RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
Everyone retired, and nothing was documented before the last person out turned the lights off?
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Disney As A Corporation
- Thread starter Raineman
- Start date
Everyone retired, and nothing was documented before the last person out turned the lights off?
JIMINYCR
Well-Known Member
Because the majority of people have never operated any kind of business and have no idea what goes into the day to day decisions and costs involved in keeping a business open. They think and imagine only greedy profit making CEO's, upper management and stockholders taking dollars from their pockets preventing everyone from enjoying a low cost theme park experience. Prices should stay low, experiences should be expanded, improvements and upkeep done, CM's wages, benefits and positions increased and the corporation should just absorb the costs. Its not a small time carnival, its a major business that has to be run as one.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Everyone retired, and nothing was documented before the last person out turned the lights off?
More like the people who built the business were kicked out and replaced by those who only understand marketing and consumer products and not hospitality and customer service.
Disney thinks it can put whoever they want in charge of the parks and they'll learn on the job.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
"Disney is a business"
Not all businesses are the same. Or even close.
You can't run a restaurant if you only know how to sell toothpaste.
Not all businesses are the same. Or even close.
You can't run a restaurant if you only know how to sell toothpaste.
winstongator
Well-Known Member
I've heard it other places, and also by @lentesta . Corporations have more than one set of stakeholders. Customers, employees, communities are all important.
Using only longevity as a metric of current "success" is short sighted. The current care takers of the parks merely stand on the shoulders of the geniuses before them and simply repackage what was once offered with the price of admission but now with a price tag on it and a few buzz words to appease those who do not know any better.
yaksplat
Well-Known Member
I want to think of the parks as the dairy section of the grocery store. It's expected that a grocery store carries milk. Many stores price milk at a loss to bring people into the store.
It would be interesting if the parks ran at a loss due to dumping all of the profits right back in.
LeighM
Well-Known Member
I'm reading Disney Wars now and it's definitely made me see a few things differently. There was a lot of drama over some of Eisner's decisions, especially his price increases. Some people weren't happy over Eisner's changes then, just like they aren't happy with Iger's changes now. The only thing constant and consistent is people complaining LOL. I can understand some of the complaints bc I've seen the changes since my first adult trip in 2012. My biggest problems are the decreased park hours and the resorts going more generic. But, who knows, maybe in 10 years, they will change back when consumer behavior changes. As much as I love Disney, I never forget that they are a business whose goal is to make profits. However, when I think back to my childhood in the 80s and early 90s, there was a great sense of magic over Disney. I watched out for the free preview week of the Disney Channel, I loved getting the Disney Store catalog in the mail to dream over products we couldn't afford, watched the Disney episodes when they came on TGIF. And Disney Afternoon was fantastic!!! I feel sorry for the kids today that don't have the old DuckTales (the new version doesn't come close), Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin. In looking back, I really think a lot of that nostalgia feeds off of the relative newness and emergence of the Disney Renaissance. My generation had the excitement of the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, among others. I can only imagine what it felt like in the parks during that time. But even my nostalgia doesn't stop me from seeing that times are always changing and nothing ever stays the same. That's why it's called nostalgia.
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yaksplat
Well-Known Member
My kids get every old Disney cartoon, including Gummy Bears, DuckTales, RR, DWD and Talespin. It took me a while to get them to understand that not every house has a server full of cartoons and a hard wired network to every room waiting to stream all of the cartoon goodness.
LeighM
Well-Known Member
I was excited to see that Disney has released them on DVDs and I've been purchasing them on Amazon with the Prime discount. I was quite insulted when my husband told me he never liked Rescue Rangers - Chip and Dale were my favorite. It was like I no longer knew who he was LOL.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
There is no "they." A person fired after 1 month in the college program has more prior industry experience than Bob Iger, Bob Chapek and Tom Staggs combined. Bob Iger actively explored selling off the parks during his refocusing on core businesses. Paul Pressler was brought in in the mid-1990s and changed the business model to one based on mall retail. That hasn't changed and senior leadership of the parks since then has continued to be persons with little to no prior experience in themed entertainment, fixed amusements or hospitality.
A mall retail model is at least somewhat practical for the 1990s consumer. Not saying it was the best approach for the theme park business but its at least one that suits the climate of the era in terms of spending money.
Iger and company seem to have taken it a step further back in time and adopted a 1980s "Mike Demone" (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) style of profit and manipulation.
lentesta
Premium Member
I'm sure @ParentsOf4 knows better that what I'm about to write.
IIRC, the idea that "shareholder value" should be the thing that companies focus on first and more than anything, seems to have started in the early 1980's with Jack Welch at GE and ... was it Harvard Business Review? If you recall the political and social climate of the 1980's, you'll understand how that idea took hold in corporate board rooms. That said, "share price" is an easy metric to use for performance, and it's easy to use that as an incentive for everyone from executives to employees with retirement plans. I understand the initial appeal.
Now, however, folks from Welch, to HBR, to Forbes (none of whom I'd call paragons of democratic socialism) consider the thought of companies focusing mostly on shareholder value as "the dumbest idea in the world" (Welch) and quote it as "pernicious nonsense" (Forbes).
I'll note that these folks had a change of heart after they earned fortunes doing what they now disavow.
IMHO, the idea was questionable at best to anyone who considered the long-term performance of their company, employees, or country.
The median tenure of a large company's CEO is 5 years (cite). Tying that CEO's pay to stock prices is a temptation to focus only on the short term. I can see how it's difficult to resist that, especially if it's viewed as a once-in-a-lifetime chance at economic security.
The other problem with it, of course, is that the other stakeholders (employees, customers, communities) can be afterthoughts when it comes to evaluating executive performance. I don't think many non-unionized corporate board rooms have a dedicated advocate for labor when it comes to making decisions.
To head off the inevitable comment that companies have a financial obligation to maximize profits for their shareholders: they do not. In HHS vs Hobby Lobby, SCOTUS said "modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so." (This was regarding whether for-profit companies could use profits to further religious objectives instead of, for example, reinvesting the profits back into the business, or returning them to shareholders.)
I will now tell you a story that you're free to skip over. Many of you know that in a previous life I did time with American Express, the credit card company. One day about 10 years ago, we were preparing our office for a visit from corporate bigwigs from New York. And one of the preparations was a display that highlighted our volunteer efforts. One effort was a Habitat for Humanity home that we helped build for one of our own local, full-time employees that had been with AXP for years.
The day of the visit comes, and the corporate people arrive. We walk them around the building, we talk about our current projects, and we show them our volunteering stuff. They all think it's good. Then one of them, Jim Bush, Executive VP, asks "Why did we have to build a house for an employee who's been here for years?"
The uncomfortable answer was that the employee didn't earn enough to save for a down payment and qualify for a mortgage.
Jim goes back to New York and gets his team started on a compensation review for tens of thousands of AXP's customer-facing people. It becomes the highest priority thing for an entire line of business. Takes two years to do the analysis, get it through legal and HR, etc. The CEO (Ken Chennault) and board approve it. And wages were raised, despite costing millions of dollars ... in a recession. Because it was the right thing to do.
I'm not saying AXP was or is perfect. I will say I never, ever, doubted the integrity of my leadership team, from my immediate manager all the way up to Ken, to deal with problems appropriately. When I'm super-critical of Disney's corporate governance, it's because I rarely see the kind of behavior from them that I saw every day at American Express. I know from experience that leaders can do better.
End of rant.
Edit: typos
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DisneyDoctor
Well-Known Member
It is a business. Its main goal is to make money. In a world dominated by money, whether we like it or not, of course their main concern is money. I'm not sure where this disconnect is originating from.
I don't care if you are the most morally ethic person in the world, if your main goal isn't making money you won't have a business for too long.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Really? Never would have guessed that.
Here's another Earth shattering revelation: There is more than one way for a business to make money.
Also, HOW a business makes money, depends upon a number of factors.
DisneyDoctor
Well-Known Member
I think Disney is in the unique situation where it would take a catastrophic screw-up to hurt them. No matter what we think of the current leadership, we still go. And, every year more and more families attend. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter what any of us think about leadership.
eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
So you work in a job for 28 years and learn nothing?
Jeez. I started as an engineer in a chemical company with no experience lol no way after 28 years could I get away with that excuse.
Thanks for the background.
Lol, you guys are doomed
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Your 28 years as an engineer at a chemical company means you know how to run a hotel?
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Duh, anyone can run a hotel.
You take their money, give 'em their room key and clean up in the morning. How hard could that be?
[/sarcasm]
eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
No but I did move up in my company and learn different functions. Im saying according to the other poster Paul what's his name as been in the theme park business for 28 years and learned not a thing about theme parks??
And yes if I was in the hotel industry for 28 years I would hope to know something.
Lol oh I did go back to culinary school and learn French pasteries. So yeah I would expect this Paul dude to know a bit