On layoffs, very bad attendance, and Iger's legacy being one of disgrace

MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Here's the thing about the company: It has the resources to go two years with no profits. It's in no danger of bankruptcy or hostile takeovers.

But here's another thing about the company (and all other companies): They don't want to get by on breaking even. They want to make a profit. Their stockholders want them to make a profit. And outside of extraordinary times like a pandemic, a company is regarded as 'failing' by Wall Street if it doesn't hit projected maximal profits.

So, that's the two extremes. It's perfectly fine because it will definitely survive. And it's a big failing mess because it's not making over a billion dollars a quarter in profits.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Disney as a whole will be fine (unless this somehow lasts for years and years, and then there will be much bigger problems).

However, this does not bode well for the parks and that's the main concern of most people here. They are likely to be lower quality, lesser experiences for quite some time and no one should be expecting any major new additions beyond what's currently under construction for years.
 
Basil of Baker Street

Basil of Baker Street

Well-Known Member
techgeek said:
It’s pretty obvious that Bob has turned management of the company over to a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet is calling the shots at the moment.

If there were actual leadership, there would be some nuance and innovation involved in the decisions of the last few weeks.
Click to expand...
Kinda reminds me of a baseball manager nowadays. They just use analytics.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
techgeek said:
I can understand and acknowledge much of this, in fact I attempted to allude to it in my "somewhere in between" scenario. Yes, hard decisions have to be made about a business that will not look the same as it did yesterday. But, Walt didn't fire his artists working on shorts... he empowered them to explore other creative directions. He broke business 'rules' of the day by utilizing his resources in different ways, and enabled his talent to work towards tomorrow's vision. Instead of 'right sizing the business', use the resources you have to create your own market. People are begging for unique ways to mentally deal with 2020, if your stock and trade is selling branded comfort to people, and you have the most talented creative minds of a generation sitting on the shelf - why in the world would you not take this opportunity to get out there and find a way to do it? Instead, you let them go, throw up your hands, yell 'synergy!' 'Mandalorian!'" and then wonder where your customers are?

The part of the Walt Disney company history that many have their true emotional connection... the thing in the corporate DNA that defines "Disney", is those times when the company took risks and went the other direction from the "safe, corporate" expectations. It's those moments that brought us Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, Disneyland, Epcot...

And none of that excuses the complete tone-deafness and lack of communication from the executive suite since Iger's stepping down. Perhaps more would be supportive of these decisions if Uncle Bob reached out and let both customers and cast know what the deal is instead of all of us trying to plan around park hours that may or may not exist and jobs that may or may not be there to support them.
Click to expand...
Walt did fire artists. Often. There was a regular cycle of boom-bust for hiring and termination between feature film releases. The twin blow of the animators' strike and the film market collapse caused by WWII left the studio with a skeleton crew. Were if not for government contracts to produce training films and propaganda, the company would have not survived the war.

Yes, Walt always kept his top talent and moved them around the company as needed, but lets not pretend he didn't need to make hard-headed business decisions from time to time.

Floyd Norman gave an interview once where he described the mixed emotions of finishing a Disney feature. There was satisfaction with a job well done, but also angst that he would be amongst those told that their services were no longer needed. He was one of the lucky ones.
 
Last edited:
Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
Disney as a whole will be fine (unless this somehow lasts for years and years, and then there will be much bigger problems).

However, this does not bode well for the parks and that's the main concern of most people here. They are likely to be lower quality, lesser experiences for quite some time and no one should be expecting any major new additions beyond what's currently under construction for years.
Click to expand...
My feeling is that Disney needs to plan for the parks being a break-even proposition for the near future. Then they can start thinking about how the parks experience will look once we see what the world looks like post-pandemic.

There seems to be a narrative that customers are stupid for accepting a diminished experience during the pandemic. However, virtually everything is a diminished experience right now and I think most of us who can afford it are trying to support those things we want to see survive the pandemic with our business. Whether Disney Parks fall into the category of needing our support is an open question given Disney's size, but I also think it's unrealistic to expect them to keep running as if we weren't in a global emergency that uniquely affected businesses that require large numbers of people to gather.
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
I also think it's unrealistic to expect them to keep running as if we weren't in a global emergency that uniquely affected businesses that require large numbers of people to gather.
Click to expand...
I agree, but I’m not seeing anyone suggest that.

There is a real cause for concern, and it appears that the OP of this thread very much knew what he was talking about as this plan didn’t get put together overnight.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Rteetz said:
Today is the first day of the new fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 was a few days longer due to the calendar/leap year.
Click to expand...

(it was commentary that many got the fiscal year date wrong and thought the full force of the layoffs were all going to happen on one day so that Disney's new fiscal year would be 'clean' of those employees ;) As it is, a lot of the layoffs don't take place until one-third to two-thirds of the way through the new first quarter.)
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
MisterPenguin said:
(it was commentary that many got the fiscal year date wrong and thought the full force of the layoffs were all going to happen on one day so that Disney's new fiscal year would be 'clean' of those employees ;) As it is, a lot of the layoffs don't take place until one-third to two-thirds of the way through the new first quarter.)
Click to expand...
Why does it matter that much they got the date wrong? They were right in the layoffs.
 
britain

britain

Well-Known Member
My "Disney RSS feed" (bless you, Alain, wherever you are) shows these interestingly-named articles were posted on that other Disney site. But now those links go to "This page does not exist".

1602006043210.png


Did anybody nab these while they were up?
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom