Could this finally be the end for Chapek?

This is a bad thing?

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:smiley::smiley::smiley:

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After his antics with Twitter I would be hesitant for sure.

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Personally, I think Elon Musk is great.

Over there.

Messing with things that I have no interest in.

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:joy::joy::joy:

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Elon Musk is very smart, borderline brilliant. Problem is, his ego is even bigger than his intellect. This makes him a net negative.

Contrast with John Bogle, late founder of Vanguard, who while not quite as smart, had almost no ego. Thus, he created something of great lasting value.

Contrast with Steve Jobs, who had something of an ego, but was an actual genius. He too created things of great value.

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I’ll file this under different perspectives :+1: and move on.

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The problem with so many great minds. No humility.

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But he don’t love Disney and I want that to be a requirement. Pie in the sky dreams? Maybe, but Elon, for all his strengths, doesn’t have an emotional stake in Disney. And that’s what missing, isn’t it? A person that can truely weigh things past the profits. I want Disney to be profitable, it has to be, but I also want that little bit of Walt spirit incorporated. And to me that is, making money and making magic can coexist. Let’s do that.

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Wholeheartedly agree.

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Yep. Elon has promoted himself beyond his level of incompetence and will self destruct, eventually becoming a cautionary case study in Harvard Business School, spawning a new rule of thumb amongst investment banks: don’t underwrite egomaniacs’ vanity takeovers. I have spoken :sunglasses:

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OK, putting on my non-fan hat and trying to look at this analytically. As much as I am not a Chapek fan and would prefer someone else, this whole reaction is insane and indicative of the problem with modern Wall Street. It’s not that Disney didn’t have a good quarter - they did; they grew, made more than before, and made a profit. The problem? It wasn’t as much as the analysts “expected”. And that is the whole problem with Wall Street in a nutshell. It isn’t enough for a company to grow, it’s how much they are growing that matters that meets the arbitrary expectations of analysts.

  • They made ~$3 billion more than they made in the same quarter last year. Wall Street wanted $4 billion.
  • They made $.30 per share in profit (EPS). Wall Street wanted $0.56 in profit.
  • The Wall Street analysts are complaining about Disney+ loss - which are high. But, Disney said in previous earnings calls that the D+ loss would increase in the second half of 2022 and peak there. The jury is still out on whether that’s the case, but this is hardly unexpected if one listend to previous earnings calls. (One wonders how the Wall Street of today would have reacted to the mounting losses from “Walt’s Folly”, Disneyland, before it became such a huge success).

And this is the problem. The “fan” wants a better product at more reasonable costs. The analyst wants maximum profits and yield. The CEO of Disney has to cater to both. Celebrating the sudden calls for Chapek’s firing may feel good, but at the end of the day, the reasons people like Jim Cramer are calling for Chapek’s firing is because he isn’t doing the things we don’t like fast enough.

It’s possible to both cater to the fans, make a great experience at the parks, and make money. I’m not sure it’s possible anymore to do all of that and please Wall Street. But if Wall Street got its way, the type of CEO that they would put in would make Chapek seem like the reincarnation of Walt.

As far as Musk - I have admiration for what he’s done at SpaceX and Tesla. I am not sure that will translate well to Twitter, and I know he would be a bad CEO for Disney - just from a cast member perspective alone. He would be an awful CEO of Disney percisely because he’s an innovator who doesn’t give a shit about breaking things. Disney has a tremendous legacy that needs to be cultivated and built on, not torn down every 6 months to try something new. Musk would be able to innovate, but he would destroy too much in the process of trying to get there.

Disney has worked best when it’s had a team of people at the top - a creative and a financial/business type. Walt would have been lost without Roy. Eisner and Wells were an incredible team who took Disney from the brink of bankruptcy to make it the company it is today within a decade - and then Eisner faltered after Frank Wells died. We need that combo again.

Ok, off my soapbox now.

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Bravo

image

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Ooh, me no likey

Good point

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This is very well thought out and written

Question: have you ever considered writing for a blog?

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What if we parented this way.

“Dad! I made it on the honor roll!”

“Let me see that…all As and one B+. You’re grounded for two weeks!”

“Grounded? But why?”

“I expected you to get at least an A-, and you got a B+! That is unacceptable!”

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You have articulated everything that is wrong with Wall street so well. There is a very real financial impact to people like us when they live in a make believe world of arbitrary numbers and unreasonable expectations. It’s not real, but it has a real effect on people.

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I actually had a blog once, a long, long time ago…

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“This morning” is not a “long, long time ago…”

…just sayin’ :slight_smile:

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Were you thinking of making a blog recently? Thought I came across something to that effect. I mean, besides @OBNurseNH’s kidding around.

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