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Title: Keys to the Kingdom : The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else by Kim Masters ISBN: 0-06-662109-7 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.81 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very informative and a good read.
Comment: I found this book to be an interesting read. I have also read Michael Eisner's autobiography and was looking forward to reading more about his tenure at Disney.
I appreciated the way that Kim Masters brought a different perspective to the events leading up to Eisner's taking the helm at Disney as well as the time since Eisner took over. There certainly were many things that Masters discussed that Eisner did not cover very well or at all in his book. I think it is important to get more of the total picture on events such as these and not just one point of view. I felt that Masters presented a point of view that was much more broad than the view presented by Eisner.
Now for some of the things I did not like about this book. There is many times in this book that Masters' tone seemed almost gossipy which is something I do not like. Also, Masters seemed to dwell on the negative aspects of Eisner as well as other people that held or continue to hold power in the entertainment industry. She seemed very critical of anyone holding that power and said very little positive about them. There is (hopefully) good and bad in everyone, I would have liked to get a more balanced story from an author with Master's talent.
Overall, I recommend this book. It is a good source of information that I have not found elsewhere. However, I too felt this book left me unconvinced that Eisner has "Lost His Grip."
Rating: 5
Summary: I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good
Comment: Michael Eisner is routinely credited (and has been handsomely rewarded) with the great Disney turnaround. Was it genius or luck? Kim Master's Key's to the Kingdom-How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip is a well researched and thoroughly entertaining look into the Hollywood scene and the Walt Disney Company in particular from 1984 to 1999. We are given a rare unfiltered peek over the burm and into the inner sanctum of the Magic Kingdom. In the end, one comes away with the intended impression that Bravado, Ego and Greed are the three horseman of Hollywood. We are left with an unflattering portrait of Michael Eisner as a parsimonious and deeply flawed leader clearly out of touch with the world around him.
So how did such a flawed leader turn a Two Billion Dollar company into a Sixty Billion Dollar juggernaut of American industry? Frank Well's summed up the situation best when shortly after the Eisner/Wells team ascended to the leadership of Disney, Well's noted "Every time I open a door at this company, there's money behind it."
What is glossed over and unappreciated in Kim Master's book is the fact that when Walt Disney died in 1966 he left the Disney organization without a well groomed leader. From 1966 to 1984 Walt literally ruled Disney from the grave and no one in the incestuous leadership of the company dared peek into the cupboard or look behind any door.
The two to sixty billion dollar story, weaved by Kim Masters leaves the reader with the clear impression that it was Michael Eisner's luck rather than his talent which was at the core of this success. Michael's early failure to appreciate the value of animation, his obsession with paying the minimum for talent, the lost movie opportunities, the personal vendetta against Jeffrey Katzenberg, the hiring and firing of Michael Ovitz, the yet to pay off acquisition of ABC/CapitalCities are all fascinating vignette's in a passion play which could easily be called "As the Mouse Turns."
Despite the negative tone of the book in general, Master's paints a flattering picture of Frank Well's insightful decision making and tactful backroom smoothing of feathers, leaving the reader to conclude that it was perhaps Well's talents and not Eisner's that were in fact were the real Keys to the Kingdom.
With fewer doors to look behind and all the cupboards bare, it is interesting to note that since Well's death in 1994 Disney stock has grown only at about the same rate as the S&P 500.
While insisting that most talent work for the minimum, we are told that Eisner in 1996 signed a long term employment contract with Disney which provided in addition to a $750,000 base salary, annual bonus participation and options for an additional 24,000,000 shares of Disney stock.
In fairness to Michael Eisner the shareholders of Disney have profited handsomely during his tenure at the Company. Nevertheless even as Eisner himself might say "Yes, but could we have made the deal without giving up so much money?"
Rating: 5
Summary: Prescient Book
Comment: Keys to the Kingdom predicted the current situation at Disney with remarkable accuracy. The insights about Michael Eisner turned out to be right on the mark.
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Title: Work In Progress by Michael D. Eisner, Tony Schwartz ISBN: 0375500715 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 24 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney's Success by Thomas K. Connellan ISBN: 1885167237 Publisher: Bard Press (TX) Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Storming the Magic Kingdom by John Taylor ISBN: 0394546407 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 April, 1987 List Price(USD): $52.00 |
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Title: Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney by Joe Flower ISBN: 0471524654 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Disney Way by Bill Capodaglia, Lynn Jackson ISBN: 0070120641 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 31 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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