Several disney Execs retiring what gives?

[MadToad]

Keep in mind that many people who would have retired a few years ago have stuck around because the market was so bad. Add to that the need for a fresh perspective as well as posturing for a new regime around 2016, and you get lots 'o retirements. It's cleaner and easier for people to retire than to eliminate them outright.

 

[xie]

I don't think there's anything nefarious going on. A lot of these people are genuinely approaching the age that they might want to retire (or at least launch a "second career"). They're not being forced out, in other words.

If Disney feels that they are too "heavy" in management, they may very well have offered an early retirement package. Many, many companies do this, as a way to avoid or lessen layoff numbers. It's really no difference to them financially, as they would either 1) lay off a person and give them a severance package, or 2) let the person take early retirement with an incentive package.

However, the 2nd way lets them ease things along gracefully, transition upper management roles to different people while the existing person is there to help, causing much less disruption internally than abrupt departures do, and of course the company incurs less negative PR. Early retirement incentives are SO common.

 

[Donut23]

I think most of the moves are cost cutting and can be seen in the light of Iger making sure his golden parachute is gigantic. The more money the company is making when he leaves, the bigger his severance package.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

Give lugnut a pat on the head for the right answer----but not pizza, not in the budget. That has been the word around the playground since before magic bands.

 

[rteetz]

The responses are great. I just wanted to bring it up because it was in the podcast this week and it was said another big one is coming that hasn't been announced yet. I'm interested to see what else happens these last few years of igers tenure.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

I still personally feel there is (and will continue to be) fallout from the $1 billion NextGen / MDE / FP+ / MB experiment that is way over-budget and not fairly well received by guests or stockholders. While I concur that a lot of these folks were probably at that age to retire (having been with the company since WDW first opened), I think a lot of this is due to the fallout I mentioned above. Someone is taking the blame for this.

Also, companies just go through natural cycles where you get top-heavy and have to re-arrange the deck. This seems to be one of those times where that is the case. Like others have said, they cut working staff dramatically in the wake of the Great Recession and with the parks busting at the gut, they can ill afford to do that any more to keep up profit margins, etc. You replace an executive making $350k with one who is 15-20 years their junior making $175k. (numbers for illustration only - I have no idea what these people make...)

I also think that maybe there is just some general house-keeping going on here. The guy who ran DL and is now running WDW (George Kalogridis - sp?) continued with the service and upkeep that has far outpaced WDW. Maybe he's assessed enough to know it's the culture here and that it has to change at the top. Pure speculation on my part, but you can't deny all the things we've heard recently and see ourselves. They just talked about a lot of this stuff on the Podcasts this week and in the past - persistent maintenance issues in the park, huge discounts at the resorts, places like USF taking awy Disney business, etc.

I agree with rteetz and Pete W. that something is up.

I know I'm one who's been disillusioned with the amount of effort it takes to plan a trip and by how regimented a WDW vacation is anymore. WDW needs to get some it's "swag" back in order to make vacationing there worth the effort.

Just my $0.02

 

[rteetz]

I still personally feel there is (and will continue to be) fallout from the $1 billion NextGen / MDE / FP+ / MB experiment that is way over-budget and not fairly well received by guests or stockholders. While I concur that a lot of these folks were probably at that age to retire (having been with the company since WDW first opened), I think a lot of this is due to the fallout I mentioned above. Someone is taking the blame for this. Also, companies just go through natural cycles where you get top-heavy and have to re-arrange the deck. This seems to be one of those times where that is the case. Like others have said, they cut working staff dramatically in the wake of the Great Recession and with the parks busting at the gut, they can ill afford to do that any more to keep up profit margins, etc. You replace an executive making $350k with one who is 15-20 years their junior making $175k. (numbers for illustration only - I have no idea what these people make...) I also think that maybe there is just some general house-keeping going on here. The guy who ran DL and is now running WDW (George Kalogridis - sp?) continued with the service and upkeep that has far outpaced WDW. Maybe he's assessed enough to know it's the culture here and that it has to change at the top. Pure speculation on my part, but you can't deny all the things we've heard recently and see ourselves. They just talked about a lot of this stuff on the Podcasts this week and in the past - persistent maintenance issues in the park, huge discounts at the resorts, places like USF taking awy Disney business, etc. I agree with rteetz and Pete W. that something is up. I know I'm one who's been disillusioned with the amount of effort it takes to plan a trip and by how regimented a WDW vacation is anymore. WDW needs to get some it's "swag" back in order to make vacationing there worth the effort. Just my $0.02

I agree but we are major Disney fans we know the ins and outs the average person in Disney doesn't know what we know and they will pay whatever for a WDW vacation.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

I agree but we are major Disney fans we know the ins and outs the average person in Disney doesn't know what we know and they will pay whatever for a WDW vacation.

They'll pay "whatever" once, and then when they open up the credit card bill later on, or are standing in a gigantic attraction line, or waiting 30 minutes to get on an attraction with their fastpass+ reservation that's not really that "fast", they'll think to themselves was it worth it?

That's the $1 billion question. And so far, nextgen hasn't panned out.

 

[rteetz]

They'll pay "whatever" once, and then when they open up the credit card bill later on, or are standing in a gigantic attraction line, or waiting 30 minutes to get on an attraction with their fastpass+ reservation that's not really that "fast", they'll think to themselves was it worth it? That's the $1 billion question. And so far, nextgen hasn't panned out.

Next gen is working according to disney but it is over budget and thats what makes them uneasy. Overall I think it's doing fine it does have some areas that could use improvement but there hasn't been major problems. I think the biggest problem right now is the app MDE. Disney has also said in surveys and in interviews they are looking at ways to change FP+ and the system is not finalized yet.