"What kind of project?" Chen Zhiwen took a sip of cappuccino and asked.
"This is naturally what I do best: movies." Michael Eisner said confidently.
"Well, I know Michael you were very capable in movies when you were at Paramount, but Disney has no experience in making real movies. What they are good at is animated movies, and from the perspective of animation IP, animation Movies are also a must, but you have no experience in this area? Are you sure?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.
Although in its original history, Disney is on the verge of failure, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. No matter what, it is an entertainment giant with a market value of more than one billion US dollars and a large amount of IP and fixed assets. Not everyone can become it. The election of its CEO, Michael Eisner, is itself a manifestation of his strong capabilities.
Before joining Disney, Michael Eisner was the vice president of Paramount, another American entertainment giant, and was in charge of Paramount's core business: movies.
During his 7-year tenure, Paramount successively launched "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease", "Flashdance", "All Over", "48 Hours", "The Next Generation", "Raiders" "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Mother and Daughter" and other hit movies, several of which have box office exceeding US$100 million. Among them, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has a box office of US$214 million in the United States. At the same time, he is also very good at controlling shooting costs, and has created Paramount made huge profits, which also allowed Paramount to jump directly from eighth place in Hollywood to the top three.
Of course, these cannot be said to be the work of Michael alone, but they are only half of it. However, no one is perfect. Like Steve Jobs, people who are too successful are sometimes too paranoid because they don’t bother to spend too much time. He had to explain to others the reasons for his actions. As a result, Michael's interpersonal relationships within Paramount were very poor. Directors and other colleagues were reluctant to work with him, and because of his great achievements, he threatened the current incumbent Martin Davis, the chairman of the board of directors, is also a professional manager. It is natural to feel uneasy when he has such a capable person under his command.
As a result, Michael's life at Paramount became increasingly difficult, and his career began to become unsatisfactory.
But Chen Zhiwen doesn't care about this. No matter how bad Michael's temper is, he doesn't treat his leadership badly at Paramount, let alone his boss. As for the people under him being uncomfortable, there is nothing he can do about it. Today's Disney , has been unable to extricate himself from the halo of the past, and has raised too many idle people. But because he signed an agreement with the government not to lay off large-scale layoffs within 2 years, it is better to let Michael handle this matter. As long as it is strict enough, those If you can't stand it anymore, you will leave. As a boss, he doesn't need to do such a thing. Leaving a good reputation is the most important thing.
"If I said I was absolutely sure, I don't think you would believe it." Michael said with a smile, "But I will spend some time studying anime movies."
"Okay, I agree with this. In fact, I also have my own method, but I need to know first, Michael, if you are willing to officially join the Disney Company. This will be your basic salary, and you will receive a certain level of bonus every year." , Chen Zhiwen handed over an envelope.
Michael smiled, took the envelope, opened it, and saw a 5 on a piece of white paper, followed by 6 0s, not counting decimals. Then he stuffed the white paper in again, nodded and said: "This number is very sincere. I am happy to join Disney."
"Okay, then I very much welcome Mr. Eisner to join us." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The annual salary of 5 million US dollars is already considered high among the salaries of Hollywood CEOs in the United States. However, companies with such large groups will also have other income, such as various dividends and bonuses. In theory, it is important to the company. The higher the income, the higher the income. For example, it is normal for some of the top directors in Hollywood to earn tens of millions of dollars per year. There is also a normal business phenomenon, that is, if you can save a company in difficulty, you will naturally need to give more. For example, Lee Iacocca, who saved Chrysler, received hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends after Chrysler came back from the dead. This is what these people deserve.
Today's Disney is not comparable to Chrysler, which once almost declared bankruptcy. Moreover, it still has its own boss, and will also have some of its own foresight and investment help. However, today's Disney still needs a strong person to run it at the management level. , the most suitable person for this person is naturally Michael Eisner.
Furthermore, with several movies that have grossed over 100 million US dollars in box office and blockbuster movies such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Eisner can get similar figures from any Hollywood company he goes to, and what he needs What he did was to at least ensure that he could be given a slightly larger amount to keep him.
"But in addition to myself, I also need to bring some people from Paramount to Disney, who I have worked well with." Michael Eisner said again.
"That's no problem. The more these people, the better. I can promise that their salary will be 30% higher than before, as long as they have the ability." Chen Zhiwen said nonchalantly. Generally, when large companies recruit a CEO or the highest level, the other party will do the same. Bringing a team here may be because the other party wants to have more of their own people when doing things by themselves in the future. After all, they have cooperated for a long time and have a tacit understanding.
In this regard, Chen Zhiwen also wishes for it. Nowadays, Disney is basically full of waste. The disease of large companies has been suffering for too long and there is no way to save it. Only a few people may have certain abilities.
"In that case, Eric, can you tell me some of your plans for Disney in the future?" Michael Eisner asked again. He will be the future CEO of Disney. If it is a company with many and scattered shareholders, Naturally, he, the CEO, has the final say, but if the other party has a major shareholder, a shareholder family, or a sole proprietorship, then that is not the case. Legally speaking, the other party has absolute rights, so no matter how capable the CEO is, he will not be able to circumvent the situation. Don't pass this level.
But there is also an advantage to this, that is, for a big investment plan, you only need to convince one person. Other listed companies have too much to convince. There are more than a dozen directors and a large number of shareholders. I don’t know how much time will be wasted here, so , he needs to know the boss's future plan. If it is unreasonable, then he must try his best to convince the other party. If it is reasonable, then he will use the boss's plan as the basis to formulate a detailed development plan, etc.
"What is Disney's biggest problem now?" Chen Zhiwen did not answer, but asked instead.
"On the surface, the biggest problem is that there is no money. There is a problem in the capital chain, resulting in all businesses not being supported, and eventually getting worse and worse." Michael knew that the boss was also testing himself, so he continued: "But the most fundamental problem , or the company's internal management is too bloated, and the disease of large companies is too serious. After the founder passed away more than ten years ago, the new generation of management will only be conservative, dare not innovate, and desperately want to cut costs to maintain the benefits of the year. In this process , they will hinder the company's innovation and metabolism, because innovation costs money, and over time, the company will become rigid, weak, and die.
In the following years, when they found that this was not going to work, they expanded blindly, intending to copy the achievements of other Hollywood companies in different fields of movies. As a result, they lost everything and gave up the development of various animation IPs that they should have been best at. .
Another pity is that Japan's Disneyland, when they could invest together, only chose the licensing model in order to save costs and share their ticket and rental income. As a result, Japan's Disneyland is now booming. Look, if we had chosen a joint venture, we would have made at least an extra US$100 million a year now. "
"That's right. Since the situation with Disney in Japan is already like this, let's leave it as it is. An Xin can accept a licensing fee of 20 to 30 million U.S. dollars a year." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "What I'm concerned about is , is to solve Disney’s current big company disease.”
The Disney Company is really guilty. It invested US$700 million in Disneyland in Orlando and lost money, which seriously affected the company's accounts. Therefore, when it cooperated with Japan to develop the first overseas Disneyland, the management of the Disney family shrank. However, they refused to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and only gave a license. As a result, Disney Japan exploded.
Later, in the original history, when Disney was built in Europe in the 1990s, they learned from the lessons of Japan and personally participated in the investment. As a result, European Disney suffered losses. Fortunately, Disney at that time had strong capital under the leadership of Eisner. Otherwise, it might have been That's it.
"The disease of large companies can be solved by taking some measures, but the problem is that when you made the acquisition, you promised the Ministry of Commerce that there would be no large-scale layoffs, which makes it difficult to start." Michael said with some worry.
"The Ministry of Commerce allows me to lay off 2% of my staff. This is the limit I can get. Although the number of people to be laid off is more than this, it can still be used as a deterrent." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, the Ministry of Commerce said with a smile He didn’t go into great detail when interviewing the public, so most of them didn’t know about it.
"2%? This can be used. As long as you have three bullets, it is not difficult to control 30 people." Michael nodded and said.
"Okay, I can't control too much about management matters. You do it and I support you. But within three months to half a year, I want to see changes." Chen Zhiwen added that although he didn't understand management, he He can still know whether any specific changes have occurred in a company. If it takes a little longer, the financial report is the best proof.
"Okay, three months is enough." Michael Eisner nodded and said. He still had this confidence. After all, he had served as a vice president in a major Hollywood company for many years and had a lot of experience in this area.
"This is the best." Chen Zhiwen said: "But there is one more thing. I need Disney's film team to make a cartoon movie according to the rough script I provided."
"Making a movie? That's not a problem, what kind of plot?" Michael asked. It's just a movie. As long as it's not a super masterpiece, it usually only requires an investment of several million US dollars, or even more than 10 million US dollars. Cartoon movies cost even less.
"When you officially join the job, you come to me in Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. How could I tell you about movies that have a box office of over 100 million but have ridiculously low costs before I join the job?
Although the movie is a bit cliche, it is the best strategy currently.
(End of chapter)
