Common Sense and Conflict

Common Sense and Conflict

Michael Eisner is an American entertainment executive, whose leadership in the 1980s and 1990s revitalized the Walt Disney Company. Born in New York City, Eisner was educated at Denison University, where he studied literature and theater. After graduating in 1964, he worked for six weeks as a clerk at NBC and then briefly in the programming department at CBS. His career crystallized at ABC, which he joined as a programming assistant in 1966 and where he spent the next ten years, ultimately becoming senior vice president of prime-time production and development. Eisner's rise through the corporate ranks was paralleled by ABC's leap from third place to first place in the network viewing ratings. In 1976 he was named president and CEO of Paramount Pictures. During his eight-year tenure the motion-picture studio moved from last place to first place among the six major studios. In 1984 Eisner left Paramount to become chairman and chief executive of Walt Disney Productions (renamed the Walt Disney Company in 1986). Eisner admired Walt Disney and was especially interested in children's programming and family entertainment. The company's success included several feature-length animated films in the Disney tradition.

Michael Eisner was an optimistic person and he was well known for being a genius in creativity. He has made Disney a company that is built on a strong combination of institutionalized creativeness that constantly produces potent ideas, and also having common sense. One question that we must ask ourselves is how does Michael Eisner have such good leadership. Well as he describes in his interview, he says that being a leader requires 4 main parts: being an example, being there, being a nudge and finally being an idea generator.

There are many things that I agree upon in Michael Eisner’s way of having leadership in a company. One thing that I strongly agree on is that he has situated his company in being an “idea generator”, which to me is so powerful in a company. When setting your company to be an “idea generator”, you must have a loose environment so people are not afraid to speak their thoughts and ideas. He strongly encourages this type of behavior within his company. From seeing this way of leadership also shows me that the culture at Walt Disney is fun oriented, exciting and loose. Having this type o...

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...hat is spread out across the top and not just the very top. Eisner says that he focuses on the 40 people that he interacts with everyday. That is good because it shows to those people that you truly care about them and they feel wanted. The other leaders in the organization focus on other groups of people. Disney’s management teams are always moving around the entire world but they stay focused on what is most important to them. Eisner says that he wishes that he could be there for every signal person in his organization whenever someone needed help. But unfortunately, that can’t happen but that just goes to show you how committed Michael Eisner is and also why he is so powerful as a leader.

To me, being a nudge in an organization can be an ok thing, but at the same time it is very disturbing to employees. Eisner feels that being a nudge constantly reminds people of their ideas and what they need to do. That is true but the way he inputs it into the organization can be very frustrating to others. Eisner says that he does not keep many notes, which he should because that way you know at all times what needs to be done today and also what may need to be done in a week.