Iger VS Eisner

[Jimmy Thick]

Eisner is the single most important person in the history of Disney World when it comes to its growth. What he did will never be duplicated. A lot of the things that were built under Iger's watch were things Eisner put into develoment. I would be so bold as to say Disney World was more Eisner's baby than anyone named Disney. I believe the man deserves a statue somewhere on property for all he accomplished. We won't even begin to mention how Eisner saved the Disney company...

Iger is a solid, but unspectaculer businessman. He has put the company in a position to thrive well into the future. His contribution to Disney World more than likely won't be realized until he has retired.


Jimmy Thick- Face it, Eisner is as important in the grand scheme of things as Walt...

 

[wiigirl]

Eisner is the single most important person in the history of Disney World when it comes to its growth. What he did will never be duplicated. A lot of the things that were built under Iger's watch were things Eisner put into develoment. I would be so bold as to say Disney World was more Eisner's baby than anyone named Disney. I believe the man deserves a statue somewhere on property for all he accomplished. We won't even begin to mention how Eisner saved the Disney company...

Iger is a solid, but unspectaculer businessman. He has put the company in a position to thrive well into the future. His contribution to Disney World more than likely won't be realized until he has retired.


Jimmy Thick- Face it, Eisner is as important in the grand scheme of things as Walt...

100% agree

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Eisner viewed WDW as an underdeveloped property with incredible potential. However, let's not forget what else Eisner gave WDW:

• 2 half-finished theme parks (DHS & DAK) that people complain even today aren't full-day parks. (I don't agree with this but have to acknowledge that a lot of people do.)
• Thousands of acres of sold off property, including Celebration.
• An obsession with quick-money schemes such as Disney Vacation Club.
• A willingness to cut maintenance and quality to the bone in order to make quarterly numbers.
• Rapidly increasing ticket and food prices.

Although I greatly appreciate Eisner awakening TWDC from its slumber, Eisner also left quite a bloodbath along the way.

This is the thing the general public does not understand and only see's what they want to see.

Eisner had investors and shareholders to appease. He HAS to keep them happy or face their wrath. As a businessman, he has to be aware of the bottom line and do what is necessary to keep people happy who invest billions in his company or he won't be in charge for long. And ultimately guess what, Iger has to deal with the same issues. Eisner just accomplished more with what he had.

People continue to say how Walt would never had allowed this or that, but thats only wishful thinking. He would have lost the company in time if he did not die. The company was on its last legs when Eisner took it and ran with it and made it a world wide powerhouse. What WDW is today is because of one man, thats Eisner, if people think its good or bad is up to them, but if he did not see what WDW could have been, you would still have only two extremely dated theme parks that chances are would not be called Disney.


Jimmy Thick- Disney War? Who cares. Besides, thats only one side of the story, until both are heard, people should not quote it.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Fishing for beginers

 

[ParentsOf4]

This is the thing the general public does not understand and only see's what they want to see.

Eisner had investors and shareholders to appease. He HAS to keep them happy or face their wrath. As a businessman, he has to be aware of the bottom line and do what is necessary to keep people happy who invest billions in his company or he won't be in charge for long. And ultimately guess what, Iger has to deal with the same issues. Eisner just accomplished more with what he had.

People continue to say how Walt would never had allowed this or that, but thats only wishful thinking. He would have lost the company in time if he did not die. The company was on its last legs when Eisner took it and ran with it and made it a world wide powerhouse. What WDW is today is because of one man, thats Eisner, if people think its good or bad is up to them, but if he did not see what WDW could have been, you would still have only two extremely dated theme parks that chances are would not be called Disney.

Jimmy Thick- Disney War? Who cares. Besides, thats only one side of the story, until both are heard, people should not quote it.

I agree that Eisner's reign was important to TWDC as a whole. However, since Walt Disney's death in 1966, there were several take-over attempts and TWDC had survived these without Eisner. Eisner did not "save" TWDC from take-over when he joined in 1984; Roy E. Disney and Sid Bass did that. Eisner's most important contribution was to get TWDC moving forward again after Walt's death. TWDC had had a series of mostly forgettable films for 20 years and, more than anything, TWDC needed a CEO who could make the Entertainment segment successful again. Eisner helped them accomplish this and was largely responsible for TWDC's tremendous growth from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Eisner was not the only person in the World who could have done this. I respectfully submit there were a dozen highly qualified executives available in 1984 who could have done the same.

Let's not forget that most of Iger's reign has been about mending the fences that Eisner tore down. Iger's greatest asset is that he simply is not Eisner. More than anything, this shows what a mixed bag Eisner was.

You originally wrote:

Eisner is the single most important person in the history of Disney World when it comes to its growth.

I believe that Eisner's contributions to the TWDC and WDW were not unique. Others could have just as effectively grown TWDC and WDW, and without all of Eisner's considerable baggage.

You also wrote:

I would be so bold as to say Disney World was more Eisner's baby than anyone named Disney.

I can imagine a highly successful TWDC and WDW without Eisner. Just try to imagine TWDC and WDW without Walt or Roy O. Disney. They simply would not exist.

 

[CountryBearFan]

Iger deserves more votes in this poll.

People here are clearly only judging Eisner before Frank Wells died. They do need to consider the evil deeds he did between Wells' death and Roy Disney's Save Disney campaign.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Iger deserves more votes in this poll.

People here are clearly only judging Eisner before Frank Wells died. They do need to consider the evil deeds he did between Wells' death and Roy Disney's Save Disney campaign.

Like promoting and empowering executives such as Bob Iger, Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo?

 

[unkadug]

This is the thing the general public does not understand and only see's what they want to see.

Eisner had investors and shareholders to appease. He HAS to keep them happy or face their wrath. As a businessman, he has to be aware of the bottom line and do what is necessary to keep people happy who invest billions in his company or he won't be in charge for long. And ultimately guess what, Iger has to deal with the same issues. Eisner just accomplished more with what he had.

People continue to say how Walt would never had allowed this or that, but thats only wishful thinking. He would have lost the company in time if he did not die. The company was on its last legs when Eisner took it and ran with it and made it a world wide powerhouse. What WDW is today is because of one man, thats Eisner, if people think its good or bad is up to them, but if he did not see what WDW could have been, you would still have only two extremely dated theme parks that chances are would not be called Disney.


Jimmy Thick- Disney War? Who cares. Besides, thats only one side of the story, until both are heard, people should not quote it.

Can you say man crush?

 

[jsf2011]

It's good to see we have so many qualified CEOs of $50 billion companies on these boards.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It's good to see we have so many qualified CEOs of $50 billion companies on these boards.

What a ridiculous point. Shareholders are not a CEO but they still vote on the performance of the CEO. Just as more than other presidents vote on who should be president. It is possible to have an educated opinion without the direct experience.

 

[jsf2011]

Disney the past few years has completely dominated in the market when compared to other media companies, and has by far the strongest outlook for the future. People keep saying how Disney's exec team needs to be replaced, I have seen my $35/share investment go up to $50 in just the past few years in a terrible economy. Disney's team isn't going anywhere.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Disney the past few years has completely dominated in the market when compared to other media companies, and has by far the strongest outlook for the future. People keep saying how Disney's exec team needs to be replaced, I have seen my $35/share investment go up to $50 in just the past few years in a terrible economy. Disney's team isn't going anywhere.

And how much of this has been built on acquisitions undertaken because the Company could no longer sustain its own creative personelle in a productive environment? Buying up others is not a very good long-term strategy.

 

[jsf2011]

So the Disney/ABC/ESPN/Marvel/Pixar machine is going to get derailed by the mighty Time Warner? How about Dream Works, or Six Flags? There is nothing wrong with having several huge assets...and I still think the Disney Parks experience triumphs all the other parks. Universal is great and all and it's good that they are re-investing back into new rides (though if you know the inner workings of how their contracts with the city work you know why they are building things like Transformers)...but to think that Universal is going to take down Disney in the vacation market is just ignorant. IOA's busiest day ever was the day Wizarding World opened and the park had like 45,000 people. Magic Kingdom gets that all the time, during holiday's Magic Kingdom gets over 70,000.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Exactly and as long as the prols keep coming who cares.

 

[Grumpy-Fan]

You made me laff out lowd.

me two.

 

[FrankLapidus]

I would probably pick Eisner at his peak when his partnership with Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg really revolutionised the company. Had Wells not died I'm sure things would be very different to what they are today but to give Eisner some credit, he had something I believe Iger doesn't: creativity. Iger hasn't been terrible but he hasn't been particularly great either and some of his recent decisions (Avatarland for instance) have dampened my opinion of him.

Iger deserves more votes in this poll.

People here are clearly only judging Eisner before Frank Wells died. They do need to consider the evil deeds he did between Wells' death and Roy Disney's Save Disney campaign.

Iger was Eisner's right-hand man for some time and also bears some culpability for those "evil deeds" as you put it. He has been smart enough to learn from and not repeat Eisner's mistake but in the Save Disney campaign, Iger was Eisner's loyal lieutenant who was as much of a "yes man" as people accuse Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo of being today.