Disneyland President Ken Potrock faces challenges steeper than Matterhorn - The 100 most influential people for 2020. OCR

[Deleted member 107043]

It's just my TDA Executive BS Meter goes off whenever I read these OC Register puff pieces. And this one was particularly puffy, since for the last six months he's been "leading" a theme park and hotel property that doesn't actually operate.

It would be like running a toothpaste factory that doesn't actually make toothpaste and just sits there quietly waiting to start making toothpaste maybe six or eight months from now.

That said, I think we can all agree that the Register bent over backward to try and create an interesting hook about a man born in New York and raised in Ohio; he's aggressively wholesome! That's got to be a brand new tagline for anyone.

I gotta agree with you on this. In general The OC Register seems to be very far up Disneyland's you-know-what, often going out of its way to paint Team Disney Anaheim in the most positive light possible, rehashing whatever the resort's PR angle is that season. It's rare to see any thoughtful or meaningful journalism about Disneyland done by the staff at the paper.

 

[Magic Feather]

I love that! Hysterical!

But yeah... this is the guy that is going to lead Disneyland out of its darkest era of 15+ months of closure? They've fired thousands and thousands of Disneyland CM's, thousands more have left town or moved out of California along with all the others, and this is the guy who is going to rebuild and reopen this flagship property and American cultural icon?

I'm not buying it.

Sorry if I sound cynical, as I've actually been in a great mood lately, but this puff piece is just a bit too much. Mr. Potrock is in waaaaaay over his head. He had no previous experience with theme parks or the hospitality industry. He doesn't even live in OC, and he commutes down from LA near his original Burbank office. He's got a skeleton crew of TDA folks who can still curate a random Instagram post or Tweet every once in awhile, or schmooze what's left of the OC Register to puke up a vapid article about how wise he is.

But really? I'm sure Potrock is a nice man. And at least he doesn't come off quite as fake and phony as Ed Grier or Cynthia Harriss or that last lady in the skintight slacks whose name we've already forgotten. Nor does he seem nearly as douchey as Michael Colglazier who got the Burbank Boot and is now in charge of not turning Virgin Galactic passengers into charcoal briquets upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

But this is the random guy that leads Disneyland out of its darkest and most dire hour???

I'm glad I get to remain here on the sidelines instead of trying to thread that needle. As I said, I will buy the first round if Mr. Potrock is actually still in this role a year from now. I bet he doesn't make it to Labor Day, 2021.

His longest post pre-consumer products was running DVC and Golden Oak.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I certainly don't envy Ken in this job considering the circumstances. What's her name saw the writing on the wall and seems he was thrown under the Magical Express bus. I don't think he's really on to anything with the plan to implement mobile ordering or whatever. It's already been in place to some extent prior to the virus.

 

[TP2000]

His longest post pre-consumer products was running DVC and Golden Oak.

So... timeshares, and a gated community of 300 McMansions in a swamp?

I'm still not seeing a resume that proves to me that this is the guy that should be there to lead Disneyland Resort out of a 15 to 18 month long full closure with mass layoffs of thousands of CM's, and reinvent the way it does business and its daily operation.

Instead of touting mobile ordering and ride reservations, which they'd been doing for several years before Covid, I'd love to hear his thoughts on his plans to retrain and re-engage tens of thousands of CM's after over a year of closure. I'd also like to hear his thoughts on what Disney will be doing to relaunch the Anaheim Resort District when it reopens after 18 months of closure; marketing locally and nationally, phased reopening of Disney's hotels to push occupancy into partner hotels, partnering with Anaheim Convention Center on events, etc., etc.

But, as @Dr. Hans Reinhardt already mentioned, an article like that would require more thoughtful journalism on the part of the OC Register.

 

[TP2000]

I certainly don't envy Ken in this job considering the circumstances. What's her name saw the writing on the wall and seems he was thrown under the Magical Express bus. I don't think he's really on to anything with the plan to implement mobile ordering or whatever. It's already been in place to some extent prior to the virus.

Exactly. And again, let's not pretend that Mr. Potrock has just been dying to work at Disneyland his whole life but, darn the luck, he just couldn't break his way into the revolving door of TDA's executive suites.

He got thrown this job with a "take it or quit" mandate, and since he has a fat SoCal mortgage and a 401K to worry about like everyone else, he took the job for the company he's worked at for decades with an assumption that he'd only have to do this for a few years, and maybe the commute from Studio City to Anaheim won't be as bad as he thinks. He could get some Tom Clancy audiobooks! How bad could it be???

I don't envy him. But short of bringing back Matt Ouimet, I don't know who else is actually up to the task of this awful moment of reopening Disneyland in 2021 after 18 months of closure.

 

[truecoat]

Just a guess, but the cynical sarcastic answer isn't always the accurate funniest one.