Of Eisner, Iger, Chapek and Pressler; or Is history repeating itself?

[DisneyManOne]

The problem with Chapek is that he's more than willing to shoehorn in the IPs wherever he wants. This is bad enough on its own, but it's even worse considering the reason why is because his previous job before becoming Parks Chairman was being President of Disney Consumer Products (hence why I compared him to Pressler--they both started out in merchandising before going on to run the parks).

And honestly, if that's not bad enough, I've heard rumors that Chapek may succeed Iger as CEO of the company. If that happens, may God have mercy on our souls... (I really do think a Chapek-run Disney would be a total disaster).

 

[celluloid]

I wish I could compare Iger and company to Eisner, but the fact is, with Eisner we had two theme parks added(even if early years were rough) to the resort and over 20 Resort hotels. We had a guy that had a great partnership and respect in entertainment business because if nothing else, he had good diplomacy in the entertainment world. A guy with a theater degree who investigated and invested financially in Imagineering. He brought back the idea of Disney coming into your home on Sunday night as a company and did in fact appear in front of the introductions as a face you could somewhat recognize. If not for Eisner that partnership with Lucasfilm and owning it would not of happened. For all the faults, so many amazing things came with it.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

He does seem disingenuous, but that's because he's reading from a script and reciting memorized talking points. He has no personal experience to draw from when he talks about Disney theme parks, and he has no idea how they operate day to day or how paying customers interact with them. It's painfully obvious that he is clueless about the business he is leading.

But if that makes him seem like a "bad guy", that's the fault of his support team and the communication people who write his talking points for him. He needs better delivery skills and real experiences to draw from, then he wouldn't seem so fake.

He doesn't even know how to ride the parking lot tram at Disneyland because he valet parks at the Grand Californian any time he and his family visit. But I'm sure he's not actually "bad". I bet he's a nice enough guy who loves his wife, doesn't kick his dog, votes and pays his taxes, doesn't run red lights, etc. He's just painfully clueless.

OK, here's my 2 cents...I worked in retail management for 30 years and I, along with all of the other "old school" managers always had the same pet peeve...you "bust your butt" for 10 months out of the year, with no corporate help...Black Friday comes along, and all the "executives" come out to visit the stores...you spend weeks gussying up the store, they come in, spend 30 minutes and think THEY know all the answers on how the stores are run. They've NEVER been in the retail trenches so to speak, so they make all of their corporate decisions based on that 30 minute visit. What's worse is that they probably NEVER had a day working retail...never been in the stores when you had 3 call-outs on a single shift on December 23rd...To me, the mark of a great executive is someone who HAS worked in the "trenches"...been in the parks on a hot, humid July day...walked around in street clothes without the nametag...rode the busses and ACTUALLY spoke with guests about their experiences...THATS what EVERY executive SHOULD do, but we know that's never going to happen.

As far as the shoehorning IP's go, when you really think about it, before they were called IP's, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey are ALL IP's...no one has a problem with those characters being shoehorned in the parks...it is what it is. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, people have ZERO attention spans and don't want to think for themselves...entitlement and instant gratification is what is expected now...why check something out in Innoventions when they can just wonder around Epcot with their noses buried in their phones and just Google it?

What all Disney lovers want is to return to the day when Walt ran the parks, start to finish, and Roy dealt with the money end of the business...unfortunately, in our corporate climate, dreams and passion are no longer prerequisites for landing a CEO job...just $$$$ results.

 

[Ag11gani]

The problem with Chapek is that he's more than willing to shoehorn in the IPs wherever he wants. This is bad enough on its own, but it's even worse considering the reason why is because his previous job before becoming Parks Chairman was being President of Disney Consumer Products (hence why I compared him to Pressler--they both started out in merchandising before going on to run the parks).

And honestly, if that's not bad enough, I've heard rumors that Chapek may succeed Iger as CEO of the company. If that happens, may God have mercy on our souls... (I really do think a Chapek-run Disney would be a total disaster).

You keep on repeating that he likes shoehorning IPs in places where they don't belong but at least in the D23 announcements there wasn't as many as you make out. For WDW, there was 1 maybe 2 depending on how you see it. For Disneyland, well Pixar peir really is going to be interesting. And other than D23 we have FEA and Mission:Breakout. So he dosn't do it as much as make it out.