Originally Posted By Socrates I just remembered I have a paperback copy of the book "Up the Organization" by Robert Townsend (Fawcett, 1970). Townsend was brought in to run Avis, and he has a topic (which is how the book is organized) entitled "President's Salary (Is He Really Worth $250,000?) This is a quote: When Andre Meyer hired me to run Avis, the last item he covered was my salary. "You'll be paid $50,000." "No, I won't," I said. "As an about-to-be-substantial stockholder I insist the President be paid $36,000 because that's top salary for a company that has never earned a nickel for its stockholders." ... When Avis moved into the black a year later, General Sarnoff, one of our outside directors, asked me to leave the room. "I'd prefer not to," I said. "Why not?" he asked. "Because if I do you'll raise my salary. And since I'm now overpaid [at $36,000] in relation to the service agents, rental agents, city managers, and regional vice-presidents who run this company, you'll be defeating my crusade for a just compensation system. And since 15% of the pre-tax profits goes into a profit-sharing fund for the top five hundred people, that raise will come out of their pockets, and if I were them I wouldn't stand for it." Did anyone get a recruiting notice for this crusade? Socrates "And God created the Organization and gave It dominion over man" Genesis 1, 30A, Subparagraph VIII (also from the book)
Originally Posted By MPierce >> ~A glass of Jack would be great!~ << The destoyer of so many of my brain cells in my youth.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> And I can't believe I blew a Dalmatians! Socrates "@#$%^&*" << Sometimes a Dalmatian must be sacraficed for a philosophical moment.
Originally Posted By Socrates So true, so true. Besides, with all the layoffs, maybe it should be 91 Dalmatians anyway? Socrates "The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."
Originally Posted By sjhym33 With over 1900 jobs gone in the Walt Disney Company I found this info from the NY Times this afternoon interesting. Bob Igers Compensation: 2007 - $27.7 mil 2008 - $51.1 Mil An 85% increase. 2008 Company performance: 2008 Revenue $37,843 (mil) -5% change in profit -10% return From the graph it looks like most of Igers money came from Bonus, Stocks and Optioins. Take a look at the chart of major conmpanies in America. It is amazing that compensation grew across the board though many of the companies showed negative profit change and double digit negative returns. <a href="http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation?hp" target="_blank">http://projects.nytimes.com/ex...ation?hp</a> On a similar subject. I had lunch today with some old Disney CM friends who told me how horrible last week was. One, an office worker, said that their phone rang every 15 mins with someone calling to say who had gotten laid off. Since we all are old Disney hands we knew many, many people. Even today at lunch I learned about more and more friends and ex-colleagues who are no longer with Disney. Many with 20+ years of experience. When I asked how they decided who was going to be let go, one of my friends said he had heard that people who were close to retirement in terms of years of service were let go...kind of a forced retirement.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Bob Igers Compensation: 2007 - $27.7 mil 2008 - $51.1 Mil An 85% increase. 2008 Company performance: 2008 Revenue $37,843 (mil) -5% change in profit -10% return>> I seriously doubt Walt Disney would have demanded such an incredulous compensation in light of negative returns. Almost two thousand cast members eliminated since this guy scooped up over $50 million. Disney should ship Mickey Mouse Barf Bags with their annual reports to shareholders.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 I wonder how many CMs could they have kept if they didn't have to pay out the 51Mil?
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Bob Igers Compensation: 2007 - $27.7 mil 2008 - $51.1 Mil An 85% increase. 2008 Company performance: 2008 Revenue $37,843 (mil) -5% change in profit -10% return >> It just goes to show how CEOs have rigged the system in their favor.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad I can't imagine firing 1900 people while I sat on 51 million dollars in this year alone. If he stayed at 27 million, same as last year, the resulting 24 million would have allowed Disney to keep 950 CMs at 25 thousand apiece.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^The day when the combined salaries of the average CEO and his/her executive team exceed that of all other employees combined can't be too far off, especially with all the offshorring.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> I can't imagine firing 1900 people while I sat on 51 million dollars in this year alone. << That's beause you care about people, and the Disney legacy. >> ^^The day when the combined salaries of the average CEO and his/her executive team exceed that of all other employees combined can't be too far off, especially with all the offshorring. << I believe the old saying he's worth his weight in gold. Assuming you are talking about a profitable CEO I think that is an honest statement. I believe todays gold price was $871 dollars, per ounce (I hadnt realized it has risen that high). If Mr. Iger weights 200 lbs., that would make him worth $2,787,200. I think he is way over priced. It's not his fault that there is a recession, but I feel the way he is allowing the parks to be run is atrocious.
Originally Posted By -em >>>> I can't imagine firing 1900 people while I sat on 51 million dollars in this year alone. << That's beause you care about people, and the Disney legacy.<< Agreed and I don't even think Disney has anything to do with it.. Its just because you care. -em
Originally Posted By dshyates Iger cares ...........................about his bank account. He doesn't give a crap about those who actually earn that pile o' dough for him.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 Somewhere along the line, Igor and his crew forgot that he (they) works for us, we are the ones who pay his salary. He needs to answer to us peons.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 Iger is just a product of corporate America. As CEO he has one job and that is to make a profit for the company. Since most of the stockholders for Disney are other corporations there is no one even talking about what the right thing to do is. The people running the company are all business majors who have never worked in the parks. They run the Disney Company as a business and decisions are made in terms of business. In the 1980's the policy at Disney was promotions happened from within. The feeling was that you needed to have lived in the Disney Company culture to understand what made the company unique and successful. After Eisner came aboard he gradually forced all the Walt and Roy people from their management into "retirement". I will never forget spending a morning with a VP of the WDW Property when Eisner was on property filming something. It was a busy day in the MK and the filming was creating havoc for the guests but when the VP approaced Eisner wrapping up he got a pretty good dressing down. As the VP walked away he looked at me and said "I dont think I will be around for much longer". He was gone within the year. Not too long after that we began to get new managers from outside the company. They had degrees and worked for companies like the Gap and other reatilers. They were very anti Disney culture. When you would try to tell them that Disney doesnt do things a certain way they would often give you a stare then say...this is the way we do things now. One of my last bosses (that I trained) ran an area of a couple of hundred CM's and dozens of attractions. He was clueless even several months into his time at Disney. He would often turn to me and say...What do we do? when something went wrong. Finally one day I said "Your in charge, you tell me" He kind of hemmed and hawd and said "What do you think we should do?" I said "I will do whatever you want me to do". So he made a decision (not a good one) and he got a talking to. He was mad that I didnt "support" him. I told him that he was obviously hired because of his talents and experience and it was his area and that I worked for him. and would support any decision he made. I was transferred 2 weeks later. That is a long round about way of saying that when you decide to chuck the things that made you great in the first place you shouldnt be surprised when quality falls. A couple of years ago I came to the decision that WDW would never again be the place that I loved and worked for. The people who remember and worked for Walt are long gone and much of the goundations they laid in the 70'a and 80's has been erased by psuedo Waltism. For a while I wouldnt even go on property. It was too depressing. Now I go and enjoy the things I like (including some great new things like Soarin) and remember what a great place it used to be. But the reality is that Disney is a BIG business and is run like one. Which is why the Walt guys built a park like EPCOT and the Eisner guys built DCA.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I hate when I my mind moves faster than my fingers. Sorry for all the typos. But I think you got the idea.
Originally Posted By -em >>Which is why the Walt guys built a park like EPCOT and the Eisner guys built DCA.<< and that explains so much...
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 >> I can't imagine firing 1900 people while I sat on 51 million dollars in this year alone. << <<That's beause you care about people, and the Disney legacy.>> And that's precisely why I have very little respect for Bob Iger. He's just a typical CEO with the keys to the kingdom and the 'tude to go along with it. And everyone he hires (or keeps) follows suit. You wonder why every major WDW exec kept their jobs (including our pal Phil) EXCEPT for Tom McAlpin (who was shoved overboard so that retread Karl Holz would have a purpose) and Jim MacPhee (who was given a nebulous special projects role, which I can only assume is trying to come up with new and innovative ways to sell pins, timeshares and insert the phrase 'DISNEY MAGIC' into every conversation on property every 2.3 seconds. Any talk that comes from Bob's mouth is designed to make Wall Street happy and has to be taken with a truckload of salt. ~Oh, he also doesn't stand behind his word, or the company's, either!~
