The Upside of Ego

(Newsweek) – Michael Eisner transformed the Walt Disney Co. from a studio with a couple of theme parks to a global entertainment behemoth worth more than $50 billion, in his 21-year reign that ended last year. Under Eisner's leadership, the company became a major player in everything from television to baseball, book publishing, retailing and Broadway shows. How did he transform Disney? Simply, by making decisions. During the 18 years between Walt Disney's death in 1966 and Eisner's ascension to Disney's top job, a simple question would arise with every possible move: "What would Walt do?" It was not a recipe for strong decision making. Eisner took over a moribund company in the shadow of its once-towering reputation. Its biggest problem was that Disney executives had no idea what "Walt" would do. Eisner set about changing the "old media dinosaur," at that point capitalized at just $2.8 billion. The year before he joined, it had made just three films. So Eisner brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg to run movies, and soon they were making 40 films a year culminating in animated classics like "The Lion King". It led to one of the most sustained share price runs in US corporate history, with annualized returns in excess of 25 percent. But Eisner’s iron grip on Disney made him enemies. In 2003, Walt's nephew, Roy Disney, resigned from the Disney board, accusing Eisner of turning Disney into a "rapacious, soulless" company. At various points, Eisner also fell out with Katzenberg and the legendary one-time Disney president, Michael Ovitz. Disney's campaign culminated in a shareholder revolt, and after initially resigning the chairmanship, Eisner severed all ties with the company in September 2005. Nick Tabakoff of NEWSWEEK's partner publication in Australia, "The Bulletin," spoke with Michael Eisner about life after Disney, new media and old-fashioned Hollywood politics. Excerpts:

THE BULLETIN: Web-distribution companies like Google are making hundreds of millions of dollars on the content of entertainment companies like Disney. Does the emergence of new media pose a threat to the established media and entertainment groups?

Michael Eisner: Well, I think every platform is going to need content. As long as Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount concentrate on creating great content, they will be the ultimate survivors. It's always been that way. The distribution chains come on, get a lot of power, press, money, and go away 20 or 30 years later and end up not being the winners. The winners are the content companies.

Your name is still synonymous with Disney. What do you see as your greatest achievement there, and your greatest regret?

I can't really give you a greatest achievement. We did everything from winning a baseball World Series to creating a whole new era of animation to many movies, Academy Award-winning movies; new theme parks in Florida, California, Japan, China and Europe; 30,000 hotel rooms; 80 new buildings; sports networks; broadcast networks. All these things feel like pretty good achievements. Setting up Broadway shows, watching the "Lion King." We had a good run on Broadway, we still do. But they're all part of the whole — which is to try to make really quality products to play around the world where there is an audience.

What about a greatest regret?

That it all goes so quickly. I think I was in grade school about 10 minutes ago.

How important are egos in Hollywood? And is there an upside of ego?

I think ego is important in Hollywood only to the degree that you write about it in the press. There is as much ego on a farm in Kansas as there is on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It's just the media puts the spotlight on the process of making content because everyone's so interested in it. And that's a very big positive, it's a compliment. No one would be interested in our movies if everybody in the world was ego-less, passionless and completely and totally discreet.

I saw an article that commented on your relationships with some of the men you once clashed with as the head of Disney — (Michael) Ovitz and (Jeffrey) Katzenberg and Roy Disney. It said you're now friends with some of these guys. Are these clashes part of the rough and tumble of Hollywood politics? Is it like a soccer game — where at the end of it, you're mates again?

I'm still friendly with the guy in high school who stole my girlfriend. It's life. I mean, people are competitive, and people say and do stupid things, and life goes on. And if you're not a person that holds grudges, you move on.

On the Disney takeover of Pixar, it seems you weren't really keen to go ahead with it when you were Disney CEO.

I don't think there's anything about this acquisition that you can find me being quoted about. I really feel that it would be inappropriate. Bob Iger is CEO of the company, the board chose to make that deal, and I support it.

What about Rupert Murdoch? Do you think there's more he can do to secure his seat in the big time, or is he already there?

Well he's clearly in the big time, and the only fight he's going to have is his own age, because he's brilliant. I would say he is amongst the best, maybe the best, in the top two or three in the world.

Since leaving Disney, you've been keeping busy. You're said to be scouting the world for a variety of opportunities in content production. Can you tell me more?

There is no more. Scouting the world is a good way to put it, and I'm enjoying the opportunity of looking at every possible thing. And I have no idea where it ends up.

I read that you have a $630 million fortune, so what's the motivation for you now?

Well I have no idea if any of that is true. My motivation never has been about money, from the day I was an usher at NBC in New York. ... I don't care about the money. I care about the work. I like the creative process. I like the fun of it. It's like being at a party all the time. There are a lot of people who crash the party, and are too drunk at the party, but the party is still fun to be at. I want to be in the party. I want to be in the sober part.

I saw that you grew up going to Broadway shows. Given what you later achieved at Disney — and with Disney helping to transform Broadway — did that give you the impetus to become perhaps America's most successful showman?

Not that I was aware of. Growing up in New York, the thing you did every birthday — at least in my home environment — every birthday, every anniversary, every event, you went to a Broadway show. So I saw probably every show from the time I was five years old till when I went away to school. However, I was a pre-med — I was going to medical school — what did I know about Broadway? So I guess when I got to college, and this girl in the theater department wouldn't date me, I wrote a play with her as the star, [so] she would date me and thought that would be an effective way to impress her. So I did, I wrote the play. I impressed her, she was in the play, the play did very well — and she still wouldn't date me. So that's how I got going.

What was the play called?

"To Stop a River." I don't know what happened to it. Forget it.

Was entertainment in your blood at that point?

I wasn't worried about my blood. I was worried about dating her. Actually, I haven't thought of her name — Barbara Eberhart — for I would say about four years.

So wanting to date Barbara Eberhart was ultimately what led you on a path to becoming head of Disney?

By the way, I can give you about a thousand other examples about how that part of one's life does drive a certain amount of momentum. If she had been less attractive, maybe I'd have been a doctor today. And not a good one, because I didn't like the sight of blood.