Walking into the door of Disney with Cameron, they soon arrived at the president's office and met the current president of Disney, Michael Eisner.

A middle-aged man with a head that looks like a jujube.

"Welcome, James. ”

As soon as Michael Eisner saw Cameron, he hurriedly walked out from behind his desk, in terms of social status, he must be above Cameron, but in terms of fame, Cameron undoubtedly wants to crush him, and as far as the entertainment industry is concerned, Michael Eisner must see that he is the CEO of Disney, but he does not dare to offend Cameron, and even wants to please the other party to some extent.

"Hello, Mike. ”

Cameron smiled and shook Michael's hand.

"This is"

After shaking hands, Michael turned his head to look at Zhou Fangyuan beside Cameron.

"Zhou, my partner. ”

Cameron introduced.

"Hello, young man. ”

"Hello, Mr. Michael. ”

Zhou Fangyuan had a faint smile on his face.

With a playful gaze, he looked at the man in front of him.

Michael Eisner, he knows a little, this person was born on March 7, 194, in Mount Isco, New York, USA. He served as CEO of Disney and chairman of the board of directors of Disney for one year from September 1984 to September 30, 005.

Under his leadership, Disney Kingdom has grown from a company with a market value of only $0 billion to an entertainment empire with a market value of more than $40 billion. During his tenure, he had achievements that could not be ignored, but there were also some flaws. Mr. Eisner is an individualist of sorts, and many of Disney's business decisions are based on his personal preferences, such as making musicals, and even the original design of the four-eyed chicken, which was originally a girl, and the decision to change it to a boy was made by him.

Those scathing critics may have forgotten how Eisner turned the tide and revived Disney from decline.

When he stepped into Disney's castle in 1984, the company was in a state of leaderless chaos with the theme park losing its life and Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck almost a long memory. Eisner is like waking up Disney, the prince of Sleeping Beauty, who saves the magical kingdom. The entertainment wizard has played the role of savior twice: in the '70s, when he brought ABC back to life, and in the '80s, when he took the helm of Paramount Pictures, which brought the studio from the bottom of Hollywood's big six to the top.

Through a series of drastic reforms, including the frenzied development of brand-driven product sales, the upgrading of Disneyland, and the opening of film and television clubs that produce non-G-rated films, Eisner made Disney a leader in the industry within a few years, with The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahona sold around the world. He also expanded Disney into television and publishing through step-by-step acquisitions, becoming a giant transmedia conglomerate.

Eisner has also consolidated his throne step by step in the past ten years, and he has completely integrated with Disney. The most direct interest is that his salary is linked to the company's profits. But it doesn't stop there, Eisner is an imperial careerist. Although he is still essentially just a hired employee, he wants to make Disney his own, and he is the sun shining on this country. He carefully protects this absolute power and strengthens it in a way that is either overt or implicit. Eisner liked to have two or three people run a department together, blurring power and encouraging internal competition. In 1994, after four surgeries and a precarious situation, he arranged a future for Disney in a feudal monarchy-like fashion: he sealed the name of the heir in an envelope and announced that it could only be opened if the operation was unsuccessful.

Of course, in the end, he escaped the ghost gate, and no one knows whose name is in the "edict".

It can be said that he is the only ruler of Disney, and this arbitrary style and overconfident personality have turned Eisner into a leader who does everything in detail.

He pays attention to almost every detail, from the theater performances to the TV commercials and the costumes worn by the actors in the parks. He even personally selected each piece of furniture in the design of the hotel and discussed it with each painter. Few entertainment moguls would bother with the daily programming of a television station like he did, and even Mr. Murdoch was puzzled by the style, but Eisner just liked to enjoy the feeling of being in power.

Maybe he doesn't distrust his subordinates, but he just doesn't want to be in the limelight. He relies on and loves his team, claiming that he especially likes to be surrounded by a group of talented people, when in fact he only likes the atmosphere of the stars. Everyone is shrouded in his mind and loses his independent creativity. Perhaps this is a manifestation of Eisner's split personality, who effectively organizes and promotes his team while maintaining his supremacy.

In Hollywood, Eisner was notoriously ruthless, even beating up employees in the office.

He demanded absolute loyalty from his subordinates, and when he was hurt, he would be angry, and even stick out his claws like an enraged lion to retaliate harshly.

For example, when Katsenberg left Disney, he asked for a large amount of compensation, and since then he has been cursed by Eisner's madness. He didn't miss a chance for revenge, and his ABC refused to broadcast a TV show produced by DreamWorks. Eisner's hubris drove many people away, and it really made him Disney's only true star.

"My value is to make sure everything we do is ethical, meaningful, and has high-quality ideas. "Eisner is defending Disney's reputation as much as he is his own, and for him, the two are the same. But now, that oneness has been seriously questioned. Another golden age for Disney seems to be on the way, with declining revenues, falling stock prices, Eisner not receiving bonuses for years, and his popularity plummeting.

In fact, he still has a lot of problems, and on the Internet in later generations, some people have summarized his three obvious shortcomings: improper employment, careless use of money and illegal use of power.

What does it mean to misuse people?

For example, when Michael Ovitz was hired as president in 1995, the company's board of directors was completely at the mercy of Eisner, and the company's nominating committee was dormant. It was precisely because of the lack of diligence of the board of directors and the absence of the nomination committee that the company's will was led by Eisner's nose, and the company was forced to accept Eisner's nomination, and Michael Owitz, a popular Hollywood professional agent, served as the president of Disney, a fairy tale world composed of film and television, theme parks, animation and other categories.

At that time, ABC TV, which had just been acquired, became the biggest money eater, while the company's president died unexpectedly in a plane crash, and some thriving department managers threatened to split up and go it alone. Eisner was looking for a strong man to fill the vacancy of the company's president, so that he could become a strong business partner for Eisner. Eisner set his sights on his childhood playmate and neighbor, Michael Ovitz. At present, Ovitz is a hot figure in Hollywood circles, the owner of an innovative agency, and has a large number of top Hollywood stars under his command. Soon after Eisner's secret contact with him, he announced that Disney had hired Ovitz as president of The Walt Disney Company.

In a legal sense, Eisner made a serious procedural error. He shall first refer his nomination to the Company's Nominating Committee for discussion, and if the Nominating Committee deems him to be a suitable person, the Chairman of the Nominating Committee shall report to the Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors shall vote on the candidate before the Company shall formally decide to hire the candidate. Unfortunately, Eisner didn't. Eisner only made a few phone calls to the other directors afterwards, and the matter was settled.

Ovitz, the genius agent, did not switch roles and integrate into the management team as Eisner had hoped, and Ovitz simply lacked the ability and experience to navigate a giant company like Disney, let alone the creativity and coordination needed in the Disney world. Soon, after taking office, Ovitz could not turn the company around, and the company's situation deteriorated even more. His cronyism, abuse of power, solitude, misrelations with other directors, and appropriation of company property made Eisner angry, and just 15 months later, Eisner fired Ovitz for squid.

Similarly, Eisner made a procedural error in firing Oviz. He should have referred his intention to dismissal to the Nominating Committee, which then submitted it to the Board for approval. The stakes are high when a company executive is fired, let alone the company's president, one of the company's three centers of power. Unfortunately, as the CEO, Eisner announced his decision to hire Ovitz when he felt it was necessary.

The second point is the careless use of money, for example, in 1996, Ovitz rolled up a whopping $1.4 billion severance compensation and left the Disney Company.

Ethically, a large compensation should be a reward for the recipient's extraordinary contribution to the company, not a consolation money for the loser. During Ovitz's tenure as the company's president, the company's performance declined instead of rising, and high-level interpersonal relationships were strained, especially when Ovitz included his personal expenses under the company's accounts, amounting to $140,000. Under these circumstances, Owitz continued to receive up to $140 million in compensation unhindered, Eisner and the company's board of directors did not take action to stop or reduce the payment of Ovitz's compensation, and the board of directors in the eyes of shareholders became a derelict board of directors, and the directors became directors who failed to fulfill their fiduciary duties under the law, and they did not resolutely defend the interests of the company and its shareholders.

It's a little puzzling, why did Eisner so readily agree to a huge salary contract with Oviz, which is the best in the world, whether he wanted to show off Disney's strength to the outside world, or just wanted to prove that he was naturally worth much more than Ovitz as the boss was, or was they originally friends and were suspected of favoritism as the outside world speculated? In any case, one thing is clear: more and more company controllers do not take shareholders' money seriously, and the company's money is like pocket money in the CEO's pocket, which can be given away as much as they want.

Eisner is undoubtedly one of them.

Third, it is illegal to use power.

Ovitz was also a well-known figure in Hollywood circles at the time, and the innovative artist agency he founded was the ideal country that Hollywood movie stars most wanted to join. Why did such a prodigy become a mediocre talent at Disney?

After all, it was Eisner's hand that covered the sky, and he did not hand over the power promised on paper to Oviz, who came as expected. Although Ovitz is the president of the company, he has to be under the command of CEO Eisner. Oviz, who is also extremely possessive of power, and it is inevitable that he will clash with Eisner in close combat. Ovitz naturally did not follow Eisner's will, and Eisner yelled at him several times as a "psychopath" can be seen that the configuration of the two of them as business partners is completely wrong.

If Eisner had been in the position where the CEO should have stood, Ovitz wouldn't have been in such a hurry. If Eisner does not control the board of directors and does not serve as a director, the board of directors' checks and balances on it will have an effect, and the mutual checks and balances of power will be truly implemented. However, although Eisner is not in the position of chairman, in the board of directors with independent directors accounting for the vast majority of members, Eisner has become the most powerful director as an executive director, and the limelight overshadows the chairman, and even the vice chairman of the Disney family, Rey Disney, can't help Eisner.

This person, whose existence is completely the monarch of the Disney Kingdom, anyone can only look up to him, and can only obey his orders, how can such a person lead Disney to rise?

In the chaos of Disney, it is necessary to think that the iron-fisted king came out to tidy up the rivers and mountains, and now that the rivers and mountains are solid, he needs a leader who can be inclusive and tolerant of all things, and Eisner, there is no doubt that he does not have such ability, maybe he has the ability, but his personality makes him unable to be a qualified helmsman at all. So in the not-too-distant future, he will take off his laurels and leave Disney.

However, before he leaves, he may be able to make some contributions to Zhou Fangyuan.

The first step, naturally, is the release of the film.

In fact, although Disney currently strongly demands transformation, because Disney is doing animation in its bones, it is not easy to transform. So you need to take your time and not rush it. But Eisner couldn't take care of that much, and when he received a call from Cameron, he didn't discuss it with anyone, and put forward very generous terms.

And when Zhou Fangyuan came to Disney with the film, he couldn't wait to see it.

"Two, come with me to the screening room and let me see how this movie goes. ”

Eisner said with a smile, his tone a little anxious.

Zhou Fangyuan and Cameron glanced at each other, and the two laughed in unison.