Who is Meg?

[GoofGoof]

Peter Principle.

The only problem is she was promoted again so if she was bumped back a level it would be right back to President of WDW

Its completely unfair to blame her in my honest opinion.

If she did such a poor job she would have been booted years ago, she kept her job and was promoted. The so called various declines seen throughout WDW is simply based on peoples perception and only each individual perception, its not a universal opinion held by as many as some people want to think, its a myth, right next to a unicorn.

The woman should be honored for her accomplishments, degrading her by kicking a make believe dead horse is asinine.

Jimmy Thick- Disney keeps incompetent people in high profile positions and watches them fail? Yeah right.

Well, her work was obviously appreciated by Iger and his crew, but most people around here don't like the job they are doing either so it's not a glowing positive for her. Most of the Meg hating comes from people who do feel that WDW has declined. If you feel WDW has declined and she is the President then it's fair to blame her. Not everything was in her control (MM+ is a big one that comes to mind), but the continuous focus on cost cutting by reducing guest benefits is what most people blame her for.

I personally have noticed declines over the last decade or so and maybe it's too soon to say this, but on my last trip I noticed an uptick in general show quality. Lots of rides have gotten refurbs lately and the general state of at least MK was better than it's been in 10+ years. Maybe it's just a coincidence that this all occurred right when the new guy took over, but I like to give credit when credit is due. He appears to be doing a good job correcting the direction of the parks.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Peter Principle.

A transparent billion dollar conglomerate with aggressive board and highly watched stock use the Peter principle when choosing presidents.

Um, yeah.

Jimmy Thick- Snopes? Someone say Snopes?

 

[alissafalco]

A transparent billion dollar conglomerate with aggressive board and highly watched stock use the Peter principle when choosing presidents.

Um, yeah.

Jimmy Thick- Snopes? Someone say Snopes?

But how do you know snopes is right? I don't trust snopes either.

 

[GoofGoof]

But how do you know snopes is right? I don't trust snopes either.

I looked it up on snopes. They said "snopes is always right". You can trust them

 

[ford91exploder]

I feel like this might be a stupid question, but who is Meg and what did she do?

Think of her as TWDC's 'Wicked Witch of the West' and imagine her cackling 'I'll get you my pretty and your last dime too' She was responsible for much of the cost cutting and quality cutbaclks at wdw

 

[ford91exploder]

Its completely unfair to blame her in my honest opinion.

If she did such a poor job she would have been booted years ago, she kept her job and was promoted. The so called various declines seen throughout WDW is simply based on peoples perception and only each individual perception, its not a universal opinion held by as many as some people want to think, its a myth, right next to a unicorn.

The woman should be honored for her accomplishments, degrading her by kicking a make believe dead horse is asinine.

Jimmy Thick- Disney keeps incompetent people in high profile positions and watches them fail? Yeah right.

Jimmy,

If only major corporations USED the Peter principle as a guide to promotions Instead they hire and promote fraternity brothers and sorority sisters for senior roles because OBVIOUSLY a brother or sister is best qualified no? Its one reason American companies are the laughing stock of world business leaders.

 

[marni1971]

Anyone who was happy with what was officially done for Epcot 30ths guest celebration is bad.

 

[Sped2424]

A transparent billion dollar conglomerate with aggressive board and highly watched stock use the Peter principle when choosing presidents.

Um, yeah.

Jimmy Thick- Snopes? Someone say Snopes?

your faith in this brand is astounding and admirable but sadly misplaced. The fact is the folks running the show have really never even been to the show, they have no idea how to run the show, and refer to data that doesn't fit the mold. Its been said time and time again in a much more elegant and thought out manner by others, simply put the folks in charge shouldn't be there for the most part. Some have expertise in fields that really don't apply, others have no idea what the most basic needs or necessities theme park goers even want, they are trying to run this company in a way that isn't productive to what made it so successful in the first place, granted that isn't everyone. There are a few here and there that know what they are doing, but they are far too few and in between and sadly in positions of lesser influence and power. The shared pride behind what guests used to experience is now hard to find amongst the executives, they now run what used to be pieces of arts as nostalgia factories milking out guests who will always make repeat visits because of what was established. Look at the parades, look at how an opening for an attraction used to be an entire special on abc, how rides used to go up in a year just to wow guests, how things were always expanding and being added. The proof is the folks in charge just don't understand the theme park business no matter how much they claim to based of their dvc sales.

 

[ford91exploder]

your faith in this brand is astounding and admirable but sadly misplaced. The fact is the folks running the show have really never even been to the show, they have no idea how to run the show, and refer to data that doesn't fit the mold. Its been said time and time again in a much more elegant and thought out manner by others, simply put the folks in charge shouldn't be there for the most part. Some have expertise in fields that really don't apply, others have no idea what the most basic needs or necessities theme park goers even want, they are trying to run this company in a way that isn't productive to what made it so successful in the first place, granted that isn't everyone. There are a few here and there that know what they are doing, but they are far too few and in between and sadly in positions of lesser influence and power. The shared pride behind what guests used to experience is now hard to find amongst the executives, they now run what used to be pieces of arts as nostalgia factories milking out guests who will always make repeat visits because of what was established. Look at the parades, look at how an opening for an attraction used to be an entire special on abc, how rides used to go up in a year just to wow guests, how things were always expanding and being added. The proof is the folks in charge just don't understand the theme park business no matter how much they claim to based of their dvc sales.

^^^^THIS^^^^

 

[skimbob]

Let's face it she is not alone by any means on the blame game. There are many high ups and lower level people who don't understand at all about the differences between what they are doing and the vision of our original leader Walt. They also do not understand their customers. Point in fact is trying to make WDW and DL fit into the same mold and that just has not worked. We the fans understood this a long time ago.

 

[Pocahontas]

So many different opinions, so many different facts, I just don't know what to believe about her. I had no idea who she was before the forum. Some people are negative towards her, some positive, some indifferent. Every article I've looked at says AMAZING things about her. I'm so confused.

 

[donaldtoo]

Her background seemed like a good fit. A good fit doesn't always mean guaranteed success. She has been promoted again and now is over DLR and DLP so at least Iger and Co think she's doing a good job.

Obviously, they are as delusional as the Megicorn herself.

 

[donaldtoo]

So many different opinions, so many different facts, I just don't know what to believe about her. I had no idea who she was before the forum. Some people are negative towards her, some positive, some indifferent. Every article I've looked at says AMAZING things about her. I'm so confused.

Where did you read these articles...?
"Penny Pincher Weekly", and "Money Grubber Quarterly"?!?!?!

 

[lazyboy97o]

So many different opinions, so many different facts, I just don't know what to believe about her. I had no idea who she was before the forum. Some people are negative towards her, some positive, some indifferent. Every article I've looked at says AMAZING things about her. I'm so confused.

Why are trying to rush to an opinion? A day of knowing about someone hardly seems like enough time.

 

[unkadug]

Who is Meg?


Is this the Jeopardy forum?

I'll take Blame Meg for 500 Alec

 

[danlb_2000]

Who is Meg? She is the the Disney "princess" that they seem to never acknowledge the existence of.

 

[copcarguyp71]

I posted a thought on this a while ago and just for yucks I will do it again.

I do not know how many of you were fans of Roller Coaster Tycoon for the PC but I was (for a time) totally engrossed in it. One thing I noted was that no matter how carefully you planned and thought out your parks at some point they always fell prey to their own size. Things got away from you no matter how you tried to deal with them. Rides broke down no matter how many maintenance people you had, cleanliness suffered no matter how many janitorial staff you had and things just generally ran amok beyond a certain size. I wonder how much of those algorithms were taken from empirical proof and statistics... I wonder if WDW might not just be falling prey to the sheer strain of their own size and no matter how they try to fix it the train still keeps flying off the rails.

I am no Meg fan by any means but perhaps no matter who is at the helm the parks have too much detrimental forward momentum for anyone to be able to control or improve.

I just have to wonder if it is not time to cease expansions in trying to keep up with the Jones's (UNI) and pull back to internalize and fix what is wrong. Sure we are all excited about new attractions, lands, parks and the like but I for one would rather see a renewed sense of vigor from within. Fill vacant buildings, revive forgotten rides (which is being done to a minor extent), and "plus" the guests experience in other ways besides DVC outbuild, overlays, promised lands, MM+, Etc.

Sorry if this got a little off the Meg subject and more onto other ills but perhaps we all could consider that whoever is in charge might be getting set up to disappoint if the board and CEO do not look at the directions they are forging towards...discuss.

 

[gsimpson]

Meg Crofton seems to be a fairly talented executive running a very large and fluid operation. Contrary to popular myth she does not get to set the prices or the budget for WDW, that comes out of Burbank and board of directors. There are some legitimate arguments about how well she marshals the resources she is given but overall I believe she does a fairly decent job. Amusingly the people who whine at length about how horrible she does and how well "the other parks" are maintained may wish to consider that if they are talking about DLR and DLP those are also her domain. When someone asks a simple question like who someone is to respond they are evil and so on is just bad form IMHO.

 

[GoofGoof]

I posted a thought on this a while ago and just for yucks I will do it again.

I do not know how many of you were fans of Roller Coaster Tycoon for the PC but I was (for a time) totally engrossed in it. One thing I noted was that no matter how carefully you planned and thought out your parks at some point they always fell prey to their own size. Things got away from you no matter how you tried to deal with them. Rides broke down no matter how many maintenance people you had, cleanliness suffered no matter how many janitorial staff you had and things just generally ran amok beyond a certain size. I wonder how much of those algorithms were taken from empirical proof and statistics... I wonder if WDW might not just be falling prey to the sheer strain of their own size and no matter how they try to fix it the train still keeps flying off the rails.

I am no Meg fan by any means but perhaps no matter who is at the helm the parks have too much detrimental forward momentum for anyone to be able to control or improve.

I just have to wonder if it is not time to cease expansions in trying to keep up with the Jones's (UNI) and pull back to internalize and fix what is wrong. Sure we are all excited about new attractions, lands, parks and the like but I for one would rather see a renewed sense of vigor from within. Fill vacant buildings, revive forgotten rides (which is being done to a minor extent), and "plus" the guests experience in other ways besides DVC outbuild, overlays, promised lands, MM+, Etc.

Sorry if this got a little off the Meg subject and more onto other ills but perhaps we all could consider that whoever is in charge might be getting set up to disappoint if the board and CEO do not look at the directions they are forging towards...discuss.

Great post. This could probably use it's own thread. I am 100% in the same camp as you. I would gladly take no new "land" additions to WDW for the next 5 years if they spent the time and money that would have been dedicated to new projects on refurbs and a return to glory. Adding new "lands" while exisitng rides rot (poor figment!!!) is a bad plan. The problem is they probably need to drop a cool billion at each park to get it done right and throw in a billion for infrastrucure and resort improvements and you are talking about $5B over 5 years. That's a lot of cash without a guaranteed ROI. To get this done you also need a forward thinking leader who has a long term vision of where the parks will be in 10+ years. Nobody who fits that bill is currently a "chief" or "president" of anything at TWDC.

I also agree that there were some macro-economic conditions this century that are outside of anyone at TWDC's control. 9/11 and the downturn in tourism and more recently the "great recesion". Aside from economic downturns, labor costs (particularly benefits) have skyrocketed in the last decade or so. WDW has a whole lot of CMs so it's a major component of their budget. The answer to this has been cutting costs by reducing head count and cutting down on maintenance workers. At some point a more progressive leader has to figure out creative ways to do more with less people and/or work smarter. Cutting head count to keep budgets in check is the easy road to take for short term success, but ultimately ends up costing you more in the long run (see recent long term refurb of Splash Mountain).

 

[George]

Meg is a lover, a confidant, an emotional enigma, and the best roller derby player I've ever come across.