而批评你，但人们会因为你如期推出的电影不好看而指责你。”

    在迪斯尼收购皮克斯后，乔布斯加入了迪斯尼的董事会，成为了该公司最大的股东。但这两位首席执行官也会在董事会议之外见面。

    艾格说：“乔布斯不会对我说：‘你得在这方面做点什么。’但我们会不定期地站在一块白板前，谈谈我们的想法。偶尔他会来找我，觉得这个世界会有翻天覆地的变化，我们的行业（娱乐业）会陷入麻烦。然后我会说：‘你详细说给我听听。’有时候我也会反驳他的许多观点。”

    艾格透露说，有时候乔布斯认为，相较于实际情况，有些事情本可以更快地发生，而有时他又惊讶于某些事情发生得如此之快。艾格表示：“整个应用世界的发展，比乔布斯预计得要迅速得多，影响要深远得多。乔布斯从来没想过应用能够催生出一个产业。”

    在2011年逝世前，乔布斯请艾格加入苹果董事会取代他的位置。这是两位首席执行官长期惺惺相惜的最后且恒久的见证。

    艾格说：“这是一段令双方受益无穷的关系——无论是作为朋友，还是作为商业伙伴。”欲了解更多内容，请阅读《财富》2015年1月刊的封面故事。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    审校：任文科

    As described in Fortune’s latest cover story, Bob Iger’s relationship with the late Steve Jobs helped shaped the Disney CEO’s technology strategy. The entertainment company was the first to put full-length TV episodes on the iTunes platform, and has been an early adopter of other Apple products, from the iPad to the upcoming Apple Watch, slated to launch in 2015. (A Mickey Mouse version is in the works.) Until his death in 2011, Jobs served on Disney’s board. Before he passed away, he requested that Iger take his place on the Apple board when he was gone—a position Disney’s CEO holds to this day. But the two CEO’s six-year partnership stretched beyond business—they were also friends who consistently bounced ideas off of each other.

    In fact, one of Iger’s most prized possessions is a framed photo of him and Jobs shaking hands at the 2005 unveiling of the video iPod, shortly after the two executives hammered out an unprecedented deal to put Disney’s ABC television content on Apple’s iTunes. (Just a few months later, Disney bought Pixar—Jobs’ other company—for $7.4 billion). In the ensuing years, the two sparked a professional and personal relationship, often musing on the intersection of their respective businesses.

    “He introduced me to ideas and technologies, and to a constant demand for quality,” Iger tells Fortune.

    Iger first met Jobs when he was COO of Disney (coincidentally, Jobs had dated Iger’s wife’s college roommate). On a Saturday afternoon in March, 2005, the board told Iger he was getting the top job. Immediately, before the news became public, he called just a handful of people to share the news: his family, his former boss and Jobs.

    “I knew him but I didn’t know him well and the relationship between Disney and Pixar and Michael Eisner [Disney’s former CEO] and Steve Jobs had definitely frayed for a variety of reasons,” recalls Iger. “So one of the things that I thought about as I was nearing the CEO role–or trying to get the CEO role–is would there be anything I could do to salvage the relationship. I was pretty appreciative of what he’d already done at Apple.”

    Iger told Jobs that it wasn’t going to be “business as usual” at Disney, that a new era would soon begin (Iger wouldn’t formally take the reigns until October of that year). Jobs, a bit shocked by the call, was receptive to the olive branch, and told him to come up to Cupertino when he could. That’s exactly what Iger did.

    Their first order of business, however, was completely unrelated to Pixar. Rather, Iger wanted to talk to Jobs about putting ABC shows on the iTunes platform. “I said [to Jobs] that I think there’s a huge opportunity to do for television what you’ve done for music, which is to put every TV show that’s ever been made on iTunes,” says Iger. “He said that’s a really interesting idea, that he’d been thinking about a similar thing.”

    The CEOs started engaging in a bilateral discussion—the relationship with Pixar and the idea of moving TV shows onto the iTunes platform. “He ultimately came down [to Disney headquarters in Burbank] with something in his pocket and said, ‘I’m going to show you something that only people at Apple have seen because I trust you.’ It was a video iPod.”

    Iger was in. As soon as he became CEO—the first week on the job, in fact—he went to see Jobs. It took less than one week for the two to hammer out the details of a deal.

    “That solidified the relationship big time, that we put together a deal within five days and that I was willing to challenge the status quo and take a shot at putting our content on a platform that hadn’t even launched,” says Iger.

    The ABC–iTunes deal also led to a better dialogue on the Pixar front. Several months later, in 2006, Disney announced it was buying the smaller animation company for more than $7 billion. The acquisition gave it much more than a handful of successful movie franchises. Disney’s own struggling animation division also got new leadership (Pixar co-founders Ed Catmull and John Lasseter). And, thanks to Pixar’s culture and Jobs’ knack for perfection and details, the company got a much-needed mind shift away from quantity and towards quality.

    “Being religious about quality versus quantity has had a major effect on this company,” says Iger. “Nobody’s going to criticize you for bringing a great movie out late, but they will criticize you for bringing a bad movie out on time.”

    Following the acquisition, Jobs joined Disney’s board and became the company’s largest shareholder. But the CEOs met outside of board meetings, too.

    “He wouldn’t say to me, ‘you’ve got to do something about this,’ but occasionally we would stand in front of a white board and talk about ideas,” says Iger. “And every once in a while he’d come to me thinking the sky’s falling apart and that our business [the entertainment industry] was screwed. And I’d say, ‘tell me how.’ I’d push back a fair amount with him sometimes.”

    According to Iger, in some cases Jobs thought things would happen a lot faster than they did, and sometimes even he was surprised that they happened so fast. “The whole app world, that happened much faster and in more profound ways than he ever anticipated,” says Iger. “He never envisioned an app industry.”

    Before Jobs passed away in 2011, he requested that Iger join Apple’s board in his place. It was a last—and lasting—indication of the two CEO’s mutual respect and admiration.

    Says Iger: “We had a very, very productive relationship—both as friends and business partners.” For much more, see Fortune’s cover story in our January 2015 issue.