Bob Gault is Retiring

[pheneix]

Bob Gault is leaving Universal Orlando on December 5. According to the Sentinel, he is being replaced by the general manager of a Six Flags park.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...3,0,1468310.story?coll=orl-business-headlines

Man... Talk about a case of be careful what you wish for.

 

[Legacy]

Wow...

This is a dark day for Universal Orlando...

 

[pheneix]

There have been a lot of dark days there. It's not like Bob Gault and his management team had any idea how to run that resort. But geez, when you think about Six Flags and how they are operated you can only go down from here. And yes, I have been to Magic Mountain this year, and despite what all the hype and press coverage tries to claim, that park has not changed a damn bit.

 

[Legacy]

There have been a lot of dark days there. It's not like Bob Gault and his management team had any idea how to run that resort. But geez, when you think about Six Flags and how they are operated you can only go down from here. And yes, I have been to Magic Mountain this year, and despite what all the hype and press coverage tries to claim, that park has not changed a damn bit.

The article said that it was SeaWorld that was coming over. It also says that the new guy worked for Gault for a while and that they are very similar. It's such a shame, still though. Bob will be surely missed.

 

[MagliteL13]

I'm kinda sad he's retiring. Bob was such a cool guy when it came to the Team Members. I seem to remember last year, he was working on platform with us at RotM for an hour or so--just trying to help out and get a feel for what we do. Is that not cool? That being said, I am looking forward to Bill--to find out what he'll do differently, and to see how he'll adapt. He definetly has an assortment of theme park management expereince and I'll be curious to find out how that'll play into the resort. Congratulations Bob and Bill.

Jeremy
RotM Attendant
Jungle Cruise Skipper

 

[CTXRover]

The article said that it was SeaWorld that was coming over. It also says that the new guy worked for Gault for a while and that they are very similar. It's such a shame, still though. Bob will be surely missed.

According to the article Bill Davis, the new president, worked under Gault at Seaworld Ohio, then led Seaworld here in Florida from 1988-1997 before joining Universal. He led Universal Mediterranea theme park in Spain, which was sold by the previous owner of Universal while he was there in 2003.

From 2003 to now, he has been running Six Flags in California. That is concerning considering the quality of Six Flags park and their own attendance slide over the past 2 or more years.

I remember when Gault joined five years ago being told he was going to do great things for the resort. Other than finding creative ways to meet profit goals as attendance slid and leading the resort to open one of its better rides, ROTM, I don't think he leaves too great a legacy. Employee satisfaction is great, but it doesn't get the turnstyles rolling. I guess it was kind of hard though when your parent company (Vivendi) tries to sell off the theme parks and then sells off your company to another parent company (GE/NBC) that shows little interest in the theme park experience as well.

Here's hoping the best for UO and Bill Davis. I don't know anything about him, but his track record isn't so great. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt though.

 

[kcnole]

Six Flags problem isn't from the direct resort management so much as from what was coming out of headquarters. It's going to take a long time to turn around Six Flags. Sea World is a fairly strong and clean park however, so if he ran that place for a while he's got decent qualifications. Hopefully he can bring some much needed new blood into the equation.

 

[mkt]

So they're replacing an ineffective executive with another ineffective executive? I thought that only happened at Disney :lookaroun

 

[pheneix]

Employee satisfaction is great, but it doesn't get the turnstyles rolling.

I laughed when I saw that in the newspaper. I don't even think you can quantify how most employees feel about working there with the word "satisfaction." If Universal were such a great place to work at, its own employees would not be trying to unionize against it.

It is a shame that the timing could not work out better. That places needs no less than a Matt Ouimet caliber leader to turn it around. I wish NBC would have sacked Bob Gault earlier this summer when Uncle Matt was being chased out of Anaheim. UO would have been perfect for him.

 

[Lynx04]

Maybe now we may see a new attraction in IOA. I don't know what has been the hold up, many different force could be at play, but maybe, just maybe, the something new will come.

I guess I am just jaded from waiting so long for something new for IOA.

 

[Michael72688]

Bob is an awesome leader, he will be missed around there but the new guy is supposed to be really good too. You all have to realize that Bob is kind of stuck in a position where he cant do much because of Universal's parent company.

 

[NemoRocks78]

Wow, sad to hear. Hopefully the new guy can help change things around.

 

[coasterphil]

SFMM is known as a very poorly run park, so I don't like the move at all. Hopefully he draw upon his Sea World experience more than his time at Six Flags.

 

[beyondthepalace]

definitly a sad day. Best memory of Bob was seeing him in the park on a busy Christmas day helping out the park services department by sweeping trash on the streets. Employee satisfaction is on and off but it always depends on what department you talk to.

BTW to the person who quoted above about how "if satisfaction is so high, why are the employees unionizing against it." I can pretty much tell you that the ones who were forming this organization were not UO team members. Also, as I am in the parks constantly, and I have alot of friends there, most think that it is a waste...the union will fail.

 

[JT3000]

I love how everyone focuses solely on his 3 years of experience at Six Flags and nothing else. Quite frankly, he couldn't possibly do much worse than Gault has in recent years.

 

[JROK]

I laughed when I saw that in the newspaper. I don't even think you can quantify how most employees feel about working there with the word "satisfaction." If Universal were such a great place to work at, its own employees would not be trying to unionize against it.

Since when were UO Employees joining that pos Union? The Union wasn't formed by UO Employees and is only here to take money from the employees. Nobody I know is joining them, or even reading their propaganda.

And if you read the TSAT UNews, it says the TSAT showed that 71% of employees were satisfied with their job, tied with 2004 as the highest. The national norm is 59%.

Also, it shows that 76% are happy with Universal as their employer, which has been the rate since 2003. In 2002 it was 53%. The norm again is 59%.

Ever since 2003, the employee ratings have been going up, considerably. So I think Gault did a great job for his employees and will definitely be missed.

 

[pheneix]

I think the union has done a horribly crappy job promoting themselves, but I don't believe for a second that the initial push for it came from within. How else did they get the addresses of 12,000 team members? Universal sure didn't release the information. Not that I condone what happened, cause I'm just as ed as everyone else that I'm getting their mailings.

I think that company's employees would be better served with a union. Maybe not this one, because this union does not seem to be effective in communicating their points across to UO team members, but at least some kind of functional union. Management at that company is not trustworthy in any sense of the word.

And if you read the TSAT UNews, it says the TSAT showed that 71% of employees were satisfied with their job, tied with 2004 as the highest.

Whatever. Go ask anyone in attractions operations and revenue operations how they like their job, and then wonder like the rest of us how those TSAT results were calculated. Don't get me wrong, there are a few departments out there that are operated better than others, such as entertainment, or marketing, which just pays themselves bonuses out of a budget that was initially assigned for a nationwide marketing campaign.

Universal is a really messed up company right now. A lot of its problems are recent, some of them aren't. It is easy to point the finger at GE and say that the new owner is responsible for screwing things up, but the reality is that the few positive things happening out there - the renewed focus on safety, the utilization of facilities such as gift shops and dormant sound stages that have been empty for years, and even the opening of Seuss Sky Trolley*, are because of GE demanding UO to take action. Bob Gault made a lot of promises when he took over, and he has failed to make good on just about all of them. In the process he pulled a Pressler and cut costs faster than revenues fell. It worked for a couple of years, but now its catching up with them. Universal's attendance is about to approach a record low, and even the deep discounting they are offering is not helping to prop things up. It was time for him to step down, but the damage is already done.

The amazing part of all this is that it was just a few years ago that we were saying these things about Disney. What boggles the mind even more is that Universal saw how this course of business leads to failure, yet they chose to pursue it anyway.

 

[beyondthepalace]

I think the union has done a horribly crappy job promoting themselves, but I don't believe for a second that the initial push for it came from within. How else did they get the addresses of 12,000 team members? Universal sure didn't release the information. Not that I condone what happened, cause I'm just as ed as everyone else that I'm getting their mailings.

I think that company's employees would be better served with a union. Maybe not this one, because this union does not seem to be effective in communicating their points across to UO team members, but at least some kind of functional union. Management at that company is not trustworthy in any sense of the word.



Whatever. Go ask anyone in attractions operations and revenue operations how they like their job, and then wonder like the rest of us how those TSAT results were calculated. Don't get me wrong, there are a few departments out there that are operated better than others, such as entertainment, or marketing, which just pays themselves bonuses out of a budget that was initially assigned for a nationwide marketing campaign.

Universal is a really messed up company right now. A lot of its problems are recent, some of them aren't. It is easy to point the finger at GE and say that the new owner is responsible for screwing things up, but the reality is that the few positive things happening out there - the renewed focus on safety, the utilization of facilities such as gift shops and dormant sound stages that have been empty for years, and even the opening of Seuss Sky Trolley*, are because of GE demanding UO to take action. Bob Gault made a lot of promises when he took over, and he has failed to make good on just about all of them. In the process he pulled a Pressler and cut costs faster than revenues fell. It worked for a couple of years, but now its catching up with them. Universal's attendance is about to approach a record low, and even the deep discounting they are offering is not helping to prop things up. It was time for him to step down, but the damage is already done.

The amazing part of all this is that it was just a few years ago that we were saying these things about Disney. What boggles the mind even more is that Universal saw how this course of business leads to failure, yet they chose to pursue it anyway.

While I still disagree with your thoughts about a union helping out, I definitly agree with two of your statements. Management has definitly become not trustworthy, particullarly in those two departments you mentioned. I have a lot of friends who worked in those departments for 3-4+ years before getting screwed over. Was this all Gaults fault? Not fully. UO was not sticking to promoting within and it hurt everyone who put in tons of hours only to get dissed upon. So those team members have gone and left for other departments and they now love it. So that leaves all the people who are just there for the job and they could care less. The quality of team members in those divisions are lowering themselves to Disney standards and it shows.