Rteetz
Well-Known Member
As far as we know yes.
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Bob Chapek Confirms Disney Will Overhaul Epcot
- Thread starter Bacon
- Start date
HauntedMansionFLA
Well-Known Member
That could be a good thing. It will be interesting to see what names start to come out as the possible CEO.
Earl Sweatpants
Well-Known Member
Let's just hope they find someone. I personally don't want the second reign of Iger.
montyz81
Well-Known Member
They need to find someone internally that has a similar background as Card Walker IMO.
Earl Sweatpants
Well-Known Member
Sadly, most of that generation is long gone by now...but I get the sentiment. What they need is a creative-minded person at the top who can see the value in celebrating the best of the company's past and how to appropriately advance those principles moving forward. NOT someone who just sees $$ floating in the air at every opportunity. Granted, they are a public company so profit has to be maintained, but Disney needs to have faith in its own people again and stop gobbling up other cash-cows in order to serve their corporate agenda. /rant
montyz81
Well-Known Member
Disney is pretty much like most publicly traded companies of today. I work for one. small mom and pop shop called IBM, you may have heard of us. Anyway, all decisions are clearly based on how much earnings per share they can eek out. Cutting to show profit and growth seems to be the norm these days. But, eventually that formula will run you out of business. Now, with Disney, they can just slap IP's on something that was cut to the bones (Frozen ride in Norway, I'm looking at you) and pretty much print money. It is an easy business plan that requires no imagination. In fact, IBM is doing it today with Watson. That is our own special IP and as such, anything we label with Watson, starts to make money. I personally think that employee engagement will become a huge issue for companies like Disney due to the focus on making investors money. Cuts within the organization will impact most employee's ability to be innovative or imaginative. Ultimately the company will find new lows in producing poor quality products and people will eventually leave forcing the company out of business. Disney's biggest assets are the imagination and innovation of their employees. They need to be able to see a large percentage of that stuff through. That is what founded Disney as an organization. (sorry, just continuing the rant).
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
so.. yet more characters, IP and princesses?
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Yet because of IBM's relentless cutting they are becoming less relevant by the day, WATSON notwithstanding. It used to be when you thought large scale computing you thought IBM, Now people go out of their way to avoid IBM because you never know when a system your business depends upon will be orphaned by IBM in their latest round of 'cost-cutting'.
And yes I spent much time working with and interfacing to IBM's 'Big Iron'.
montyz81
Well-Known Member
I can't argue with you on that. I am inside and that problem is crystal clear. It is what happens when the company is run by accountants and not by product people. Think about how many times Walt listened to Roy, look at how that turned out. IBM needs many more Walts and less Roys.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Well IBM could really use a reincarnation of Thomas J Watson Jr, Who understood that PRODUCT drives profit and basic research is essential to creating the next generation of PRODUCT, As WATSON itself was a product of the IBM Laboratories and was an effort to push the boundaries of computing not a product development project,
The research that USED to happen at IBM was amazing like the Semiconductor tech out of East Fishkill.
Now it's just a bunch of 'sharp pencil' boys trying to juke the next quarter numbers...
danlb_2000
Premium Member
I worked with IBM Global Services for about 5 years at my previous employer. Standard IBM formula - Win 'em over with the 'A' team, work in the 'B' team to keep things going, then slip 'em the 'C' team. And with each change-out of personnel, the overall quality of service provided dropped. In fact, the quality and knowledge of people going from the 'B' team to the 'C' team was akin to falling off a cliff...
I'd liken that scenario to Walt and those who built up the company with he and Roy, then moving to Eisner, and today with Iger. It's not a perfect fit, but you should get the idea.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Bad mouth Roy if you must, but, had he been that awful there would be 44 square miles of swamp land in central Florida. Don't even try and compare Roy with todays accounting control.
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Launchpad McQuack
Well-Known Member
True true.
I know it'll never happen, but it would be a dream come true if they made John Lasseter the "Walt" and found a good "Roy" for him to pair with.
Tom P.
Well-Known Member
You know, that's an interesting thought. Perhaps part of Disney's problem is since Walt and Roy, they've always tried to find the one person who could effectively run the company, both from a business and a creative standpoint. Perhaps that's not the formula that will work. Perhaps they need to emulate the model they were founded on, and have a creative person and a business person both at the top, complementing and working off of each other.
Thaddeus Oswald
Member
They had a version of this with Eisner and Wells (Who by no means were Walt and Roy) and things were looking good for the most part then Disneyland Paris failed, (Financially) and Wells died, which led to Eisner taking on too much responsibility/going crazy.
Earl Sweatpants
Well-Known Member
Its definitely worth noting that things in the Eisner era started slipping after the passing of Wells. He alone could keep Eisner in check (mostly) and balance him out. With him gone, Eisner ran rampant. Now its Iger. I agree there needs to be an almost duality to leadership.
Also, John could be the next Walt...except he also championed the Cars franchise...so that's a dark mark on his record.
montyz81
Well-Known Member
I don't think we are bad mouthing him. If you read this book,
The other part of this was the fact that Walt had control of his own company. Today, you have to make the investors happy and that is done by cutting costs to make them more money. If Roy lived today, he would have had to do the same thing.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I did read it and there is a colossal difference between trying to keep Walt in reason then blocking things when, like now, they have more money then god. Roy kept Walt from bankrupting the company many, many times. Quality and ideas are good but they cost money. Just like you go to a grocery store with $30.00 in your pocket you are not going to be able to buy $60.00 worth of stuff no matter how much you think you need it. Roy was against Disneyland because he like everyone else at the time felt it wouldn't work. They were wrong, but, ultimately it was Roy's financial creativity that got everything done. But, he wasn't a miracle worker, he had to work within the system. Disney didn't have the credit rating at the time to do whatever he wanted to do. As much as I admire Walt, I firmly believe that E.P.C.O.T. would have sunk the company. Roy was reluctantly going along with it, but, I don't think he really felt it would work. After Walt died, he didn't attempt to create Walt's dream, but, after some persuasion he went ahead and built the beginning of what we enjoy in WDW today. Without his willingness to take that chance, without Walt's guidance it would have become nothing but swamp land and pastures today. Let's not forget that when that place was opened Walt had been dead for 6 years.I don't think we are bad mouthing him. If you read this book,
Roy spent much of his time with Walt just trying to control him so they don't overspend. He acted as a true finance guy should. It also focus' mostly on how much that didn't stop Walt once he had an idea in his head. Basically when Roy realized that when Walt was that persistent, he would have to figure out a way to make it happen. Sometimes Walt would even do things when Roy was out of town because he knew he would resist the execution of a good idea. With all due respect to all accountants, they mostly think in numbers only. It is a black and white picture mostly. If there isn't any money, there isn't a way to do it. But, Walt always found a way.
The other part of this was the fact that Walt had control of his own company. Today, you have to make the investors happy and that is done by cutting costs to make them more money. If Roy lived today, he would have had to do the same thing.