With all the problems with the public's lack of faith in corporate America could this news be anymore telling as to WHY investors have so little faith in corporate culture. The Gap "attempts to end more than two years of slumping sales" by taking on the guy who was in charge of turning the Disney Store from one of the greatest franchises into it's current state as kids discount clothes outlet. It boggles my mind how they can be so stupid. Have these geniuses at The Gap been to a Disney Store lately? Have they followed the masterful decisions he made as head of Disney's theme parks and resorts division which has saw profits and quality plunge?
SF Mike,
Although I doubt if many people were happier than I to hear that Eisner is finally gone from the parks division I think you were wrong about one thing. You see actually Pressler was at the helm of the Disney stores during thier greatest growth you could argue that when he was in charge of the Disney stores he was really in his element(marketing), and he hasn't been in charge of them in years so he is hardly responsible for the state they are in now. However just as TDS showed off his strengths Attractions showed his weak areas, creativity mostly, cna you belive the guy was against putting Indiana jones in at Disneyland? he thought it was too expensive. Just like the poster that started this thread I heard the news while listening to Marketplace on NPR (National Public Radio) and just like him I got excited and fired off an email to some of my Disney friends (The murdza Triva list chat group and the NC RADP) what follows is the text of that message with some more basic material on Pressler for anyone who is wondering just who the heckt we are talking about:
Hi all
???? ???? Yesterday I read that WDW is re-instating early entry (albeit under a different name "the magic hour " or some such)
upon reading that I thought that it was good and wondered what it meant for the executive who I think has been behind much of the budget cutting at WDW the past few years , Paul Pressler, who i learned today was picked to lead the gap. mostly due to the fact that he lead the Disney stores through their years of greatest expansion before moving over to the theme parks division as VP in charge of Disneyland in the 90's.
???? I think many of the people who read this group are more focused on WDW than Disneyland and so may not have been familiar with Presslers tenure at Disneyland.
???? Over the course of the last year and a half or so Disneyland has been going through a large number of renovations. Most recently Toontown has been repainted also the Small World Facade restored to it's original colors, The Fantasyland carousel had extensive rot repaired. Cynthia Harris replaced Paul Pressler as VP in charge of Disneyland, when he was? moved to being in charge of the theme parks division. Until she came into the picture the maintenance issues at Disneyland seem to get worse and worse. not that it has seemed to be a total turn around Disneyland is still dealing with a lack of new attractions over the last several years, and the loss of the Submarines, People mover, and the People movers replacement the Rocket rods. Also many of their recent re-habs seem to be driven by lawyers worried about liability issues including earlier this year Splash Mountain and right now the Matterhorn, where they are increasing rider clearance by making some of the holes in the mountain bigger right now. Still it seems that possibly under her leadership maintenance has been recognized for the importance it has to Disneys reputation. hopefully someone will take over the theme park division who is also willing to see the problems instead of just slashing budgets until there is nothing left to cut.
???? Some years ago Al Lutz keeper of the Disneyland Information Guide, which is now found at mouseplanet.com
started a web site called "Promote Paul Pressler" the tounge-in cheek premise of the site was to get Pressler promoted to another company, in the original version of the site, I think the Gap was one of the companys specifically listed by name.
members.aol.com/alweho/pressler/pressler.htm
as of this writing the page there still feature information from the time of his last promotion (over the parks division) still al may update it by the time you read this.
Another site connected to the decline of Disneyland under Presslers reign (also worked on by al)
was Disneyland Blues
http://www.mouseplanet.com/shame/
as maintenance has improved at the park it has stopped being updated but some of the old photos remain
?Now hes gone, upon hearing the announcement of his new position on National public Radios "Marketplace" I stopped what I was doing looked at the Radio and said yes,yes,yes YES! pumping my fist in the air with the last couple of yeses!
???? Pressler , along with Barry Braverman, was one of the advocates of using off-the-shelf carnival type ride systems to keep the costs of new parks down, and attendance at Disney's California Adventure has suffered because of it even led One Disney "financial type" is quoted as saying: "It [DCA] would have made more money if we kept it as a parking lot." (Apparently the killer here is amortizing the construction and operating expense vs. gross.)
quoted from DIG
http://www.mouseplanet.com/archive/update45.htm
???? Though I am saddened to hear about the imagineerings departmnents recent loss of their R and D department to just such budget cuts, without imagineering Rand D and new park will probably not be any better than Disneys California Adventure or the Disney Studios Europe. Perhaps if Disney wants to get back to building quality parks they will hire back the folks who helped design Tokyo's Disney Sea!
??? So call me cautiously optimistic the course of events at the theme parks over the next year or so will tell just how much things can change with Eisner in charge, Which may be making too big an assumption, as one of the reasons Pressler was willing to leave may have been fear for what would happen to his job when Eisner goes.
Brian Martsolf
3703 Winding Creek Lane
Charlotte NC 28226
martsolf@mindspring.com
Walt Disney World: A History in Postcards
http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/pctoc.htm