Well said Future Guy ... Disney needs a visionary

[subsonic]

http://futureprobe.blogspot.com/2010/09 ... t-not.html

[Jacca5660]

I agree 110%!! Disney needs some one who understands "IT"S DISNEY"!!. After Eisner's burned ground policies, his lining the boardroom and executive chairs with MBA's and CPA's, and tossing overboard anybody with a creative bone in their body (Creative cost money). Disney needs someone who gets it!

Let's face it companies out there pay millions upon millions to get the type of feedback that Disney gets for free on our boards and the multitude of others like it out there on the web. Disney just needs someone who has that creative spark. When was the last time Disney developed a venues without a current property tie-in (be it movie or personality)? I really thought Jobs was going to be it. I guess I was just wishing upon a corporate star!

[Mousekedude]

Wow, I had no idea Future Guy was a blogger... and such a talented one at that. Very good points in that article. Sadly, does anyone think that the big-wigs in charge would actually take it all to heart, even if they did see it? To do so would threaten their own careers... unless they happen to be the type of which Future Guy speaks... which is doubtful.
Anyway, they may actually already know all this, and may in fact agree... to a certain extent, but they're not going to do anything about it as long as they keep seeing the profits coming in under the status quo. No doubt their attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," as far as money is concerned. All these types think about is whether or not it's making money. True change vis-a-vis creativity will not come until they see a financial need for it.

[Wizzard419]

Dirty secret about imagineering, the bulk of the creative work is done by contract people rather than full time staff. The reason is that they are able to then be more selective for projects and avoid a stale creative team. Plus they don't need to to have them on staff all the time since they pace themselves with new stuff.

[Jacca5660]

Dirty secret about imagineering, the bulk of the creative work is done by contract people rather than full time staff. The reason is that they are able to then be more selective for projects and avoid a stale creative team. Plus they don't need to to have them on staff all the time since they pace themselves with new stuff.

I believe the more correct reason for the bulk of the creative work being done by contractors is because "EISNER" (The EVIL BA****D, que Dart Vader's march!) gutted the imagineering at Disney!! It was too expensive! It had nothing to do with getting stale or with the pace of the work!! Disney (historically) always had something new in the pipeline. Projects sometimes take years to go from concept to reality. Most of the outside contractors are former imagineers!! Don't get me started!! If you want that we should go on about this, write it here.

[Wizzard419]

Apparently it was the practive before eisner. Logically there isn't a need for a huge staff since the contractors work within the established theme. After their part of the project is done there isn't much call for someone to design trashcans.

[Future Guy]

Wow, thanks for the kind comments everyone!

Something I alluded to, but didn't expand upon because it would dilute the focus of the post, is that since there are so few Steve Jobs-type people in existence, Disney would do pretty well with a Mark Cuban type. Mark Cuban, for the uninitiated, is the Internet billionaire who bought the NBA's Dallas Mavericks out from under their former owner, Ross Perot Jr. Much like the L.A. Clippers, the Mavs were a cellar-dwelling team with a cheapskate owner.

Cuban spent lots of money upgrading the team's locker room, practice, and travel facilities. He made elite players want to come to Dallas, and he reenergized the franchise. They're perennially successful now, even made the NBA Finals in 2006, but none of it would have happened if they hadn't gotten an owner who was willing to spend money to improve things. Cuban isn't a visionary like Walt or Steve Jobs, but he's passionate about his team and he wants the city of Dallas to be passionate about it, too. I don't see how such a scenario could happen with Disney, but maybe if they get someone in there one of those days who actually likes the parks we'd see a difference.

[Wizzard419]

Heck, Steve Jobs isn't even Steve Jobs is anymore, he's gone from the romanticized version from the 80's and 90's to the villifed version of Bill Gates from the 90's (Google image search "Worldwide Loyalty Team" to see how it's viewed).

The problem with having a true creative type, rather than a person who postures and pretends that it's their work, run a company is that they aren't cutthroat enough. If you want a true buisness titan you may not like what you get. I think part of the problem is the priorities of a US company vs one in Japan. In Japan the shareholder is pretty low on the foodchain and the result are parks like Tokyo DisneySea. Here the shareholder is king and you end up with problems where the shareholders are unhappy and attempt to oust the leadership (Such as Mark Cuban and his team).

While we can lament the recent history of the parks, at the same time they are still grinding the competiton into the dust and raising prices while everyone else is slashing them left and right.

You might want to also check out Disneywar, it's a good read.