Semi regular WDW exec shuffle

C

Comped

Well-Known Member
Lilofan said:
A much bigger responsibility in MK and I hope she does well. A former executive who cared a lot about the cast was but he Dan Cockerell retired at an early age and he travels the world as a motivational speaker always referring to his Disney background .
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I met Dan when he came to speak at a club I was involved in during undergrad, probably right before the pandemic (missed meeting Josh by a few days as UCF closed while we were on spring break, and Josh was scheduled to speak the week after said break). Great guy - I talked to Dan about Tokyo for a bit afterwords (which was enlightening in many ways). His father is a friend of one of my former professors, a former colleague of my mentor - and his books are really good. Never read Dan's though.

As for the park VPs - I've had a chance to meet all 4 of them. I feel like they may have been the right picks for when their parks were under construction (3/4ths of them are engineers, I'm not sure which one was not, but it was a consistent joke throughout the evening), but unlike their predecessors, their choices and priorities seem to lack a certain emphasis on creating a proper CM culture, and more-over emphesizing a good guest experience in the model we used to see for about 40-50 years before the mid 2000's. They've historically opposed entertainment investment, not championed attraction maintenance, focus on the wrong kind of additions for the parks, played a role in the historically bad construction management of the past few projects, and generally not been exemplary. I don't doubt their passion for Disney - at least when speaking to CMs and the public. That much was clear, and they seemed to at least enjoy their jobs in that respect. But I think we truly need a new set of VPs who either came up from the lower levels of the company, or folks who have more of a guest service focus in their careers. That is just me though.
 
L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Comped said:
I met Dan when he came to speak at a club I was involved in during undergrad, probably right before the pandemic (missed meeting Josh by a few days as UCF closed while we were on spring break, and Josh was scheduled to speak the week after said break). Great guy - I talked to Dan about Tokyo for a bit afterwords (which was enlightening in many ways). His father is a friend of one of my former professors, a former colleague of my mentor - and his books are really good. Never read Dan's though.

As for the park VPs - I've had a chance to meet all 4 of them. I feel like they may have been the right picks for when their parks were under construction (3/4ths of them are engineers, I'm not sure which one was not, but it was a consistent joke throughout the evening), but unlike their predecessors, their choices and priorities seem to lack a certain emphasis on creating a proper CM culture, and more-over emphesizing a good guest experience in the model we used to see for about 40-50 years before the mid 2000's. They've historically opposed entertainment investment, not championed attraction maintenance, focus on the wrong kind of additions for the parks, played a role in the historically bad construction management of the past few projects, and generally not been exemplary. I don't doubt their passion for Disney - at least when speaking to CMs and the public. That much was clear, and they seemed to at least enjoy their jobs in that respect. But I think we truly need a new set of VPs who either came up from the lower levels of the company, or folks who have more of a guest service focus in their careers. That is just me though.
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Do executives with an industrial engineering background with a bachelors and masters make a successful leader? They are known to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
 
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L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Comped said:
In my opinion, not as much within a guest service-based environment. But that could be bias from having an undergrad and grade degree in hospitality management
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I've worked with execs that get hired into a company with no operational exp but with lots of educational degrees and experience in other fields ( finance , marketing, engineering etc ) .
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
Comped said:
They've historically opposed entertainment investment, not championed attraction maintenance, focus on the wrong kind of additions for the parks
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Agreed 100%. The lack of entertainment at WDW parks is shocking.

An example:

Magic kingdom -

Main Street Philharmonic
Dapper Dans
Casey’s Corner Piano
Castle Show

Disneyland -

Disneyland Band
Dapper Dans
Straw Hatters
Pearly Band
Coke Corner Piano
Golden Horseshoe Piano
New Orleans jazz band
Bootstrappers Pirate Band
Fantasyland Theatre
Lion King Show
 
C

Comped

Well-Known Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Agreed 100%. The lack of entertainment at WDW parks is shocking.
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All boils back to Walt Disney Entertainment, as I have said many times on here as of late, being dismembered. I've heard various reasons why (some claim because it was turning into a fiefdom, others because park VPs and ops in general wanted more control over its budget and to spend more on rides), but the consequences of that action, which devalued entertainment at the exec level, was profound and still reverberates to this day.

Oh, and because ever since Eisner forced all the VPs he could to move to CA, Disneyland has had much more regular exposure to execs - Orlando and the international parks aren't a quick drive down the road relatively speaking. DLR gets more investment because it's the home park of execs, so they're around it more and see the impacts better. There being more locals who visit DLR vs WDW (which I still don't believe percentage wise, at least post-pandemic) is also used as an excuse as to why there's more entertainment, but I don't believe that either. WDW gets less spending on shows because the VPs prefer to spend it on rides. We haven't had an entertainment focused (or even relatively friendly) VP on this coast in years.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Lilofan said:
She, all park VPs are female
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JoeCamel said:
Oops my upbringing betrayed me, maybe I need to go to somewhere woke and become enlightened.
But the question is still valid.....
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All of those ladies report to a man named "Jason Kirk". For some reason, I now imagine that "Jason Kirk" is unseen in every episode and every staff meeting, and is only represented and gives his meaningful thoughts via a speakerphone on a desk.

Like Charlie, except instead it's "Jason Kirk", which is kind of a badass name that's even better than just "Charlie".

"Hello angels, it's Jason Kirk... Oh yeah, and you too Epcot."

Power Structure.jpg
 
MagicHappens1971

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
Lilofan said:
As a VP of Hotels and Premium Experiences perhaps she was the sacrificial lamb in the failure of the Star Wars hotel experience?
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Perhaps, she was also visiting the Starcruiser when I worked there. Seemed like she really liked the experience was always happy to be there. Would suck if she was, but I guess since the real fault lies with Chapek and he’s already gone…
 

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