Disney witnessed its worse years in business in the following 18 years after Walt Disney’s demise. The company was so depended on Walt Disney for creativity and no one could fill this void. By late 1970s and early 1980s, the film division declines due to the dearth of Creativity. The financial performance of the company deteriorated from 1980 to 1983 and it was surviving solely due to its theme parks, which had remained popular and profitable. Moreover, Disney incurred heavy costs as it was investing in EPCOT and the new Disney Channel. It ended up with the resignation of Roy E. Disney in 1984 when the corporate earnings began to stop. It was at this juncture of extreme crisis - when Disney was even facing hostile takeovers - that Eisner takes the charge of the company. Disney’s fortunes started to turn around ever since Eisner took the helm of the company. His goal was to maximize the shareholder wealth through an annual revenue growth target and return on stockholder equity of more than 20%. He did not change the existing corporate values of creativity, quality, entrepreneurship and teamwork and started rebuilding the company along the same lines. Managing creativity was the biggest challenge in front of him. He managed this by creating tension between the creative and financial divisions. This meant that any new …show more content…
The death of Disney President Wells and the subsequent drama that unfolded ending up in the quitting of Katzenberg and several other key executives left its bruises on the company. The acquisition of ABC network was challenging for Disney. Even though it proved to be profitable for the company in the later years, the financial performance deteriorated in the early years after acquisition. Moreover, there was a growing discontent in the company about Eisner and his way of management. Some even doubted the suitability of Eisner’s management style since Disney had grown very big over the