Ei$ner now has a DEADline !

[DVCDAVE]

Fresh off the Dow Jones Wire Services this morning, a New York Times Story;

I can hear the clock ticking now..........


08/14 3:31A (DJ) DJ Eisner Has Until Nov To Address Disney Problems - NYT Story 1173 (DIS, I/BRD, I/ENT, I/MED, I/XDJI, I/XGTI, I/XSP5, N/DJN...)
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The dissatisfaction with Michael D. Eisner by members of the Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS) board may be broader than previously realized, but few think Eisner is in imminent danger of losing his job, The New York Times reported in its Wednesday editions.

People close to the company and industry executives and analysts believe Eisner has at least until November to demonstrate that he is addressing the company's problems.

The Times reported that according to three people close to the board, Eisner's boardroom critics include Roy E. Disney, a nephew of the late Walt Disney, and Stanley P. Gold, the chief executive of Shamrock Holdings, which manages the Disney family fortune.

The three people said that Andrea L. Van de Kamp, chairman of the West Coast unit of the Sotheby auction house, had spoken with Eisner last month to express her concerns about the lowly state of the ABC network and the seeming lack of planning for his eventual successor.

Ms. Van de Kamp urged Eisner to ensure he was hiring the right creative talent, according to the people close to the board. Ms. Van de Camp declined to comment about any discussions with Eisner. Roy Disney and Mr. Gold also declined to comment, as did Disney executives.

[wdw4us2]

. . . and the plot thickens.

Lisa:cool:

[Jeff in BigD]

Popcorn anyone? ;)

[sgtdisney]

It's about time... About 5 years past due....:rolleyes:

[DISLOVE]

I just wanted to know if anyone has heard who will take over WHEN Eisner is outed. I personally think that it should go to a Disney family member. We need to get back to Walt's basics and pay close attention to guests needs and desires.

I vote for Diane Disney-Miller.... where are Walt's daughters anyhow?

Kristy

[indigo]

taking a page from our dear C-I-C GW Bush (I never thought I would be doing that!) ... good leadership has a lot to do with the people you surround yourself with (and, of course, listening to them).

To put it another way, a leader is someone who finds a parade and steps in front of it.

I don't see either of these things happening right now, so I don't see any significant change coming anytime soon.

[Captain Crook]

Diane Disney Miller is 70 years old with virtually no business experience...Would she really be a god choice?
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[YoHo]

Ms. Miller herself may not be a good choice, but she may have some opinion on who should be involved.

[MikePezz]

WDW Resorts and Attractions people are saying that Pressler will be the sacrficial lamb, and Eisner will remain standing. Think about it. Pressler get the boot, and the blame for having the decline in the parks. ABC already has a new head honcho to turn things around. Eisner has shifted blame before, and it has worked. He may try to do it again.

[Another Voice]

Robert Iger has already been set up to take the fall for ABC and people around Pressler have been jumping ship faster than rats off the Titanic.

The problem with scapegoating is that it only works if enough people can be fooled or to go along with the lie. There are fewer and fewer of those types around these days.

[Bstanley]

Anyone left in the wings to step in as the theme park mogul?

Especially anyone that actually enjoys visiting the parks?

Maybe even someone that has visited TDS?

Or are we looking at bringing in some former head of 6 Flags...

[Captain Crook]

Al Weiss or Cynthia Hariss maybe?
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[DVC-Landbaron]

Al Weiss should be given Paul Pressler's job immediately.Why?

[DVC-Landbaron]

Thanks Scoop!

All that is well and good. And I hope that all you say is true. But the real question is -

Does he "get it"?

And I mean in my sense of the phrase. In our sense (yeah, we're not that far apart when it comes to WDW). In "Walt's" sense.

Thanks.

[DVC-Landbaron]

Well!! Here's to you Scoop!! (the LandBaron raises his glass of what should be wine, but is only coffee.) I certainly hope you're right and it all finally works out!!!

And while I've got that warm and fuzzy feeling:But, instead, WDW management chose to create brand new wonderfully themed grotto pools for these two resorts. I give BOTH those pools an "A"!! I love sitting by them and my kids love swimming in them!!

JOB WELL DONE DISNEY!!*




*(There!! Now that's something you don't hear from me too often!!) :bounce:

[Captain Crook]

As Paul (Simon, that is )would say, "You can call me AL!"

Poly, Poly, Poly...Sorry, I had to do it...
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[Another Voice]

It must also be mentioned, however, that the upgrade in the pools also were required because the Grand Floridian Beach Resort and the Polynesian both lost the one thing that most easterners go to Florida for - THE BEACHES.

Pools were much cheaper than completing the water treatment plants that had been in the works. And the sale of the land for the retaining ponds has added a nice chunk of change to Pressler's bottom line.

Motivations, even good ones, are rather complex these days at The Mouse.

[DVC-Landbaron]

Thanks for the balance, Sire!!

I did not know that water treatment was even in the talking stage. It's too bad they won't do it. It was great to be able to do the "beach" thing. I'll bet most here don't even remember being able to swim in the lakes or the wave machine they tried at the Poly, over and over again, never quite getting it right!!

Anyway, there goes Disney, the company that drained Bay lake and filled it up again, playing it cheap again. It's really too bad.

Now AV!! What about this Al Weiss guy? Thumbs up or down?

[Captain Crook]

A little disagreement. It is true that Dsney lost the ability to allow swimmers in the fresh water lakes but it has little to do with anything Disney did or could have done.

In Florida in the summer all freshwater reaches into the 90 degree temperature range. Bacteria grows in this water (always has always will). Ear infections (some serious) have always inflicted a good number of people who choose to recreate in this water in the summer.

Over time Disney started getting more and more complaints of illness & not wanting law suits up the wazoo they closed the beaches to swimming. The bacteria levels in the lakes are high, that is not to say that many people could not swim in the water safely, but certainly all people could not.

In this case Disney made the right choice and did the only thing they could realistically do...
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[YoHo]

Certainly Disney would have exceeded expectations had they put in the treatment centers and actually made the water swimable for all wouldn't they?


I'd like to drag Cynthia Harris' name back up, I suspect she even more then Al GETS it. Consider that when Paul Presslar moved up from running Disneyland to running all parks, Disneyland was in a horrendous state. Cynthia literally turned that around. She had her office in the park. (I think before Al did) she got things back under control. and she did it being a whole heck of a lot closer to Burbank. Now Granted, Disneyland is in a world of Hurt right now, but I put it to you that Cynthia has done everything possible to keep the park that WALT built alive and well.

[Captain Crook]

I'm no engineer, but I don't know how whole fresh water lakes as large as these could be treated effectively as the problem isn't specificaly pollution but rather a natural production of bacteria that forms in extremely high temps...

As for Hariss, threw her name out with Weis becaus it seems like both do "get it."

Based on your comments and those of Sara (DL update) it sounds as though folks are unhappy with DL? We were thrilled and saw no real problems (other than the Carousel was missing) -Granted my rose colored glasses were firmly in place...
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[YoHo]

Rude CMs and deferred maintainence. When I went, I saw that the buildings in Fantasyland were literally falling apart.

[Another Voice]

Actually the bigger problem is good old simple pollution. Walt Disney World is no longer this small little resort stuck way off in the middle of rural Central Florida. WDW now has the population of a good sized city most days (well over 150,000 employees and guests) and is surrounded by blooming suburban sprawl. What once were nice lakes in the middle of the wetlands have now become ponds in the middle of a city.

Imagine all the oil and pollutants that spew out of all those cars, boats and busses that ply the property. Imagine all the stuff that 100,000 guests toss into the lakes, streams, ponds and waterways every day. Imagine all the runoff of pesticides, herbicides, paint, dirt, grease, oil, solvents, etc. that finds its way into the WDW water system. These are big city problems.

And even the bacteria levels are linked. They are linked directly to all the industrial and agriculture runoff that’s been increasing dramatically in Florida over the last twenty years. There’s a price to pay for growth – and in this case it’s closed beaches. Instead of cleaning all that water, it’s cheaper to build pools and chlorinate just a little bit.

P.S. - Disney had a very long term and very extensive plan to deal with all the water issues on property. Some of it was so innoivative that it recieved government and university funding. Those plans were killed to save money.

[Captain Crook]

Well, if that IS true, it is indeed very sad. I long for the day to arrive again when a company (hopefully) Disney could actually lead the way into the future rather just just worrying about making a buck from it!

Hey, that was quite a pronouncement from me was it not?

:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[YoHo]

Frankly, it'd much rather spend some time relaxing at a beautiful grotto pool with wonderful slides and such rather than swimming around in a man made lagoon.

Have you ever gone swimming on the Poly's Beaches?
I have and the old pool wasn't bad either. There's something about swimming at a beach that is totally and completely different from a pool. As to AV, I don't think he was suggesting that the Pools weren't done well and weren't an example of WDW doing the best with what it had. Merely that they had had much better plans that would have been much more satisfactory to more guests that were squashed.

[YoHo]

Scoop, I don't see anyone disagreeing with your supposition. Why are you arguing?
AV Merely states that the Pools however well intentioned replaced a grander plan.

I on the other hand disagree with you in that I think Cynthia a better choice. A Point you have not addressed.

[hopemax]

I was wondering if anyone else had "not good" feelings about Cynthia? From what I heard and seen to some extent, is Cynthia is a VERY good schmoozer. The press and everyone that has to deal with her on a infrequent basis just eats her up. She's a people person, she's sassy, she's funny, she's got a great smile. But when you get down to the nitty, gritty, business details she's a lot like Pressler. Maybe, it's just a result of what she's been told to do, but I'd want to see her perform under a different style of leadership first, and not just hand the whole show over to her.

[YoHo]

Okay Hope, I can see that. Still, you cannot deny the improvments she made over Pre$$lar's reign even though there is still a lot left to do.

[charlie11364]

Originally posted by DISLOVE
I just wanted to know if anyone has heard who will take over WHEN Eisner is outed....snip...

The rumor I heard was Katzenburg - yep, the same guy the paid to leave
:rolleyes:

[Another Voice]

All indications are that Ms. Harris is a well liked, hard working and capable person. She is, however, just an hour drive south of a many unliked, non-capable people.

That has caused her many, many, many, many problems.

[raidermatt]

Hey, that was quite a pronouncement from me was it not?

Must have been out of Rum... Time to visit the other Captain... (Morgan, that is...)
;)

[Captain Crook]

The (other) Captain's Private Stock, I believe...;)
:smooth: :smooth: :bounce: :smooth: :smooth:

[Amor4Pooh]

Also, if my memory serves me,I beleive I was told by a CM at DL that Cynthia Harris started out at DL working in stores, so she is an actual Disney employee who worked her way up from the bottom, and it seems those who have done that, really tend to appreciate DL, because that's where they started from. It's the difference between your "home" and just the place where you work. If you think of it as your home, you put alot more pride and care into it than if you "just work there".

[Amor4Pooh]

Also, if my memory serves me,I believe I was told by a CM at DL that Cynthia Harris started out at DL working in stores, so she is an actual Disney employee who worked her way up from the bottom, and it seems those who have done that, really tend to appreciate DL, because that's where they started from. It's the difference between your "home" and just the place where you work. If you think of it as your home, you put alot more pride and care into it than if you "just work there".

[hopemax]

Cynthia's background is the same as Pressler's. She did work in stores...Disney Stores.

Here's an excerpt of an interview she did with Laughing Place


LaughingPlace.com: How did you come to work for Disney?

Cynthia Harriss: I came to work for the Walt Disney Company in 1992 at the Disney Stores heading up the operations for many years in retail, and I was with the Disney Stores for about five years during its biggest growth period. We went from 140 stores when I joined to about 460 stores in North America and about 650 total. I then came to Disneyland, a little less than three years ago, and at that time my first role at Disneyland was heading up operations and then subsequently, when Paul [Pressler] was promoted to his current role as president of Walt Disney Attractions around the world, I assumed a leadership role here and most recently, last December, was nominated to the role of president. So I am the luckiest person alive. To think, gosh, eight years ago I was in retail selling apparel and to come to this is pretty exciting.

LP: What did you do before you joined the Walt Disney Company?

CH: I worked for a firm called Paul Harris Stores. No relationship, it’s just the name of it. It’s a specialty retail chain. They had about 500 stores based in Indiana selling women’s apparel. Along the way I did just about every job. But the last job I had there was senior vice-president of operations.



Here's the rest of the interview:

http://laughingplace.com/News-ID501150.asp

[PKS44]

I have to say that as nice as the GF pool is ---it is NOT good show..it's not well themed to that resort...where in Florida is there any topography like that? How is it even Victorian?