Originally Posted By disneywatcher >> Now, this is a truly snide comment. << Not if you're a professional brown noser.
Originally Posted By arstogas >>>Now, this is a truly snide comment. How can executives run the Gap and not know what they are selling?<<< Well, Woody, that's more or less how they ran Disneyland, right?
Originally Posted By Imagineer This Wow, and I thought Eisner was bad. But why praise people who did bad work at Disney? (
Originally Posted By oc_dean I don't understand why Hans is being "so protective" to his ..."little friends?" ...that no one can't say any (JUSTIFIABLE) comments to some creative hacks who ultimately knew nothing of how to run a "Disney" park?!
Originally Posted By leemac <<Barry has been gone for several weeks now.>> Just to correct this misstatement. Barry is still with WDI and his final day is in February.
Originally Posted By TP2000 >>"Again, these kinds of executives have no time to even look at sweaters or t-shirts, let alone fold them."<< Which may be exactly why The Gap is in the trouble it's currently in, why sales have fallen for several seasons in a row now, and why the industry trade magazines the last few months are predicting that Pressler will be gone "within a year". If they truly can't fold a sweater and straighten a mall display, they are out of touch with their core product, their customers and their front line employees, just as they were at Disneyland. Pressler and Harriss aren't curing cancer or sending a man to Mars, they are hawking sweaters and jeans at cheesy mall stores to middle class customers around the country. Or in Cynthia's own puffed-up words in the OCMetro interview last year, "This is more than just Disney, I'm clothing America now!" Sure, they are well paid. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Cynthia Harriss was paid a total of 3.6 million dollars in lieu of stock options for 2005, as was Byron Pollitt who was the financial guru for Harriss/Pressler at Disneyland and who followed them to The Gap when Cynthia left suddenly to "spend more time with my family" in October, 2003. Pressler also got something north of the figure Harriss received for '05. These are very highly paid executives who can't quite seem to get The Gap back on track and stocking sweaters Americans actually want to buy. And I'm sure there are company cars, 5 star expense account travel, and all the other self-absorbed perks that 21st century executives surround themselves with at stockholder expense. But after Cynthia spent here entire adult life in retail, with the lone exception of 5 years spent screwing up Disneyland so bad that it took Ouimet 18 months to fix, you can't tell me that she doesn't know how to fold a sweater. Cyndi Harriss is a Gap Girl, like it or not. At least she's not oozing that fake mall attitude around Disneyland anymore. But according to the retail industry trade papers, and recent reports in the LA Times, Pressler's days are numbered at The Gap, and Cynthia will have to leave suddenly to spend even more time with her family. Again. And yes, I do get a mental image of Chris Farley and Adam Sandler dressed in drag from those hilarious 1990's SNL sketches based on the Gap Girls. ;-)
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<I don't understand why Hans is being "so protective" to his ..."little friends?" ...that no one can't say any (JUSTIFIABLE) comments to some creative hacks who ultimately knew nothing of how to run a "Disney" park?!>> IMO, I don't think Hans is protecting Pressler and Cynthia, so much as trying to keep the discussion levelheaded. Calling them "creative hacks" or saying "they are hawking sweaters and jeans at cheesy mall stores to middle class customers around the country" doesn't do anything to support your views, in fact, it pretty much undermines them. I doubt anyone disagrees that Paul and Cynthia did a great job at running DL. They aren't doing a great job at the Gap either, for the time being. But they have done some good things (Disney Stores being one of them.) People don't get to that level merely by being "professional brown nosers."
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt >I don't understand why Hans is being "so protective" to his ..."little friends?" ...that no one can't say any (JUSTIFIABLE) comments to some creative hacks who ultimately knew nothing of how to run a "Disney" park?!< Give me a break. You and everyone else here knows that these people, who no longer work for Disney, aren't folding T-shirts or anything of the sort. How can making such rediculous comments be justifiable? Nonsense such as this simply undermines the argument that the poster is trying to make - just stick to the facts.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<I doubt anyone disagrees that Paul and Cynthia did a great job at running DL.>> Somewhat obviously, I meant to say, "I doubt anyone disagrees that Paul and Cynthia didn't do a great job at running DL."
Originally Posted By disneywatcher >> I don't understand why Hans is being "so protective" to his ..."little friends?" << Imagine how quite a few people will behave if their jobs and paychecks were actually dependent on the "little friends" found in any business. That's why the tone of a workplace is so dependent on the skills and competency of people at the top, the managers, supervisors, presidents, CEOs of a company. >> Calling them "creative hacks" or saying "they are hawking sweaters and jeans at cheesy mall stores to middle class customers around the country" doesn't do anything to support your views << And being too easygoing about ineptitude and mediocrity at the workplace is one reason projects and operations are likelier to be botched or never improved upon.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I am not in anyway easy going about ineptitude or mediocrity. Holding high standards can and should apply to debate too; use of name-calling is inept and mediocre, IMO.
Originally Posted By oc_dean HELLO!! Those of us speaking in this topic have been around LP for a while .. and we should know each other enough where we can say a few "off the wall" comments to go with our 'on the topic logical speech' ..... So lets not start lectering on what to censure here on LP .. otay????!!!! JEEEEZE! And aren't all of us around here have enough brains to understand the difference with speaking in metaphors and ****figurative**** speech? AS IF Cynthia and Paul are ACTUALLY, PHYSICALLY ... folding sweaters! JEEZE!
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Fine, but don't lecture me about pointing out how I find it inept, okay? I know people want to enjoy the boards, and I can appreciate off-the-wall comments as much as anyone. But I get from some an outright vindictiveness, and it's the constant diatribe that I find beyond being playful.
Originally Posted By oc_dean Don't worry trekkeruss .... I've been reading your posts for a long time here on LP .. I'm not jumping on you ... So much as it is Hans who's gett'n on me nerves.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <<Barry has been gone for several weeks now.>> <Just to correct this misstatement. Barry is still with WDI and his final day is in February.> Oh, well no wonder everything at WDI is still a mess! [eye roll]
Originally Posted By trekkeruss LOL, fair enough. Hans was kinda sticking on that sweater point. But I will say, when I was working for the Disney Stores during it's heyday, a few times Cynthia and or Paul came by. Our Cast would spend hours and hours getting ready for those visits... once I stayed in the store until 4:00am, doing Disney folds, stocking out plush mountain (I was the plaush mountain king!), even going so far as dragging out a ladder and dusting all the animation. How disappointing and frustrating it was when they would come by and virtually turn around and have lunch somewhere in the mall. WHY IN THE HELL did we bust our asses if they were barely gonna look at the place?! Anyway... I don't think those two do much sweater folding.
Originally Posted By disneywatcher >> I am not in anyway easy going about ineptitude or mediocrity. << That's good, because I hope you're not like one of those people who set up the public school at the DisCo sponsored town of Celebration, Florida. I read several years ago that the school's administration had implemented a no-grading policy, or a procedure where kids weren't scored with As, Bs, Cs, Ds, Fs, probably because the faculty thought such a tradition in education had been too harsh on pupils and crushed their self-esteem. I know administrators at a few other schools elsewhere in the country don't even allow sports teams to keep track of scores anymore, because that too in their eyes makes things overly competitive or ego-bruising. If the people who supervised the development of Anaheim's second Disney park share that way of thinking -- Barry Braverman, by the way, once taught at an elementary school -- then it's no surprise DCA is DCA.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "So much as it is Hans who's gett'n on me nerves. " Please. As if you and others don't bug me sometimes
