Disneywar: The Battle for the Magic Kingdom
£7.60
DISNEYWAR is the dramatic inside story of what drove this iconic entertainment company to civil war, told by one of America’s most acclaimed journalists. Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as hundreds of pages of never-before-seen letters and memos, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years. In riveting detail, Stewart also lays bare the creative process that lies at the heart of Disney. Even as the executive suite has been engulfed in turmoil, Disney has worked – and sometimes clashed – with a glittering array of Hollywood players, many of who tell their stories here for the first time.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster UK, UK ed. edition (9 Dec. 2008) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1709 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 620 pages |
by Jonathan Baldie
I first heard about this book from Bob Iger’s “Ride of a Lifetime” where he expresses his doubts over it, and this immediately piqued my curiosity. It is a highly documented and brilliantly well-told story of corporate grandiosity, illustrating many lessons for modern executives. It will no doubt ruffle the feathers of smiley Disney execs, and it is for that reason I find it so delightful as exposing the harsh, Machiavellian reality behind the nice, politically-correct façade that business leaders love to display.
by Etoilebrilliant
Can’t believe I didn’t buy this book earlier. Fantastic analysis of how Hollywood Ego literally took over this family company. The only decent thing Eisner did was to reject Steve Case’s AOL bid for Disney.
by Martin Briggs
Nothing to dislike
by colin Way
This was my holiday book and after reading the Roy e Disney biography, this was the perfect counter part to that story and allowed your see from all perspectives! I thoroughly enjoyed and has left me wanting to know what happened next!
by Cg
Second time of reading. Gives a good insight into Disney, Eisner and his time leading the Disney company. Would enjoy reading an update 10 plus years on.
by Amazon Customer
Very interesting book
by C. Ball
I never thought I’d find a business book on the inner workings of corporate executives interesting, but then these corporate executives do work for Disney – and that makes it more interesting than most multi-million dollar corporations, if only because of the dichotomy between its public image and the machinations of executives behind the scenes.
This book charts the twenty years of Michael Eisner as CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation, how he went from being the saviour of the company to more or less the Anti-Christ. If nothing else it’s a very credible tale of how power corrupts.
As long as Frank Wells, the Disney chairman, was alive, things worked, if only because Wells was able to serve as a check on Eisner’s power, the only one who could, the one who smoothed over the ruffled feathers and was in a position to question Eisner’s decisions. Once Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994 there was no-one to hold Eisner back. He took on Wells’ position himself, despite pressure to name a successor, and became increasingly autocratic, positioning himself in the role of the natural heir to Walt Disney.
This book could almost be the handbook on how not to perform as CEO. Eisner seemed to subscribe to the divide-and-conquer technique: he would force employees to report back to him on their bosses; he would tell one executive another one had said such-and-such to him and vice versa; he would second-guess and micromanage every decision; he would put executives in untenable positions and then blame them for failing; he was incredibly jealous of his position and anyone who was posited as his successor swiftly found the rug was pulled from under them and an exit was being arranged; he recouped enormous bonuses despite making decisions that cost the company billions; he oversaw a brain-drain of talent as people such as John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg and the Pixar group left the corporation because of their inability to work for Eisner; he would apppoint his friends to positions and then immediately fall out with them; the list goes on.
It’s a fascinating book, and it makes me view Disney in a whole new light. It’s always been hard to look past the magic and see Disney as ‘just another evil greedy corporation’ but this book surely makes it easy to start.
by Daisysunray
I worked for Disney for years, and was intrigued to read this book. It explains a lot (on all sorts of levels)! It’s a great business book that gets under the skin of what’s really going on in the background and how I’m sure lots of businesses operate if they are truly honest.