Tired of continually getting hammered by the company’s critics, Disney CEO Michael Eisner went on the offensive earlier this month.
A PR offensive, that is.
With the hope that he might be able to get some positive buzz going about his beleaguered corporation, Uncle Michael has reportedly been speaking with influential business analysts. His message for Disney stockholders? “I understand your concerns. I hear what you’re saying. And I and the rest of the senior staff at the Walt Disney Company are doing everything we can to turn this unfortunate situation around.”
According to several unnamed sources who’ve heard Eisner’s spiel, Michael supposedly starts out by talking up Disney’s recent accomplishments: The 21 million viewers who tuned in to ABC last Tuesday night to catch the “sneak preview” of John Ritter’s new sitcom, “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.” The 5 million units of “Monsters, Inc.” that were sold in a single day last week – the new one-day-sales record for the home video & DVD industry.
Uncle Michael then allegedly goes on to identify some of the Mouse House’s trouble spots, but – in each case – immediately identified what Disney is doing to address these problems.
The business world’s concerns about Disney’s far-too-cozy board of directors? Eisner reportedly outlined the tough new governance rules that he and the Board are about to adopt. By cutting back on the number of actual voting members as well as upping their independence, Uncle Michael hopes that Disney will soon have one of the best Board of Directors in Corporate America.
As for ABC’s rating woes, Eisner supposedly insists that a “process is in place” to turn the troubled network around. (To his credit, Uncle Michael has reportedly told business analysts that they shouldn’t expect all of ABC’s programming ills to be cured overnight. That it may take a number of months before the currently fourth-place network to claw its way out of the Nielsen cellar.)
And that alleged 10% fall-off in advance bookings for the Walt Disney World resort (In comparison to September 2001’s advance bookings)? Eisner reportedly admitted that things were softer than he would have liked down at Lake Buena Vista. But Uncle Michael then attributed this fall-off in advance bookings at Disney World to a number of outside factors. I.E. Tourists – in the wake of the September 11th attacks – still being afraid to fly. The world’s continuing economic woes. Not to mention continuing international unease as a result of the U.S. threatening to go to war with Iraq. All of which have a continuing dampening effect on people’s travel plans.
Eisner then reportedly said that recent WDW guest exit polls revealed that most people still believe that visiting Walt Disney World is a great vacation value. And – once this cloud of uncertainty lifts – tourists will undoubtedly come flocking back to Orlando. Particularly once Epcot’s “Mission: Space” attraction gets up and running.
Those who’ve actually heard from Eisner say that Uncle Michael gave a masterful performance. That Eisner eloquently puts across the message that “Things aren’t as bad as our critics would like you to think they are. Disney’s stock price may be depressed right now, but we’re poised for a comeback.” In short, Disney’s CEO supposedly told these business analysts: “I hear what you’re saying. I understand your concerns. Trust me.”
Well, forgive me if I’m a wee bit skeptical here. But – as nice as it is to hear that Eisner is reportedly trying to repair his relationship with Disney’s stockholders – I can’t help but offer up a somewhat awkward question. As in: Is Michael Eisner REALLY listening to what shareholders (who have been among his most vocal critics lately) have to say about what they think has gone wrong with the Walt Disney Company? Or is Uncle Mikey just saying what he hopes we want to hear?
I mean, historically, the higher ups at Walt Disney Company has had a bit of a hearing problem. Particularly when it comes to criticism. Even criticism that comes from INSIDE the organization. You wanna work at a place “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word”? Never mind about a “Home on the Range.” Get yourself a job in the executive suite at the Team Disney building in Burbank.
Take – for example – ABC’s over-exposure of its former ratings powerhouse, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” ABC’s own programming department reportedly warned Eisner & Co. that even the most sedentary of couch potatoes wasn’t going to sit still for four nights of Regis Philbin. Yet Disney’s executives – anxious to cash in on this incredibly-inexpensive-to-produce game show (More importantly, to cut back on the cost of developing new programming for ABC) – ran “Millionaire” right into the ground. A show that could have potentially run for years yet to come got burned out, its audience totally turned off, in just over two seasons.
Never mind that TV critics – in addition to ABC staffers – decried this programming decision as soon as ABC originally announced it back in May 2000. Disney executives downplayed the controversy, insisting that they knew what they were doing.
Those uninformed nay sayers who were criticizing the Mouse’s programming decision? They couldn’t see the bigger picture. The tens of millions of dollars that ABC saved at the start of the 2000 – 2001 season by making more episodes of “Millionaire” rather than ordering up new sitcoms or dramas that could potentially have ridden Regis’ coat tails to ratings success.
But those ABC senior programming execs (And – more importantly – the Disney Company executives who hired them) didn’t (or is it “wouldn’t”?) listen to their critics. Which is why they all seemed so stunned when “Millionaire”‘s ratings suddenly tanked in early 2001 … And why – even to this day – that network is still struggling to fill huge gaps in its schedule. All because Disney execs couldn’t bring themselves to heed their critics. The ones inside the company as well as outside.
But – hey – it’s not like the Walt Disney Company’s hearing problem is a recent occurrence. Senior Imagineers will tell you (off the record, of course) that they repeatedly tried to make the folks in the Team Disney building (Both the Anaheim as well as the Burbank branch) aware of their concerns about “Disney’s California Adventure.” But Mouse House execs just refused to listen to them.
“I mean, think about it, Jim,” said one unnamed WDI guy to me just the other day. “Eisner & Co. wanted to change Anaheim into Orlando. A destination resort where people could come and stay & spend money for three or four days at a time.”
“Which is all well & good. Except that Anaheim isn’t Orlando. The out-of-state versus locals mix down there is roughly 85% out-of-state visitors, 15 % Florida residents. Out here, the locals to out-of-state visitors ratio is more along the lines of 65% Southern California residents, 34% out-of-state tourists.”
“You see what I’m saying here, Jim? The Walt Disney Company relies on regular visits from Southern California residents in order to keep attendance levels high at the Disneyland Resort. So what does Disney do when it tries to turn Anaheim into a destination resort? It builds a California-themed theme park – a place with limited appeal to SoCal residents. DCA – at least in its original incarnation – was doomed, Jim. Virtually from the moment that Disneyland opened its preview center.”
“And we tried to warn them, Jim. We argued ’til we were blue in the face. But the suits wouldn’t listen to us. They just seemed to think that giving Southern Californians the opportunity to eat Wolfgang Puck’s pizza while looking out at the lights of Paradise Pier was going to be enough to put that place over the top. That the locals would have no choice but to love DCA.”
Well, we all know how THAT decision turned out, don’t we? (To be fair, it should be noted here that the Walt Disney Company does appear to have learned from the mistakes it initially made with DCA. That the corporation did move fairly quickly to try and turn this troubled theme park around. And that – with next month’s official opening of “Flik’s Fun Fair” – “Disney’s California Adventure” is taking a big step toward ridding itself of its kid unfriendly reputation.)
It should also be noted here that – according to some of the Walt Disney Company old timers that I’ve spoken with – that the Eisner regime has historically had a bit of a hearing problem. That almost from the moment that “Team Disney” came to power back in September 1984, that these “Hollywood hotshots” didn’t want to listen to what their more experienced, Mouse House elders had to say.
To my knowledge, the most extreme example of younger Disney executives ignoring the advice of the company’s senior staffers is associated with the Disneyland Paris Resort. Back in the early 1990s, a friend of mine – the editor of an unnamed Disney history magazine – was interviewing Admiral Joe Fowler, the guy who actually oversaw construction of the Walt Disney World resort back in the 1960s. The interview seemed to be going great until my pal brought up the subject of the then-floundering Euro Disney resort.
Admiral Joe turned crimson, then told what’s-his-name to turn off his tape recorder. Fowler then leaded forward and said “I could have told those dumb bastards that building a Disney theme park just outside of Paris was a bad idea. Do they think that we pulled the location for Walt Disney World out of our ass? No, sir. We traversed the globe looking for the exact perfect spot to build another Disneyland. Including Marne la Vallee.”
“I could have told those idiots that it gets too cold there, that the wind’s just too fierce there for an outdoor entertainment venue. But those arrogant SOBs … They probably didn’t even looked at all the research that we did back in the early 1960s. I’m sure that all that stuff is still in a filing cabinet somewhere in Glendale. But those new guys … They just think that they know it all.”
“Building all those hotels, right outside of Paris. What a bunch of idiots!”
Think of the millions that the Walt Disney Company would have saved (not to mention all the aggravation that they could have avoided) if they had just bothered to listen to Admiral Joe Fowler. If someone had just gone down into the basement at WDI and pulled out the appropriate file.
You see I’m saying here, Mr. Eisner? A TV show could have been saved. A theme park as well as an entire resort could have avoided massive problems. All if Disney’s executives had been willing to listen – REALLY listen – to its critics. And not just the very vocal people that you’ll find outside of your corporation. But the critics that you have INSIDE the Walt Disney Company.
So Mr. Eisner … If you really ARE trying to turn over a new leaf here, trying to prove to the world that you’ve become that rarest-of-rare things – a CEO who actually listens … NOW might be a good time to strap on an extra big pair of mouse ears. So that you can really hear what people outside of the corridors of power at the Team Disney Burbank building are actually saying.