I encountered Meg multiple times during DCA's relaunch in 2012. As far as I know, it was one of only a handful of times she ever stepped foot in the Disneyland Resort theme parks she supposedly oversaw from a high level as part of her position, a position, as
@TP2000 pointed out above, so useful that it has since been eliminated.
I've never seen someone so disinterested, so detached on what was an extremely momentous occasion for their line of business. I'll never know to what we can attribute her meteoric rise in the company, but very little good came of it and while I'm sure she's a lovely person, she is not deserving of the parks' highest honor. She is well known in Central Florida for philanthropic work, which is wonderful, and I know she has had health struggles, which is unfortunate. I wish her the best as I would to any decent human being, but that doesn't change the fact that Main Street windows are to denote those who have left some kind of profound legacy on that park. Meg Crofton has left no such legacy on Walt Disney World. She's just a suit who stuck around long enough and didn't rock the boat.
I wonder if the window-touted "Leadership Development" skills Ms. Crofton possesses were used to affect the incredibly low morale amongst cast members in the park where her window is placed? Did she "mentor" the managers and low level executives who contribute to a toxic culture by treating their front line Cast Members as sub-human automatons?
Did you know the Disney princesses have numbers to hit? In some locations, each performer has a count board on display in the backstage area so that their guest counts for the day can be monitored. It's not Cinderella's job to create magical moments and instill lifetime brand loyalty through the highest quality interactions. Cinderella has a scripted PhotoPass procedure to follow that includes signing a 90% profit margin autograph book and ensuring a certain amount of "candid" poses are hit before the final posed photo is taken. I assure you, any "magical moments" are at best, the performer risking a reprimand by taking more time with a guest than allotted and at worst, accidental at Walt Disney World in 2015.
I wonder if Ms. Crofton had any leadership tips for Cinderella.
I wonder how many of the thousands of working poor employed at the Walt Disney World Resort got to benefit from Ms. Crofton's vaunted qualities. Although, leadership development isn't one's chief concern when you're living out of a motel and are on the precipice of being fired whenever your child is sick. Perhaps Ms. Crofton mentored the executives behind Disney's antiquated, inefficient and costly attendance system.
It's lovely that Ms. Crofton was congratulated on her undeserved honor at the California Grill with a free multi-course five star meal. Perhaps she and Mr. Kalogridis took time out of their party to mentor some of the wait staff. After all, Kalogridis started as a bus boy at the Contemporary so many years ago. Look at him now! Is that career path still available for a bus boy at the Contemporary in 2015?
We all know the answer to that question.
People like Meg Crofton are not to be lauded for their "achievements" in business. Business leaders like her and her superiors in Burbank profit on an unsustainable model that pursues profitability at all cost. Their first and only priority is shareholder value. Their cast members are not a priority at all. They don't even make the list. The guest experience is a false ideology to which nothing but lip service is paid.
Sad and bizarre.
