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464 pages, Paperback
Published April 11, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 25, 2021
loved it. Makes for good inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs or executives.
March 22, 2024
I appreciate the man's words. Agree or not with his decision-making compass, the words ring true, and Eisner tells a coherent tale about his life, from boyhood through Paramount and later Disney. He reflects on the reasoning behind his decisions, and admits to mistakes ranging from underestimating his mortality in the wake of heart surgery, to idealizing his relationships with fellow execs Katzenberg and Ovitz.
Certainly, the best thing I can say about the book is that it is transparent. The words sound a lot less censored than the biographies of other Disney execs, like Iger's Ride of a Lifetime, and a lot less blatantly inflammatory and controversial than muckraking Disney War, or Ovitz's bio.
My main issue with this telling, though, is that it's too much a tale told in the boardroom, and not on the frontlines. Eisner talks in great detail about reasons behind assigning this exec Nanula there, elevating Paul Pressler there to Theme Parks, replacing the deceased Frank Wells (RIP) with Joe Roth there, hiring Bollenbach here to fuel acquisitions, keeping Iger from ABC, ... all for what?
So much time and words are spent talking about press leaks, three-hour board meetings, and negotiations about cash vs. stock, maximizing shareholder value, and extremely high-level C-suite things. Meanwhile, almost every few paragraphs, he takes a weekend or vacation to Aspen, a trip to attend a family graduation, a wedding, or some other life event.
There's little to nothing about frontline service, creativity, education, storytelling, and character design. Why do parents and kids trust Disney? Why are the parks so popular? What do his most dedicated guests say about their experience?
Too much emphasis is put on the dollar, the price, the stock value. Eisner cites the rise and fall of Disney shareprice as some kind of holy grail or magic mirror reflecting his customers' satisfaction, where nothing could be farther from the truth. Shareholder value is not customer loyalty. C-suite decisions don't make or break a family's vacation. The book needs to drill deeper, and tell more about the people in the trenches, and how that company vision and strategy got communicated from above down to the peons.
If you're the CEO of a company, you have access to everyone. Ask questions, and share their insights. Nobody cares about share price except shareholders. What the readers want to know is how Eisner creates a company culture through decision-making, hiring/appointment, problem-solving, and delegation. There is clearly a method to his madness, and it's just not fully told in a useful, applicable way, unless you're trying to run a strategic planning group to back-calculate your worth for a potential merger & acquisition.
Certainly, the best thing I can say about the book is that it is transparent. The words sound a lot less censored than the biographies of other Disney execs, like Iger's Ride of a Lifetime, and a lot less blatantly inflammatory and controversial than muckraking Disney War, or Ovitz's bio.
My main issue with this telling, though, is that it's too much a tale told in the boardroom, and not on the frontlines. Eisner talks in great detail about reasons behind assigning this exec Nanula there, elevating Paul Pressler there to Theme Parks, replacing the deceased Frank Wells (RIP) with Joe Roth there, hiring Bollenbach here to fuel acquisitions, keeping Iger from ABC, ... all for what?
So much time and words are spent talking about press leaks, three-hour board meetings, and negotiations about cash vs. stock, maximizing shareholder value, and extremely high-level C-suite things. Meanwhile, almost every few paragraphs, he takes a weekend or vacation to Aspen, a trip to attend a family graduation, a wedding, or some other life event.
There's little to nothing about frontline service, creativity, education, storytelling, and character design. Why do parents and kids trust Disney? Why are the parks so popular? What do his most dedicated guests say about their experience?
Too much emphasis is put on the dollar, the price, the stock value. Eisner cites the rise and fall of Disney shareprice as some kind of holy grail or magic mirror reflecting his customers' satisfaction, where nothing could be farther from the truth. Shareholder value is not customer loyalty. C-suite decisions don't make or break a family's vacation. The book needs to drill deeper, and tell more about the people in the trenches, and how that company vision and strategy got communicated from above down to the peons.
If you're the CEO of a company, you have access to everyone. Ask questions, and share their insights. Nobody cares about share price except shareholders. What the readers want to know is how Eisner creates a company culture through decision-making, hiring/appointment, problem-solving, and delegation. There is clearly a method to his madness, and it's just not fully told in a useful, applicable way, unless you're trying to run a strategic planning group to back-calculate your worth for a potential merger & acquisition.
January 3, 2020
It's an interesting time capsule about where Disney was in 1998 under Eisner's leadership. The chapters on Disney's America and the struggles of Disneyland Paris are fascinating. Some of Eisner's points (his enthusiasm for Paul Pressler, focus on strategic planning) look worse in hindsight, but there's still a lot here that will interest fans of Disney or just business in general.
October 23, 2018
A good book about the entertainment industry, has a lot of history, & is looking forward to a bright future.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews