Layoffs at Walt Disney World and other divisions of WDC

[TalkingHead]

Cut frontline CM positions/hours when all signs point to the need to increase both to compensate for the confusion that FP+ will surely generate among guests.

Ok, got it.

 

[Ava83]

Cut frontline CM positions/hours when all signs point to the need to increase both to compensate for the confusion that FP+ will surely generate among guests.

Ok, got it.

Is this official then? I have only seen it as an option. (FYI-I have been wrong today )

 

[ToTBellHop]

Sweetie, I've been in business for 30 years. I've known a lot of MBAs. So I am entitled to an opinion on them.

I've never met you. I've never mentioned you or talked about you. If you think I'm talking about you, then you have a very active imagination and one huge ego (as well as delusions of persecution). Not everything in life is about you.

But, I've seen MBAs in action. I've watched them ruin companies like Disney because it's very true that these guys aren't interested in making decades-long careers in companies...but instead are being taught in school that they need to look out for themselves, and jump around from company to company while staying no more than 3 years at each one. I have had dozens of MBAs tell me this is what they leave business school learning.

What a rude, obnoxious, and demeaning response. Sounds more like you are just bitter that you didn't get into an Ivy League school. It's not the Ivy League MBAs who are the demons here. They are just doing their jobs and using the brains that got them into an Ivy League program. It's people like Jay Rasulo who are telling them what to do that are the problem. Mr. Rasulo may have gone to Columbia for undergrad, but his MBA is from the University of Chicago. Bob Iger went to Ithaca College. Up the road from an Ivy but I don't think that qualifies.

 

[71jason]

In fairness, a UC MBA is kind of equivalent to an Ivy League MBA.

In any case, I don't think Ms Melton et al are attacking MBAs as persons--however business schools, from the Ivy League/"A List" on down because that's where all the professors went to school anyway, teach a certain mentality/world view. "How to think like an MBA" to paraphrase something I heard countless times in law school. While that mentality may or may not work for certain companies--a much bigger debate for another forum--I think the past two decades show it does not work for theme parks. WDW is not a Gap store at Short Hills Mall or a McDonalds in Wichita.

 

[wm49rs]

In fairness, a UC MBA is kind of equivalent to an Ivy League MBA.

In any case, I don't think Ms Melton et al are attacking MBAs as persons--however business schools, from the Ivy League/"A List" on down because that's where all the professors went to school anyway, teach a certain mentality/world view. "How to think like an MBA" to paraphrase something I heard countless times in law school. While that mentality may or may not work for certain companies--a much bigger debate for another forum--I think the past two decades show it does not work for theme parks. WDW is not a Gap store at Short Hills Mall or a McDonalds in Wichita.

I'd recommend researching his other rants on MBAs......

 

[PhotoDave219]

What a rude, obnoxious, and demeaning response. Sounds more like you are just bitter that you didn't get into an Ivy League school. It's not the Ivy League MBAs who are the demons here. They are just doing their jobs and using the brains that got them into an Ivy League program. It's people like Jay Rasulo who are telling them what to do that are the problem. Mr. Rasulo may have gone to Columbia for undergrad, but his MBA is from the University of Chicago. Bob Iger went to Ithaca College. Up the road from an Ivy but I don't think that qualifies.

In this instance, she's using the stereotype of an MBA graduate: You know, white collar, never did any honest front line work, completely out of touch with the product or experience that the company provides as well someone who is only interested in quarterly profits, manipulating numbers and getting their bonuses. Its a corporate culture that has invaded the business world and is leaving most companies a smoking ruin. Its the MENTALITY that seems to be the problem.

It doesnt just happen in business, they juke the stats everywhere. Politicians juke the crime stats to get Federal Grants. Educators juke the stats so they continue to get federal funding and can say the graduation rate improves. Police juke the stats so they can say crime goes down and they can get promotions.

Its a shell game to cover up the realities that no on wants to admit. In this case? The reality is that Disney World brings in an egregious amount of money & has ZERO business screaming poverty.

If you dont understand how this happens, please go watch season 4 of The Wire.

 

[BwanaBob]

Cut frontline CM positions/hours when all signs point to the need to increase both to compensate for the confusion that FP+ will surely generate among guests.

Ok, got it.

Plans already in works to beef-up staffing for Nex-Gen roll-outs, which is another reason I am having a hard time with all this. Not saying cuts aren't coming, just see them to be more surgical than blatant across the board cuts.

There is a rushed LCC happening right now for the combined areas of F&B, Merch, and Ops... with Entertainment to follow soon.
Why would they need to place more leaders if cuts are to be made? Let alone the ones who are on TA and are not status anywhere.

As far as the comment about the 'Casey's scenario', there are a lot of positions created to enhance guest interaction and visibility. As I stated before, some cast members take advantage of this and abuse it, leading to bad show and guest dissatisfaction. Local mgr's see it. Now whether they do anything about it is another issue.

 

[plutofan15]

WDC derives half of its income from one source: ESPN and its brand. As the cost of maintaining the ESPN brand increases, costs have to be cut elsewhere to ensure that earnings for the entire company maintain the growth that shareholders expect.

It does not matter if the guest experience suffers with the cost cuts that are on the way. They are in service to a greater good as far as the Company is concerned. Disney is more interested in spending your theme park dollars on NCAA sports deals than new rides.

ESPN is seperate entity from the parks with seperate budgets. The parks budget does not have affect on ESPN and vice versa. Also, ESPN is not fully owned by the Disney company - 80% owned by Disney, 20% owned by Hearst Corporation.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

So what happens when the NCAA implodes on itself in the near future?

 

[phi2134]

This happens at all big companies because the Ivy League MBAs who are hired come in with the goal of cutting a bunch of costs so they can trumpet how much they increased profits. And then the MBAs leave that company for another one...their big picture goal is to work at 4 or 5 big companies before they are 45, and then they start their own consulting companies. None of these guys plan on being at any company for longer than 3 years because that would make it harder for them to be in high positions at a half dozen corporations before they leave to hang up their own shingle.

There's no concern for the longterm health of a company from these guys. They just want to cut, cut, cut so that when they leave in 3 years they can show savings and increased profits...and they are never held accountable for any problems that develop as a result of all those cuts.

To me it feels like playing that game Jenga. They keep taking out pieces from the bottom because they think that no one pays attention to those and they are expendable. But if you keep removing pieces from the bottom the tower starts to wobble. The MBAs don't care, because they keep drawing attention to the top which looks fine. Meanwhile, the tower's being undermined and destabilized and gets shakier and shakier until one day something will shake it. A while back before those pieces were removed it could have survived that shake, but after all the cuts it's become so weak it will fall.

The MBAs are long gone though...playing the same game at another table now.

Of course the only people who can run successful companies without laying people off from time to time are the ones with only a bachelor's degree or even a GED. I don't like what Disney is doing but Patty sure has a warped view on people with MBA's. In my experience those are the driven people who actually go back to school, even rack up huge student loans so they can further their careers and provide for their families. Bitter Bitter Patty.

I wonder how MBA program's outside of the Ivy league educate their students I wish I could have gone to an Ivy league school and I give all the props to the people who are able to get their by themselves and do the work that is necessary to earn their degrees

 

[Polydweller]

None of this is surprising. What's haven't seen in this thread is the roots of this going back at least 18 months. Disney's bankers and major investors have been pressuring for cost reductions in its P&R division. Those groups made it clear that they felt operational costs were too high. The monorail and EMH cutbacks haven't given the cost reductions those two groups demanded. So, management is now looking at other ways to address this. And yes, to operate Disney must bow to this kind of pressure. They do heed to borrow from the banks for projects and large investors (tens of thousands of shares) can cause significant problems for senior managers.

And it's not actually related to capital expenditures such as next gen. Those expenditures may lead to cost reductions but that's incidental to what's going on. Staff reductions are part of the operational side of things not capital expenditures. But Disney's also under pressure, this time their bankers, to slow its capital expenditures in all areas. Between ships and theme park expenditures like Cars Land and New Fantasyland the bankers want the pace of the expenditures to be reduced, not stopped but spread out more. This may be leading to Avatar being pushed out further.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Its just so magical you dont need staff to run it.

 

[asianway]

None of this is surprising. What's haven't seen in this thread is the roots of this going back at least 18 months. Disney's bankers and major investors have been pressuring for cost reductions in its P&R division. Those groups made it clear that they felt operational costs were too high. The monorail and EMH cutbacks haven't given the cost reductions those two groups demanded. So, management is now looking at other ways to address this. And yes, to operate Disney must bow to this kind of pressure. They do heed to borrow from the banks for projects and large investors (tens of thousands of shares) can cause significant problems for senior managers.

And it's not actually related to capital expenditures such as next gen. Those expenditures may lead to cost reductions but that's incidental to what's going on. Staff reductions are part of the operational side of things not capital expenditures. But Disney's also under pressure, this time their bankers, to slow its capital expenditures in all areas. Between ships and theme park expenditures like Cars Land and New Fantasyland the bankers want the pace of the expenditures to be reduced, not stopped but spread out more. This may be leading to Avatar being pushed out further.

A fair amount of Next gen is direct expense and not depreciated even though it is a part of the However many Billion dollar total were up to now. Its been commented as a drag on P&R earnings in a few of the conference calls.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Susan O’Day is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for The Walt Disney Company. Susan leads Disney Technology Solutions and Services, delivering technology capabilities that enable business segment strategies while achieving enterprise efficiency and promoting cross-company collaborative innovation.

Good God, what a nonsensical string of corporate buzz words.

 

[TalkingHead]

God God, what a nonsensical string of corporate buzz words.

Wish I could like this a dozen times.

 

[Darth Sidious]

I am not surprised... NextGen is supposed to help efficiencies (partly) so I wouldn't be surprised if it helps decide who is necessary. Plus FP+ is tied to reduced park hours in the future so... Again it makes complete sense. Sucks for those who will be affected... I hope it isn't true but if it is... I hope they can find new work. I know I haven't found anything in NY yet.

 

[donsullivan]

Sweetie, I've been in business for 30 years. I've known a lot of MBAs. So I am entitled to an opinion on them.

I've never met you. I've never mentioned you or talked about you. If you think I'm talking about you, then you have a very active imagination and one huge ego (as well as delusions of persecution). Not everything in life is about you.

But, I've seen MBAs in action. I've watched them ruin companies like Disney because it's very true that these guys aren't interested in making decades-long careers in companies...but instead are being taught in school that they need to look out for themselves, and jump around from company to company while staying no more than 3 years at each one. I have had dozens of MBAs tell me this is what they leave business school learning.

You've clearly got something deep down against anyone with an MBA given the number of times on different threads that you've gone off on this rant. It's getting old and your tone on the topic is getting progressively more condescending toward MBA's and other members of the forum. While you are indeed entitled to your opinion, broad generalizations of an entire class of people just because you had a bad experience is inappropriate and unproductive. Just because you've experiences some bad managers who happened to have MBA's does not automatically mean anyone with an MBA is incompetent.

There is not a single company out there, no matter how profitable or successful that should not be looking at opportunities to reduce expenses. There is not a single company out there, not matter how profitable or successful that should not be looking at opportunities to become more efficient. This is a totally normal and appropriate activity for every organization large or small to undertake on a regular basis. Any company that does not undertake these activities on a regular basis will most certainly go out of business because they are not properly managing their expenses and they will quickly become unprofitable. This is not an activity that requires any advance degree, it is just simply good management practice.

 

[PhotoDave219]

There is not a single company out there, no matter how profitable or successful that should not be looking at opportunities to reduce expenses. There is not a single company out there, not matter how profitable or successful that should not be looking at opportunities to become more efficient. This is a totally normal and appropriate activity for every organization large or small to undertake on a regular basis. Any company that does not undertake these activities on a regular basis will most certainly go out of business because they are not properly managing their expenses and they will quickly become unprofitable. This is not an activity that requires any advance degree, it is just simply good management practice.

But what if your product isn't tangable? What if its an idea or a feeling? What if your product is Guest Service and Happiness? Then what?

 

[wm49rs]

Oh heck, what if your product was something really zany, like rides and attractions?

 

[PhotoDave219]

You simply cannot apply a standard cost-cutting business model at WDW. THe law of unintended consequences will rear its head.