Thanks Steve for the new forum. Now I can let out my frustrations with Michael Eisner & Co.
Thank again.
Thank again.
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- Thread starter WDW-Imagineer
- Start date
Herbie53
Premium Member
I think the Disney company owes a lot to Eisner. There is speculation however, that he is trying to raise stock prices in the short term so that he can cash in his stock options and retire. This might explain his actions that don't seem to benefit Disney in the long run. It's only speculation though.
With out a doubt. Michael Eisner is responsible for what Disney is today. Although I think every Disney fan has one thing or another to say about Eisner.
I agree with you Herbie that one of his major interests is how much money his stock option is worth. It boggles the mind to think about how much money this guy makes, and then to realize that what he makes is not enough for him. So he exercises a $60 million stock option.
jay_london
Member
Eisner is a good business man but bad on imagineering and certainly does not know what disney magic is. he has placed bean counters in most of the key jobs who are undoubtedly good at saving money but not good at running theme parks, Pressler step forward please.
Disney thrived in the first place because you had Walt who was a genius of his trade and you had Roy, his brother, who had a business brain. Between them you had a powerful team, unfortunatly Roy tends to get forgotten. Now when you look at Disney that once good balance between art and business is now totaly one sided on the side of busines. What you need is someone as powerful as Eisner on the artistic side, you may then again see the real magic of disney return.
jay
Disney thrived in the first place because you had Walt who was a genius of his trade and you had Roy, his brother, who had a business brain. Between them you had a powerful team, unfortunatly Roy tends to get forgotten. Now when you look at Disney that once good balance between art and business is now totaly one sided on the side of busines. What you need is someone as powerful as Eisner on the artistic side, you may then again see the real magic of disney return.
jay
I agree, but I don't think there will ever be a team like Walt & Roy.
jay_london
Member
Yes on the face of it they were the pioneers, but there are so many people that want their magic to live on, I am more than sure there are people out there with the talent and vision to continue in their shoes. But you are right there will never be another Walt and Roy.
'Michael Eisner World' doesn't sound quite right does it but I bet he's thought about it
jay
'Michael Eisner World' doesn't sound quite right does it but I bet he's thought about it
jay
jay_london
Member
I think most people realise what he has bought to the table he has done well developing the business but I think that the creative side has been stifled because of his business strength, there was no creative balance.
jay
jay
M
Mr Lightbeer
Tramp
New Member
Eisner is an easy target...truth is...most of the things we complain about are decisions made at local levels. Disney was in the toilet when Eisner took over so I'm willing to cut him some slack if things don't always go as well as we would like.
Most major corporations are adjusting to the turndown in the economy...the "exorbitant exuberances" we experienced with the boom of technology the last 10 years has caught up with everyone. It's hard to continue to grow when the economy is staggering. Stockholders have a lot more say in the direction of the company than do the people attending the parks.
Most major corporations are adjusting to the turndown in the economy...the "exorbitant exuberances" we experienced with the boom of technology the last 10 years has caught up with everyone. It's hard to continue to grow when the economy is staggering. Stockholders have a lot more say in the direction of the company than do the people attending the parks.
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Eisner is (or at least was) an idea man. Anyone that knows anything about his history before coming to the Disney Co. knows that. As a matter of fact when the imaginers reported directly to him is when we got all of the best E-rides of the new era. There are so many reasons why he and Walt cannot be fairly compared. Considering that he is alive and Walt is dead is only one of them. Walt screwed up a lot of things in his time. His life was not exactly one magnificent success after another. As a matter of fact, the original opening of DL was a nightmare. Walt also had a bad habit of getting bored with a project and moving on leaving parts of the original to others. People have been blasting Eisner for over a decade now. I can't tell you how many people (many of which no longer post here) were storming mad when Disney bought ABC, calling it the act that would sink Disney. Now, it's one of the things helping to keep the company afloat. Eisnser used to have a problem with micro-management where he was known to go so far as to make the final decision on light fixtures for the rooms of new resorts. He was criticized for this because it was thought that someone at the head of such a large company had better things to do with his time. Now that he has delegated many of these things, people complain that the quality has begun to slide. He is sort of in a no win situation. I agree that the whole go.com fiasco was bad but that was mainly due to Disney's late entry. At that stage of the game, it would have made more sense to just push their own branding and create a nitch online market for family content. Disney is hardly the only company that made this mistake though and many got into much more trouble than Disney trying to do the same thing. Releasing movies like "Remember the Titans" under the Disney name to try to make the company more appealing to the whole family (as in adults, too) was a very good idea. Many people on this board as well as the email group seem to judge the company based almost exclusively on what they like or dislike that's going on in the parks but the parks are only one part of a very large company. Right now things are not going as well as they could be for the company but it is sort of a reflection of our whole economy. People cringe at the thought of them letting people go but if you read the headlines in the paper you will see that a lot of companies are doing that right now. I work for an advertising company. I managed to survive a recent 'restructuring' but a lot of others didn't. As a matter of fact, I'm typing this from my computer at work because I have no work to do. This time of year I'm usually getting 10-15 hours of overtime a week. The newer attractions in the parks seem to be a lot different from what we are all accustomed to but this is at least in part due to changes in the tastes of the public. Many of Disney's choices are based on exhaustive studies that now show people would rather have a larger quantity of shorter, smaller attractions than the fewer large scale attractions that Epcot was based on. Those of us that are big fans of Disney and love the parks the way they are/were may not agree but that could have more to do with our resistance to change than to the shared opinion of the average park goers.
All in all, I believe that Eisner's intentions are good. I don't agree with others who say that he is only looking to increase his personal worth. He makes a lot of money but he also runs one of the largest entertainment empires in the world. If you were to look at the head of any other company in any other field that was as large as Disney, you would find the same thing. You think your job is stressful? Try running the Disney Co. and all of it's subsidiaries for a few months. The company has ups and downs. The people who don't care for Eisner are always loud when the company isn't doing well and even though they never admit that they might have been wrong when the company goes back up they do tend to get very quiet.
Right now attendance is down at Disney by about 7%. On the email group, people started pointing to this as evidence that the parks were having problems. A few weeks after that figure was released another one for Universal Florida was released showing attendance down 7-8%. This means that the competition is actually doing marginally worse that Disney compared to their own track record. This would suggest that Disney's current position really does have more to do with the economy (which many have claimed is an excuse) than with their own mismanagement.
When it all comes down to it and you look at Walt did and what Eisner has done so far. Walt created the company from nothing and was personally responsible for everything that came out of it in the beginning. As it grew, his role in individual projects, especially ones that he was loosing interest in such as animation began to shrink. Eisner came in at a point when the company was about to be taken over and split up with all of the divisions (film, animation, merchandise, theme parks) were going to be sold individually to the highest bidders. He managed to stop that takeover and under his management the company has grown more in size and worth than ever before in it's history. The man has been at the head of Disney for what is now approaching 20 years. He has to be in it for more than a paycheck. It that were his only concern he cold have retired quite a while ago. Is he as committed to the company as Walt was? Probably not but is anyone ever as committed to a dream as the dreamer himself is?
Walt's final plan was for the real E.P.C.O.T. which was described by Walt as the company's "most ambitious project yet". In reality, looking back in hindsight it probably would have been the companies biggest disaster yet, too. Many people don't know the full details of what Epcot was supposed to be or how Walt didn't even want to build the MK in FL. Walt had worked his whole life in the field of entertainment. He was about to take his company into a new field altogether: social engineering. Even as it stands now, the Epcot that was built after his death is a big part of what nearly sunk the company just before Eisner came in. Does anyone remember who was running the show at that time? Management actually changed hands a few times after Walt's death and before Eisner came in. Aside from Walt, himself, Eisner is the best leader that the company has ever had. I'm not totally for everything Eisner but I don't think he gets a fair treatment from his critics which is why I may appear to be defending him..If Walt were brought back today and given control of this huge empire that now exists, it's quite possible that he would sink it straight into the ground because it was not even a quarter of the size it is today at any point in his career. Managing a young dynamic company is a lot different from managing a large aging empire. The Disney Co. was Walt's legacy. The Websters Dictionary defines a legacy as "anything handed down from the past" Today Walt is judged on his legacy. Had he sunk his company to ruins before his death we probably wouldn't even be here having this discussion now. We can't really judge Eisner until his time has passed. Then we can look back at all he has done (and to this moment has yet to do) and pass our judgements. What will Eisner's legacy ultimately be? None of us know.
P.S.
My apologies for the length and any typos, I tried to keep it all as short as I could but there is so much information that gets overlooked or is not even known in these discussions. People tend to take their limited knowledge of the actual company, mix in the most current events and then come up with an opinion that is only partially based on actual fact. Anyone that wants to know about what Walt's plans were for the future of the Disney Co., please let me know. If You understand where he was actually taking things, you'll see where just about everything that has happened since his death is not what "Walt would have wanted"
All in all, I believe that Eisner's intentions are good. I don't agree with others who say that he is only looking to increase his personal worth. He makes a lot of money but he also runs one of the largest entertainment empires in the world. If you were to look at the head of any other company in any other field that was as large as Disney, you would find the same thing. You think your job is stressful? Try running the Disney Co. and all of it's subsidiaries for a few months. The company has ups and downs. The people who don't care for Eisner are always loud when the company isn't doing well and even though they never admit that they might have been wrong when the company goes back up they do tend to get very quiet.
Right now attendance is down at Disney by about 7%. On the email group, people started pointing to this as evidence that the parks were having problems. A few weeks after that figure was released another one for Universal Florida was released showing attendance down 7-8%. This means that the competition is actually doing marginally worse that Disney compared to their own track record. This would suggest that Disney's current position really does have more to do with the economy (which many have claimed is an excuse) than with their own mismanagement.
When it all comes down to it and you look at Walt did and what Eisner has done so far. Walt created the company from nothing and was personally responsible for everything that came out of it in the beginning. As it grew, his role in individual projects, especially ones that he was loosing interest in such as animation began to shrink. Eisner came in at a point when the company was about to be taken over and split up with all of the divisions (film, animation, merchandise, theme parks) were going to be sold individually to the highest bidders. He managed to stop that takeover and under his management the company has grown more in size and worth than ever before in it's history. The man has been at the head of Disney for what is now approaching 20 years. He has to be in it for more than a paycheck. It that were his only concern he cold have retired quite a while ago. Is he as committed to the company as Walt was? Probably not but is anyone ever as committed to a dream as the dreamer himself is?
Walt's final plan was for the real E.P.C.O.T. which was described by Walt as the company's "most ambitious project yet". In reality, looking back in hindsight it probably would have been the companies biggest disaster yet, too. Many people don't know the full details of what Epcot was supposed to be or how Walt didn't even want to build the MK in FL. Walt had worked his whole life in the field of entertainment. He was about to take his company into a new field altogether: social engineering. Even as it stands now, the Epcot that was built after his death is a big part of what nearly sunk the company just before Eisner came in. Does anyone remember who was running the show at that time? Management actually changed hands a few times after Walt's death and before Eisner came in. Aside from Walt, himself, Eisner is the best leader that the company has ever had. I'm not totally for everything Eisner but I don't think he gets a fair treatment from his critics which is why I may appear to be defending him..If Walt were brought back today and given control of this huge empire that now exists, it's quite possible that he would sink it straight into the ground because it was not even a quarter of the size it is today at any point in his career. Managing a young dynamic company is a lot different from managing a large aging empire. The Disney Co. was Walt's legacy. The Websters Dictionary defines a legacy as "anything handed down from the past" Today Walt is judged on his legacy. Had he sunk his company to ruins before his death we probably wouldn't even be here having this discussion now. We can't really judge Eisner until his time has passed. Then we can look back at all he has done (and to this moment has yet to do) and pass our judgements. What will Eisner's legacy ultimately be? None of us know.
P.S.
My apologies for the length and any typos, I tried to keep it all as short as I could but there is so much information that gets overlooked or is not even known in these discussions. People tend to take their limited knowledge of the actual company, mix in the most current events and then come up with an opinion that is only partially based on actual fact. Anyone that wants to know about what Walt's plans were for the future of the Disney Co., please let me know. If You understand where he was actually taking things, you'll see where just about everything that has happened since his death is not what "Walt would have wanted"
MouseRight
Active Member
Well said MrPromey! I agree with your comments and guts to post them.
DisneyFreak
Well-Known Member
Excellent, excellent post MrPromey. I recommend this post as "Post of the Year"!
Here are a couple books I have read that reflect and explain alot of what MrPromey was saying in his post <b>(these are must reads for Disney fans)</b>:
Storming The Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, The Raiders and the Battle for Disney - by John Taylor
(this book is currently out-of-print but is available on cassette)
The Disney Touch : How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire - by Ron Grover
(this book is currently out-of-print but is avaiable used for $4 on amazon.com)
Prince of the Magic Kingdom : Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney - by Joe Flower (he can call me flower if he wants to)
(this book is also currently out-of-print)
Here are a couple books I have read that reflect and explain alot of what MrPromey was saying in his post <b>(these are must reads for Disney fans)</b>:
Storming The Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, The Raiders and the Battle for Disney - by John Taylor
(this book is currently out-of-print but is available on cassette)
The Disney Touch : How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire - by Ron Grover
(this book is currently out-of-print but is avaiable used for $4 on amazon.com)
Prince of the Magic Kingdom : Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney - by Joe Flower (he can call me flower if he wants to)
(this book is also currently out-of-print)
