New vice president for Disney's Animal Kingdom as Josh D'Amaro moves to new role

[GhostHost1000]

VP isn't exactly leading...and maybe a VP of Animal Kingdom doesn't need to have animal care experience anymore than a VP of Typhoon Lagoon needs to have waterboy experience. They have professional specialists for animal care.

Personally I don't think I've ever been in a job where upper management knows anything about what I do haha...right or wrong, it's just the way it is.

 

[asianway]

VP isn't exactly leading...and maybe a VP of Animal Kingdom doesn't need to have animal care experience anymore than a VP of Typhoon Lagoon needs to have waterboy experience. They have professional specialists for animal care.

Personally I don't think I've ever been in a job where upper management knows anything about what I do haha...right or wrong, it's just the way it is.

Then you might just be working in the wrong place...

 

[GhostHost1000]

Then you might just be working in the wrong place...

haha maybe... I'm at a fortune 100 company and the upper executive team hasn't a clue how to do my job role...and honestly I wouldn't expect them to, along with some of the other 10,000+

 

[wogwog]

The Transpo Guy Sam that is now in charge of Epcot. He was brought in to fix transportation after all the accidents but was moved out of that role after ruffling too many feathers, or so goes the story.

I heard the same story.

 

[ford91exploder]

haha maybe... I'm at a fortune 100 company and the upper executive team hasn't a clue how to do my job role...and honestly I wouldn't expect them to, along with some of the other 10,000+

And that's why American companies are the laughingstock of global business, That and their readiness to sell out for a quick buck. Example Siemens owns nearly all the brands of electrical service equipment sold in the US.

No one expects upper management to know the specifics of ones job but the GOOD managers will know the general parameters for a department. Example senior managers at Siemens electrical products group know Ohm's Law and generally how to apply it.

Their American equivalents answer would be 'What network is that on...'

Once upon a time American managers knew the basics about their industry, But when the MBA craze hit in the 70's we started getting the fraternity brothers in the 'Management Training' programs - fast forward to today we have the scandal ridden disaster that is American business. With the 'boom boom rooms' and the locker room talk.

I work for a company who has primarily Chinese and Indian senior managers and we can have an intelligent discussion about engineering topics and they KNOW what is going on in their departments and when something goes pear-shaped they understand the underlying issues.

 

[n2hifi]

On the other side is promotion to incompetence. I've been around too many VP's that cannot manage their way out of a mickey hat even though the department they are running is in their field. They got promoted so they wouldn't leave the company. They know how to engineer a building but not how to manage a team and coordinate a project. There has to be some balance and I don't think most companies have it.

 

[ford91exploder]

On the other side is promotion to incompetence. I've been around too many VP's that cannot manage their way out of a mickey hat even though the department they are running is in their field. They got promoted so they wouldn't leave the company. They know how to engineer a building but not how to manage a team and coordinate a project. There has to be some balance and I don't think most companies have it.

My company has dual tracks like the lamented Bell Labs management and Engineering many of the engineers have more pay and scope of responsibility than many middle managers.

Systems like this avoid the 'Peter Principle' great book by the way love the references to 'Beachslic Oil' etc!.

 

[PhotoDave219]

haha maybe... I'm at a fortune 100 company and the upper executive team hasn't a clue how to do my job role...and honestly I wouldn't expect them to, along with some of the other 10,000+

Well if they lack the appropriate jobby job skills, means they can be paid less, right?

 

[GhostHost1000]

Well if they lack the appropriate jobby job skills, means they can be paid less, right?

I like your thinking! you're hired lol

 

[TP2000]

It's better to shuffle people from transit to food to resorts to animal husbandry as an MBA means one is qualified to run all of the above expertly, even if they have never ridden on a public bus (ick!), or so much as pet a house cat (germs!).

Fantastic, and funny, post!

It is quite noticeable now that Disney's Parks division doesn't inject new blood into its executive ranks. They just shuffle people from one random department to another, with an obligatory stop as a VP of a single theme park so they can check the "Operations" box off on some internal company document. Very odd.

And yet I wonder who they could bring in from the outside world to help run their theme parks? I wouldn't want anyone from any other theme park company, as Disney is still different from the competition. I wouldn't want anyone from an American transportation field, like one of this country's many sad airlines or, God forbid, Amtrak or Greyhound.

The only thing I could think is the cruise industry. And they once brought in a Disney Cruise Line exec to be the President of Disneyland and it was wonderful and sparked a new Golden Age for Disneyland. But then they treated him poorly and he left after three years, and he was replaced with a totally useless and generic guy for three years.

Maybe a Nordstrom executive? Maybe a successful Ford or Toyota exec? I just don't know.

But the routine shuffling of deck chairs has to stop. It's becoming obvious the parks are stagnating and focusing on all the wrong things, or at least ignoring the basics of cleanliness, friendliness, and showmanship.

 

[dreamfinder]

And yet I wonder who they could bring in from the outside world to help run their theme parks? I wouldn't want anyone from any other theme park company, as Disney is still different from the competition. I wouldn't want anyone from an American transportation field, like one of this country's many sad airlines or, God forbid, Amtrak or Greyhound.

Why being someone in from outside? In my experience people that have worked the job from the ground up tend to have the best ideas about what needs to be done and how to handle it. If a company properly pays their employees, provides them with potential internal advancement with corresponding training, there is no need to bring out people from outside industries. By allowing for internal advancement, you encourage people to actively care about the company and it's future, which allows them to better make long term decisions and strategies. Someone from outside often only cares about the end numbers, and making/beating goals to look good for the Street. Short term gains help one to advance and move up/out faster, but end up stripping a company of any long term viability.

 

[wogwog]

On the other side is promotion to incompetence. I've been around too many VP's that cannot manage their way out of a mickey hat even though the department they are running is in their field. They got promoted so they wouldn't leave the company. They know how to engineer a building but not how to manage a team and coordinate a project. There has to be some balance and I don't think most companies have it.

The "Peter Principle" lives. Book by Laurence J. Peter late about 1968. Mandatory reading then. Explains Disney of today.

 

[biggy H]

Why being someone in from outside? In my experience people that have worked the job from the ground up tend to have the best ideas about what needs to be done and how to handle it. If a company properly pays their employees, provides them with potential internal advancement with corresponding training, there is no need to bring out people from outside industries. By allowing for internal advancement, you encourage people to actively care about the company and it's future, which allows them to better make long term decisions and strategies. Someone from outside often only cares about the end numbers, and making/beating goals to look good for the Street. Short term gains help one to advance and move up/out faster, but end up stripping a company of any long term viability.

Then again people in the company don't always see the problems than fresh blood can and do. A good company should use both , promote from inside and recruit from outside.

 

[ford91exploder]

Why being someone in from outside? In my experience people that have worked the job from the ground up tend to have the best ideas about what needs to be done and how to handle it. If a company properly pays their employees, provides them with potential internal advancement with corresponding training, there is no need to bring out people from outside industries. By allowing for internal advancement, you encourage people to actively care about the company and it's future, which allows them to better make long term decisions and strategies. Someone from outside often only cares about the end numbers, and making/beating goals to look good for the Street. Short term gains help one to advance and move up/out faster, but end up stripping a company of any long term viability.

The problem today is how management despises it's workforce back in the old days it was possible to start in the mailroom and make it to senior management. Today if you are hired in a role by an old line company you are STUCK there forever there are the odd exceptions of course but they are very unusual.

But today US management is like prewar Britain to be a 'Manager' all that is needed is the right connections and the 'right schools' talent and skill are unnecessary. It's telling that most of the successful companies today are started by immigrants largely Chinese and Indian and the hierarchy tends to be a strict meritocracy. And at my company Diwali is a bigger deal than Christmas and to my surprise it is in many ways more fun.

In the tech field the indicator of when to look for Greener Pa$ture$ is when the 'Pretty People' with MBA's arrive.

 

[ford91exploder]

The "Peter Principle" lives. Book by Laurence J. Peter late about 1968. Mandatory reading then. Explains Disney of today.

It's still mandatory reading today as is 'The Organization Man' by William H. Whyte and to explain the failures of MM+ 'The Mythical Man Month' by Fred Brooks.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Why being someone in from outside? In my experience people that have worked the job from the ground up tend to have the best ideas about what needs to be done and how to handle it. If a company properly pays their employees, provides them with potential internal advancement with corresponding training, there is no need to bring out people from outside industries. By allowing for internal advancement, you encourage people to actively care about the company and it's future, which allows them to better make long term decisions and strategies. Someone from outside often only cares about the end numbers, and making/beating goals to look good for the Street. Short term gains help one to advance and move up/out faster, but end up stripping a company of any long term viability.

The problem is Disney promoting from within amongst a group that increasingly has no theme park experience. It's the same mentality that placed Paul Pressler into Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Although hiring an outsider does not guarantee much difference. I believe it is the Vice President of EPCOT Center who has a whole career in transit, was brought in to deal with Walt Disney World's transit and then rather quickly given a theme park.

 

[ford91exploder]

The problem is Disney promoting from within amongst a group that increasingly has no theme park experience. It's the same mentality that placed Paul Pressler into Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Although hiring an outsider does not guarantee much difference. I believe it is the Vice President of EPCOT Center who has a whole career in transit, was brought in to deal with Walt Disney World's transit and then rather quickly given a theme park.

Yes the transport guy was brought in to FIX transportation in the process he ruffled feathers (they needed ruffling) and he was transferred to EPCOT as a sinecure

 

[asianway]

Yes the transport guy was brought in to FIX transportation in the process he ruffled feathers (they needed ruffling) and he was transferred to EPCOT as a sinecure

He probably threatened to blow the whistle

 

[dreamfinder]

The problem is Disney promoting from within amongst a group that increasingly has no theme park experience. It's the same mentality that placed Paul Pressler into Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Although hiring an outsider does not guarantee much difference. I believe it is the Vice President of EPCOT Center who has a whole career in transit, was brought in to deal with Walt Disney World's transit and then rather quickly given a theme park.

True. I'm suggesting they promote from the ground up. Not the shuffling of deck chairs, but promote all the way down the line. Making it possible for someone who started working attractions in the college program, to be attracted promoted to lead, to area manager, to land manager, etc, etc. Make it possible for there to be 50 year veterans of the company who have worked their way up the line.

 

[lazyboy97o]

True. I'm suggesting they promote from the ground up. Not the shuffling of deck chairs, but promote all the way down the line. Making it possible for someone who started working attractions in the college program, to be attracted promoted to lead, to area manager, to land manager, etc, etc. Make it possible for there to be 50 year veterans of the company who have worked their way up the line.

There are people like Phil Holmes and George Kalogridis who do have such a career history. I think this is why people more want an outsider who can come in fresh without having been shaped by the culture, which logically tries to reinforce itself by advancing like-minded individuals.