While 99.9% of JHM readers seem to have enjoyed the Roy / Stanley / Michael coverage that I’ve cranked out over the past two weeks, there are — of course — the occasional dissenters:
Jim:
You can’t seriously believe that Stanley Gold and Roy Disney are going to succeed in their efforts to unseat Michael Eisner. I mean, take a look at the cold hard facts, Hill:
– Eisner’s got the board in his pocket.
– Disney’s stock price is trending upwards.
– Disney Studios has had a run of hit films at the box office this year.
– Attendance is up at the stateside theme parksRoy and Stanley can rant and rave all they want about how Eisner’s let quality slide and that he’s ruining the Disney name. But none of that is going to matter to Wall Street analysts. All those guys care about is how the stock price is doing and whether Disney meets its quarterly projections. And — as long as Wall Street stays in Eisner’s corner — he’s not going anywhere.
So write all the pro-Roy and Stanley articles you want, Jim. In the end, none of these stories is going to make a bit of difference. Michael is going to hang onto his job as the head of the Walt Disney Company for as long as he possibly can. Which means September 2006 … and beyond (If Eisner can find a way to finagle a contract extension).
So maybe it’s time to switch to another subject, Hill. For I’ve found the stories that you’ve being doing lately to be laughable. Nothing that you’ve written to date has convinced me at all that Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have a chance in hell in ever ousting Michael Eisner.
Jenna M.
I have two words for you, Jenna: Howard Dean.
11 months ago, Dean’s campaign for the presidency was also thought to be a joke. At least in political circles. No one in the Democratic Party leadership gave any serious consideration to the idea that the former Governor of Vermont might have a shot at landing the nomination. Which is why they put most of their money behind more “sure thing” presidential candidates like Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.
Dean’s campaign staff knew that they had to do something different to distinguish themselves from the rest of the herd of candidates. Which is why they decided to pin their hopes on this new means of communication. Maybe you’ve heard of it, Jenna? The internet?
And the rest of the story … Surely you’ve heard by now about how those first 537 online Dean supporters eventually became a half a million strong. How in just 11 short months, Dean’s internet operation — MeetUp.com — became this major political force to be reckoned with. How major? Well, let’s talk about that million dollars in campaign contributions that the Dean campaign received by May via e-mail?
To date, no one has ever seen a cyber campaign for a presidential candidate take off like this. An internet-based grassroots operation that excited the voting population so. Which is perhaps why last week former Vice President Al Gore gave Howard Dean his endorsement. Which gave Dean’s campaign a huge PR boost as his team headed into next month’s Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
Now — ‘way across the country — we have Roy Disney and Stanley Gold. Who — while they may not share Howard Dean’s political leanings (Roy once got in trouble with Michael Eisner at a Disney PR for saying that Mickey was “… a good Republican mouse”) — know a good thing when they see it.
So — borrowing a page from the Howard Dean playbook — Roy and Stanley set up www.savedisney.com, a website where they hoped to get the word out about their campaign to oust Eisner. They’ve also been using e-mail as the main method to help their message. Take — for example — this letter that Roy sent out to 200 members of the senior staff of Walt Disney Feature Animation:
Dear Disney Cast Members,
It was nearly 20 years ago that a small group of us recognized that dramatic changes were necessary to reinvigorate and reenergize the Disney Company. We changed the composition of the board and assembled a new leadership team headed by Frank Wells and Michael Eisner. I returned to the Disney cast and, working as a team, we planted the seeds that rekindled the spirit and creativity that is synonymous with Disney. Those efforts paid off handsomely in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Once again, Disney was admired for the wholesome family entertainment it brought to millions of people of all ages. Together we created the dreams and excitement that made Disney respected and beloved throughout the world. We succeeded in recapturing the dream born of Walt and my father and the heritage they left us.
Sadly, times have changed. Michael Eisner has lost sight of the vision upon which this Company was founded. The focus has shifted to the chase of the quick buck instead of a dedication to new and high quality ideas, the development of enduring value. This has lead to division within the Disney workforce, a revolving door of managers, and an exodus of too many of our most creative and inspired employees.
For the last several years, Michael Eisner has done his utmost to isolate me from the members of Disney’s Animation Department and exclude me from participation in decision making regarding the Department. Most recently, I was prevented from even attending the Animation Department screening of three pending feature animation projects. The collegiality and openness that once typified the Disney workplace has been destroyed.
It is against this backdrop that I had no choice to resign as Chairman of Disney’s Animation Department and as a member of Disney’s Board of Directors. This has been a very painful decision. I am torn between my duties and loyalties to all of you who have made my journey so memorable and special, and the need to preserve the Disney heritage for future generations. However, I cannot stand idle as the heart and the soul of this Company is being systematically eliminated by senior management protected by an ineffective Board of Directors. This is a Board that seeks to avoid the constructive tension necessary to guide management through difficult times. Instead, it is a Board that seeks to stifle dissent and, to that end, has asked me to leave the Board of Directors.
Although this is not how and when I would have liked to leave the Disney Company, I assure you that I view it not as an isolated and sad event, but part of a process. I hope it is not too late for the Disney Board of Directors to finally recognize that fundamental change is needed to restore the Disney luster, nurture and protect the wonderful characters that together we have developed and, most importantly, to create the environment within the workplace necessary to give life to new Disney icons for the generations to come.
As I now set off on a different course, I cannot fail to publicly and openly again express to all of you my most heartfelt thanks. I am grateful that we have shared this journey. Without you, your contributions and camaraderie we would not have been able to make the magic and wonder that is Disney. I hope that one day soon the Disney Board gets the message.
Yours Faithfully,
Roy E. Disney
Of course, this particular Roy E. Disney e-mail became a living Breck commercial. With these 200 Disney Animation staffers quickly sharing this supposedly confidential message with 200 of their friends, and so on, and so on. Which is how this e-mail quickly flew around the world, giving the public even more information as the exact reasons why Roy Disney decided to resign from the Walt Disney Company.
It was this particular e-mail that supposedly spurred several veteran Walt Disney World cast members to contact Roy and Stanley and offer up their support. In their e-mails, these WDW vets said that there were many other cast members who felt the same way that they did. Who’d be happy to help Disney and Gold in their quest to oust Eisner.
What surprised these WDW cast members was — within a day’s time — Stanley Gold had written back to them, thanking them for their e-mail as well as recruiting them for he and Roy’s cause. The following is a copy of the note that Stanley sent back to these guys:
Hi ********
Thanks for your note of support; both Roy and I appreciate it.
Let me be so bold as to ask you for some help. Would it be possible for you to collect and then furnish to me the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of those you refer to.
I only want the names of those individuals who are comfortable in having their names being made public. Please do not put any “pressure” on any individual who is uncomfortable in having their name being made public.
Quite honestly, I’m trying to determine the depth of feeling of Cast Members.
Kindest Regards,
Stan
My source then reportedly provided Stanley with quite a few names of like-minded WDW cast members. Which Gold then quickly and quietly filed away.
At each turn in the trail here — like last Friday, where Roy and Patty Disney made that surprise appearance at the Animation Guild’s Holiday Open House — people have been coming up to Roy and Stanley and offering their support. And Disney and Gold have been collecting all of these e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Salting them away for … What? Well, that would be telling. But let’s just say that you can’t get a grassroots effort going if you don’t start out by planting a few seeds.
Mind you, Michael Eisner has also been trying to use e-mail to win over the hearts and minds of all the parties involved here. But — to date, at least down in Orlando — his efforts seem to be falling on deaf Mouse ears.
“Why aren’t Eisner’s e-mails winning over more WDW cast members to his side of the argument?” you ask. Well, let’s start with the opening sentence of Michael’s most recent missive, which reads:
“I’m writing to you from a plane on my way to Disneyland for tonight’s annual employee Christmas party, having just wrapped up two days of regularly scheduled meetings with your Company’s board of directors.”
Why would this particular sentence upset Disney World cast members? Well, you have to understand that these folks had just had their annual employee Christmas Party cancelled. So that the Magic Kingdom’s operations staff could sell tickets to two more nights of “Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party” to the public at $44 a pop. So … I guess you can understand how a message that starts out with “I’m writing to you from a plane on my way to Disneyland for tonight’s annual employee Christmas party …” wouldn’t go over like gangbusters with WDW’s hourly employees.
Said the Disney World vet who forwarded Michael’s December 3rd e-mail to me:
Eisner just doesn’t get it, Jim. He flies from coast to coast in the corporate jet. He never comes through the front gate at any of the parks. He has no idea anymore what it’s like to be a typical tourist visiting the Disneyland and/or the Walt Disney World Resort. So he has just no sense of the impact that all these cut corner and budget cutbacks have had on our guests or us cast members.
I keep hoping that all this Roy and Stanley stuff will serve as a wake-up call for Eisner. But — based on what I’ve seen and heard so far — Michael’s still got his snooze alarm set for September 2006. Eisner’s got himself so insulated, so isolated right now that he just doesn’t have a clue about how truly upset people are.
Michael can continue to delude himself if he wants. Standing up at award dinners and telling people about what a wonderful week he’s had. Looking like the clueless CEO that he is. But mark my words, Jim. This Roy and Stanley thing is eventually going to bite Eisner in the ass.
Of course, Jenna might disagree with you on that point. She might insist that all this Roy / Stanley / Michael stuff is still a pretty laughable matter.
But — then again — 11 months ago, Howard Dean’s presidential campaign was thought to be a joke too. But then his campaign staff (just as Roy and Stanley are doing right now) began collecting e-mail addresses. And the rest of that story, you know.
So — yes, Jenna — some people like yourself may consider what Roy and Stanley are attempting to do (I.E. unseat Michael Eisner and — possibly — Disney’s entire Board of Directors) to be pretty laughable. But — a year or so from now — won’t it be interesting to see who actually gets the last laugh.
Your thoughts?