Even CEOs of the most influential companies in the world sometimes make McDonald’s runs, right? We don’t think anyone is exempt from the occasional french fry craving.

And since Cardi B and Offset get their own celebrity Mickey D’s meal, why can’t Bob Iger have one?

During our last trip to the Golden Arches, we were wondering, What would Disney CEO Bob Iger order if he were having dinner here?

Do we really think Bob Iger is going through the McDonald’s drive-thru very often? Eh, probably not. Iger shared his strict morning regimen in a Master Class, and we learned that he wakes up at 4:15AM every day and completes a morning workout before looking at his phone. Those healthy habits make us think that he’s probably not regular at McD’s. But if he WERE to have a McDonald’s celeb meal created, we’re pretty sure this is exactly what it would be:

• 4-piece Chicken McNuggets
• Apple Slices
• McRib
• Spicy McCrispy Sandwich
• Shamrock Shake
• Vanilla Cone

Pretty obvious, right? OK, we can explain our reasoning so that the order makes a little more sense. Let’s start with the Chicken McNuggets.

4 Piece Chicken McNuggets

Bob Iger needs a 4-piece Chicken McNuggets because he recently announced that Disney employees need to return to the office for at least four days each week. That’s one McNugget for each day that Disney employees must be in their offices.

According to CNBC, Iger sent an email to hybrid Disney employees and indicated that they MUST return to Disney’s corporate offices to work physically within the office at least four days a week. This change went into effect on March 1st, 2023.

In the email, Iger shared that he had been “meeting with teams throughout the company over the past few months” and had been “reminded of the tremendous value in being together with the people you work with.” He went on to say that “creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. And in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors.”

This return-to-office mandate is relatively strict compared to other companies that have only required hybrid employees to come into the office two or three days per week, and many Disney employees were not happy about it. According to the Washington Post, employees have signed a petition in the hopes of reversing the four-day return-to-office rule.

More than 2,300 employees signed the petition asking Bob Iger to reconsider, saying that it’s “likely to have unintended consequences that cause long-term harm to the company.” The signees include a variety of workers across Disney’s many businesses, including ABC, 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Hulu, Pixar, FX, and more. It’s possible that this return-to-office mandate could serve as a soft layoff, as some employees may quit rather than come back to the office four days a week. Disney is in the midst of job cuts, so this change could be part of that plan.

Learn more about the Disney employees’ reaction to Iger’s new rule here.

Apple Slices

WHO is ordering apple slices at McDonald’s?? Surely only someone who’s trying really hard to be healthy would swap the beloved french fries for a small bag of fruit.

And Iger is trying really, REALLY hard to make one particular part of the Walt Disney Company revenue pie graph healthier. He has recently announced that his number one priority at The Walt Disney Company is to make Disney+ profitable.

During the first quarter earnings call of 2023, Iger announced that his top priority is to improve streaming at Disney, which could include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. It’s no surprise that the second-time CEO would choose streaming as his top priority, especially considering that area of the company has been a little rocky.

In November 2022, we got an updated look at the Disney+ subscriber numbers but we also learned that Disney’s streaming business as a whole had a loss of nearly $1.5 BILLION. This loss ultimately contributed in part to the ousting of Bob Chapek as CEO. In the Q1 earnings call on February 9th, we learned that the total number of Disney+ subscribers is now 161.8 million. As far as ESPN+ and Hulu go, both of those services are up in subscriber count as well, with 24.9 million and 48 million, respectively. Disney reported a $1.053 billion operating loss in its direct-to-consumer division this quarter compared to Q4 of FY 2022.

No sudden flipping of the Bob switch could magically make Disney’s streaming division healthy, and because of that, Iger is still choosing to focus on growth and profitability for streaming. Iger reiterated Disney’s previous comments that they expect Disney+ to be profitable by the end of fiscal year 2024.

The new organizational structure announced by Iger during the call will hopefully help by relinking the creative process with the financial results. As Iger put it, Disney is putting content back into the hands of the creatives. Disney will be focusing on its core brands and franchises, which have historically delivered higher returns. They’re working on curating content and adjusting as needed, adjusting pricing and marketing strategies, and fine-tuning streaming advertising.

When asked about how exactly Iger plans on improving and growing Disney’s streaming division, he had a few ideas in mind:

• Seeking loyal subscribers for the long-term
• Reviewing pricing and making sure services are priced correctly
• Rebalancing marketing on the platform versus marketing of the programs

Will Disney pursue a future in sports betting? Find out here.

McRib

We’ve got the nugs (yum) and the apple slices (less yum), so next up on Iger’s order is the McRib. … Anyone else see the problem with this item? Yeah, it doesn’t actually exist on the McDonald’s menu anymore.

But this isn’t the first time the McRib has disappeared. Yes, it had a whole farewell tour…but it’s done that before and then returned to McDonald’s once again. Basically, we can’t seem to get rid of the McRib, and the more it comes and goes, the more fans seem to latch on to it. You can probably see why we this sandwich is part of our fantasy celeb McDonald’s meal for the boomerang CEO.

Bob Iger first became the Disney CEO back in 2005, and he stayed in that position until 2020. But even once he “retired,” he didn’t really leave. In 2020, he became the Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board and remained there through 2021. At that time, Bob Chapek was the Disney CEO.

Iger returned to his role as the company’s CEO in November of 2022, and he currently has a two-year contract with the company. But can he truly let go of Disney?

Like McRib fans with their beloved sandwich, Disney fans seemed to have become more fond of Iger in his “absence,” and many were very excited when he returned to the role in 2022.

Want to know another connection between Iger and this sandwich? When we asked about the McRib at McDonald’s, we were told that they “don’t know if it’s coming back, but if it did, it’d likely be in November.” Iger returned in November as well. Bob Iger IS the McRib!

Learn four important SECRETS about the Iger-Chapek conflict.

Spicy McCrispy Sandwich

We got Iger a sandwich that doesn’t exist, so we probably should get him one that does exist to make up for it. We think Iger would like the Spicy McCrispy Sandwich. Why, you may ask? Let us tell you!

One of Bob Iger’s favorite things is acquisitions. During his first time as Disney’s CEO, he acquired major entities like Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox. Most of those are widely considered to be very successful business moves, and Disney itself cites these decisions as having created “significant value for Disney shareholders.”

According to Disney, these acquisitions transformed the company. And while they were generally tagged as being things that Disney “overpaid” for, Disney argues that narrative has been proven to be “highly inaccurate.” We’ve seen the success of Marvel’s many movies and Disney+ shows, Star Wars’ own sequels and Disney+ shows, and Fox’s Avatar. Iger may even be looking to fully acquire Hulu now.

Disney already owns 67% of Hulu, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal owns the remaining amount. According to Yahoo, under the deal made back in 2019, Disney got “full operational control” of Hulu. And, as early as January 2024, “Comcast can require Disney to buy NBCUniversal’s interest in Hulu and Disney can require NBCUniversal to sell that interest to Disney for its fair market value at that future time.”

So what does all of this have to do with the Spicy McCrispy Sandwich? McDonald’s seems to have acquired this idea from several other fast food chains that found success selling spicy chicken sandwiches.

Popeyes is famous for its version, and Chick-fil-A has one as well. It’s not just the restaurants that specialize in chicken that have hopped on this train — Arby’s, Wendy’s, Culver’s, and Whataburger all have their own versions of the popular item.

McDonald’s saw the value in selling this sandwich, and so they grabbed the idea and ran with it, adding a few different kinds of chicken sandwiches to the menu. Acquisition ahoy.

Disney may have to fight a BATTLE to buy Hulu.

Shamrock Shake

To drink, Iger is clearly grabbing a Shamrock Shake, and it’s not just because this fan-favorite minty treat is super tasty.

Like the Shamrock Shake, Bob Iger hasn’t stayed at Disney for one continuous run. Instead, he was the CEO, left, and then returned again. And also like the Shamrock Shake, many people were very excited when he came back.

But the main reason that Bob can relate to this treat is that he’s seriously shaking things up at The Walt Disney Company. (Yes, we’re proud of that pun. No, we don’t care that it’s cheesy 😉.)

Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger announced a restructuring of the company during his first earnings call back at the helm of the business in 2023. He touted the reorganization as a way to return creativity to the center of the company. “Our company is fueled by storytelling and creativity,” he said. “Virtually every dollar we earn…emanates from something we created.”

Iger told investors that the restructuring at the company — effective immediately —  is “aimed at returning greater authority to our creative leaders.” Disney is now organized under three divisions: (1) Disney Entertainment, (2) ESPN, and (3) Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products.

Iger stressed that the reorganization will provide “a more cost-effective, coordinated and streamlined approach” to the company’s operations. The new structure will “re-establish a direct link between content decisions and financial performance,” he said.

Iger also announced cost-cutting measures to the tune of $5.5 billion during the recent earnings call. The savings will come from the layoff of 7,000 employees, as well as deep cuts in Disney’s marketing budgets. And he revealed upcoming projects, including sequels in the Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia franchises, and an Avatar expansion at Disneyland.

In short, there are a LOT of changes that have been made and that are on the way for Disney. Iger certainly isn’t afraid to mix things up!

 See what else has CHANGED since Iger returned as CEO.

Vanilla Cone

Finally, for dessert, Bob Iger would get a simple vanilla cone. But as anyone who has made a midnight run to McDonald’s for some ice cream will tell you, this treat is actually far from simple. In fact, to find a restaurant that has a functioning ice cream machine when you’re craving the creamy goodness is something of a miracle. McDonald’s ice cream machines are notorious for breaking down, and that problem actually came up when we were ordering Iger’s meal!

We went to one McDonald’s location and found out that their ice cream machine was down, so we wouldn’t be able to get the cone (or the Shamrock Shake, for that matter). So we hopped back into the car and found a different location which — incredibly — had a functioning ice cream machine.

Ice cream is McDonald’s fatal flaw. Bob Iger also has a fatal flaw: succession. The first time that Iger “retired” as Disney’s CEO, he seemed to put off the issue of succession and then recommended that Bob Chapek take the position. Chapek did guide the company through an unprecedented time with the worldwide pandemic, but ultimately it was reported that Iger regretted his decision in a successor.

Some sources indicate that Chapek and Iger had a falling out at one point, and they struggled to work together when Iger stayed on as the Chairman of the Board. Overall, we can say that Iger’s first go at succession wasn’t a roaring success, much like our first trip to McDonald’s didn’t result in any ice cream.

Now, Iger has another chance to choose a good replacement, and this time he doesn’t seem to be taking any chances. He has stated that he has no plans to stay longer than his current two-year contract, and both he and the Board of Directors are focused on the issue of succession.

Mark Parker, who is the new chairman of the Board, is also the head of “a newly created Succession Planning Committee of the Board, which will advise the Board on the CEO succession planning, including review of internal and external candidates.”

Iger seems committed to his responsibility to choose a great replacement. And if our success in obtaining ice cream at the second McDonald’s location is any indicator, he’ll likely succeed this time around.

Will Disney need TWO CEOs to replace Bob Iger?

See? It all makes sense!

So whose McDonald’s order should we build next? Maybe we need to dive into what Mickey Mouse would get at the drive-thru…and surely that order has to involve plenty of cheese.

If you want to learn more about the current Disney CEO, check out these posts:

• Will Disney Need TWO CEOs to Replace Bob Iger?
• “I’m a Little Nervous for Bob” — Michael Eisner Comments on Disney CEO Iger
• How Bob Iger Plans To “Improve the Guest Experience” in the Theme Parks
• One Critical Difference between Disney CEOs Bob Iger and Bob Chapek

Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on all the latest Disney news!

Click here to see three BIG problems Bob Iger is facing right now.

Whose McDonald’s order should we build next? Let us know in the comments!