Leadership in Disneyland The Walt Disney Company[1] already had Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Goofy, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The company also had the world’ s most popular theme parks and a piece of the imagination of everyone who has been a child in America. What more could the Walt Disney Company need? The answer was leadership. The Walt Disney Company in the early 1980s was suffering from the leadership vacuum due to the death of its founder Walt Disney in 1966. The company’ s great movies were all fifteen or twenty years old. It ranked far down the list of profitable movie-makers and despite a surge of public interest in “family values” , the company seemed unable to use its family-fun image. The Walt Disney Company finally found a leader in 1984: Michael D. Eisner[2] , who left Paramount Pictures[3] to take over as Disney’ s chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Eisner’ s ability to improve the company’ s image rivaled that of Walt Disney himself. Eisner introduced the company’ s Sunday night show, surrounding himself with animated characters. Eisner’ s commitments to his family—his wife Jane and three sons—occasionally made him late for board meetings, but showed that Eisner had the right priorities for Disney. To complement his own sometimes wild imagination, Eisner had revised the company’ s imagineers—a group of highly talented animators. As did any good leader, Eisner found ways to make the most of his company’ s assets. He had raised admission prices at Disneyland and Disney World[4] and had revised the company’ s classics for the home-video market. Eisner got paid well for his work; he earned as much as $40 million a year in salary, bonuses, and stock returns. The company’ s net profits had more than tripled since Eisner took over and Walt Disney Pictures[5] was battling Paramount for the position as Hollywood’ s top studio. Eisner’ s leadership style, family-man image and sometimes wacky ideas (he wanted an aircraft carrier at Disney World) might not make him a popular CEO at the other American companies. However, Eisner had achieved a rare marriage of personal style and corporate culture at Disney, and Americans loved it. Michael Eisner appeared to be a perfect leader for the Walt Disney Company, where he could turn his imagination and values into profit. However, he might not last a week in a company that wanted a traditional disciplined leader with eyes fixed on the next quarter’ s profits. Some leaders are successful wherever they go; others spend years trying to find the right organization. A change in leadership can totally change some organizations and make no difference at others. These apparent contradictions make the study of leadership important to anyone who wants to become a good manager. Research has yet to isolate one style of leadership that will work in all places and times, but studies have identified some variables that affect leadership effectiveness. Management and leadership are not the same thing. Managers derive authority from their organizational position; leaders get much of their power from the less formal interplay of social influences. Although it is possible to be a manager without being a very good leader, good managers know how to use leadership to manage employees more effectively. [1] The Walt Disney Company: 华特迪士尼公司。简称迪士尼, 是美国一家娱乐媒体公司, 也是全世界最大的传媒企业。1923年由华特·迪士尼与兄长洛伊·迪士尼创立。总部设在美国加州洛杉矶的伯班克, 主要业务包括娱乐节目制作、 主题公园、玩具、 图书、 电子游戏和传媒网络。 [2] Michael D. Eisner: 迈克尔·艾斯纳。华特迪士尼公司1984年至2004年的董事长。 [3] Paramount Pictures: 派拉蒙影业公司。以群星环绕雪山的标志为人所熟知, 是好莱坞最著名的影业公司之一。代表作品包括: 《泰坦尼克号》、《教父》、《夺宝奇兵》、《阿甘正传》、《变形金刚》、《碟中谍》 等。 [4] Disneyland and Disney World: 迪士尼乐园(Disneyland, 正式全名为 Disneyland Park), 是迪士尼旗下位于美国加利福尼亚州罕市 (Anaheim) 的主题乐园。迪士尼世界 (Disney World) 是迪士尼位于佛罗里达州中部奥兰多市的主题公园, 是世界上最大的综合游乐场。 [5] Walt Disney Pictures: 华特迪士尼影片。迪士尼公司最重要的电影发行品牌。在此品牌下, 迪士尼发行了许多优秀的动画片与真人电影, 代表作包括:《狮子王》、《海底总动员》、《加勒比海盗》、《钢铁侠》 等。