Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of: <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2014/05/19/nick-franklin-executive-behind-mymagic-to-leave-disney/" target="_blank"><b>5/19/14: Nick Franklin, Executive Behind MyMagic+ To Leave Disney</b></a>
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "A Disney spokesperson said, “Nick let us know that after 17 successful years with Disney, he wanted to help other companies innovate in how they provide products and services to their customers, much like he did here in leading the development of MyMagic+." Sounds like someone is about to build a start up.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Sounds like someone is about to build a start up. >>> Or, get a very well-paid job at another company. Assuming the MMP is considered a success, that's quite a feather to have in one's cap. The integration efforts to pull something like that off successfully are nothing short of enormous. And the thing is, now that it's more or less complete (at least the back-end heavy lifting), it's something that Disney won't need do to again. Perhaps he could still move on to a higher position within Disney, but the experience he has with this project is so specialized that it's probably much more valuable to another company than what Disney would pay him for his next Disney project. There's a lot of speculation in what I say based on my position as an outsider, but I doubt I'm that far off. There's another thing I've been meaning to mention one of these times when there's an executive departure at Disney. Whenever it happens, it always seems that there's commentary here and elsewhere that it must be because they are incompetent and/or being run out of the company. I don't think that's always the case. Consider the following example. It may not exactly match the management structure at WDW, but bear with me. Each resort has its General Manager, and let's say that each park has its own President. Then there's the President of WDW that's over everything. Assume that the resort president by tradition and necessity always comes from a previous park president. Well, once you reach park president, there's a bottleneck in the advancement ladder, as there's only 1 resort president position for every 4 park presidents. Some park presidents may end up making a "big mistake" that causes them to spend more time with their families, and others may have reached their own level of incompetence per the Peter Principle. But it's quite possible that there's more qualified park presidents left than there are slots for resort president over time. What do those people do? Some may stagnate in their position, having maxed out their advancement up the achievement ladder (assuming Disney allows such people to remain), but in doing so they've likely also maxed out their income and personal growth potential. So, many people in such a situation will leave the company, even if they've been there for decades, so that there talents can be put to use elsewhere. This doesn't necessarily reflect negatively on them at all.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I think it has to be considered a success. The only people that are complaining about it are those that don't like to have their world altered in anyway. The thing that all of us armchair quarterbacks do not know is what they expected, in reality, from the system. We don't know how they intended to get payback, what were the real reasons for it's introduction. So many think that the whole thing was to get FP+. In my mind, that isn't even the tip of the iceberg. Without any access to the "books" we have all insisted that it was way over budget and taken it for fact. We have seen numbers that go between 800,000 and 4 billion put down like we have the ledger sheets right in our hands. When the light of day appears, we don't know anything about it, but are willing to offer opinions on it's success or failure. Whatever, the case, it was a colossal undertaking and to even have it go as smoothly as it has is a testament to someone, my guess is that person is Nick Franklin and his team.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I agree. With the launch basically done what other project can Nick Franklin do at Disney that's comparable?
Originally Posted By cheesybaby <<There's another thing I've been meaning to mention one of these times when there's an executive departure at Disney. Whenever it happens, it always seems that there's commentary here and elsewhere that it must be because they are incompetent and/or being run out of the company. I don't think that's always the case.>> The name "Matt Ouimet" comes to mind.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I agree that the tone of this release makes it sound like he's leaving on friendly terms. Short of rolling out MM+ to DLR (which would presumably require a lot less effort, since the structure has already been developed for WDW), there really isn't much left for him at Disney. He can go make more money being more useful to another company, and Disney can pay somebody else less to maintain the existing system, rather than building a new one. It's a win-win for everybody
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I agree. That type of thinking is in a large part why I decided to retire from the University of Minnesota at the age of 57. I had done extremely well, "working my way up" at the University over 30+ years. I didn't have a bachelor's degree... just three years of college (Business Administration) and additional coursework in Information Management Systems that I took later. My position was the best I could ever hold... in fact if I had not been "grandfathered" into my position, I could have never held it. Currently, it requires a Masters in Computer Science. I managed or played a major role in several College-wide system implementations and a massive University-wide implementation when they converted from their home-grown Student Administration software to a (heavily modified) package. After that, not much was happening, and I was bored. I made very good money, but hated going to work every day, so I retired. Had I been young enough to go elsewhere, I would have. But people aren't really looking to hire a 57-year-old without a bachelor's degree. Not at what I was making. I've thought about working part time in retirement, but always decide against it. I don't need the money, and if I wanted to still work I would have been an idiot not to stay at the University. What am I going to do now on a part time basis... ask people if they want fries with their order? No way could I go back into the computer field... after five years away things have changed so much there is no way I would have the knowledge needed. When I was employed I spent at least a month a year in continuing education paid for by my employer... I HAD to if I wanted to stay current.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <What am I going to do now on a part time basis... ask people if they want fries with their order?> You could move to Orlando and drive the boat between Epcot and the Studios. That's what I've been telling my family I want to do.
