Page 158 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Dare to Dare 139

parks (the whirlwind of activity was astonishing), Eisner and Wells managed
to double Disney profits within two years. The duo had remade Disney
into a company that dared to excel. Tragically, Wells died in a helicopter
crash in 1994.
Along the way, Eisner and his management team made some mistakes,
to be sure, but they did not destroy the culture that Walt Disney instituted
nearly 80 years ago.
That is not to say that every new movie has been an artistic and commercial
success. For example, the movie Tron, released in 1982, was a box-office failure,
but in true Disney fashion, it introduced more advanced technology that the
company will be able to utilize in future films. “When you’re trying to break
ground creatively,” Eisner commented, “you do sometimes fall short. That’s
risk, and we try to manage it well.” 46
One of the company’s great success stories was the launch of the Disney
Stores. What began as theme-park shops where customers could buy Mickey
Mouse shirts and other Disney memorabilia has developed into a place where
not only a wide array of merchandise is available, but also tickets to Disneyland
and Walt Disney World may be purchased.
The idea to expand the company’s retail presence into malls and shopping
centers came from former Disney employee Steve Burke, now president of
Comcast Cable Communications and COO of Comcast Corporation. Steve was
able to eventually convince both his mentor at Disney, the well-respected Frank
Wells, and Michael Eisner that Disney Stores would eventually yield handsome
returns. In November of 2004, Disney sold its mall-based chain of stores to The
Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc., a leading specialty retailer of children’s mer-
chandise. They currently own and operate over 300 Disney Stores in North
America as well as its online store; however, Disney maintains a strict license
agreement governing the business practices and ways Children’s Place synergizes
with The Walt Disney Company. Children’s Place has redesigned the Disney
Stores to communicate that Disney is forward-thinking, as evidenced by a new
sleeker and more modern design. Richard Giss, a partner in the retail services
group of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Los Angeles, says, “They’ve got premium
locations, and the Disney name is a good place to start out for any enterprise.”
That risk taking is alive and well at The Walt Disney Company is
nowhere more apparent than in its dramatic entrance onto the Broadway
stage. Disney’s first foray, Beauty and the Beast, raised skepticism about the
wisdom of transferring an animated film to live theater, but after more than a