Disney War Summary and Reviews

Disney War
by James B. Stewart

Disney War
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Book Summary Information

Author: James B. Stewart
Edition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-02-11
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 592

Book Reviews of Disney War

Book Review: A fantastic insight of corporate America....
Summary: 5 Stars

A rather lengthy book (over 600 pages), but I found that I went through it much quicker than I ever imagined I could. Both me and my wife read it and just couldn't put it down. There really wasn't any boring parts to it and thats simply because Eisner did so much backstabbing and just plain afwul things to his underlings, you are constantly turning to the next page to see what happens next.

About the only "complaint" overall is that there are just too many names to keep track of and what jobs they performed within Disney. This is no fault of the author's and actually a direct result of Eisner's non-stop turnstile of corporate executives. Eisner would hire/fire anyone at anytime (actually, he would never do it himself. He always would get some poor schmuck to carry out his dirty work even after he directly told the person getting fired that they were safe, etc).

Having grown up watching Disney classics and visiting the parks, this book certainly raises your blood to the boiling point seeing how Eisner asserts himself as Walt Disney's equal, if not better. Stewart does clearly point out that although the Eisner/Wells team vaulted Disney from rags to riches in 10 years, the death of Wells pretty much spelled the end of Eisners good fortunre. However, that death of good fortunre makes for a great story and a superb job by Stewart to put it into book form. Anyone that can drive off the beloved namesake of the very company he works for certainly gives you an idea of the no questions asked power Eisner held over Disney's Board, the company, and its shareholder.

Who else can not honor a contract, say you won't pay, reneg on a $90M settlement, and then have to pay $300M in court when you are found guilty?? Who could hire their best friend as President, fire them after 14 months, pay $140M in severance pay? Who could purchase a cable network with no real advisement, buy it at $5.2 BILLION, afterwards have your accounting dept. realize it is only worth $1.75 BILLION, and then not do a tax write off in order to save your shareholders MILLIONS of dollars? Who could do all of that and STILL remain Chairman and CEO of ANY company?Its pretty simple when you are Michael Eisner. These are just some of the things he did in this book that keep you wanting to read more.

The book ends just as Eisner is asked to step down as Chairmen of Disney's board, but still keeps his CEO title. Its a shame that Eisner hung on awhile longer and that didn't make it to book. Even without it, I found it unbelievably fascinating and shocking that this kind of behavior finds a home in the board rooms and companies of America. But look no further than Enron to even worse, which is probably why Stewart picked that topic for one of his books, too.

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