The Industrial Giant Reborn

"What kind of project?" Chen Zhiwen asked after taking a sip of his cappuccino.

"This is naturally what I do best: movies." Michael Eisner said confidently.

"Well, I know Michael, when you were at Paramount, you were very capable in movies, but Disney didn't have any experience in making real movies. What they are good at is animated movies, and from the perspective of animation IP, animation Movies are also necessary, but you have no experience in this field? Are you sure?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

Although in the original history, Disney is almost out of business, but 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 number of IP and fixed assets. Not everyone can become The election of its CEO, Michael Eisner, is itself a manifestation of its strong ability.

Before joining Disney, Michael Eisner was the vice president of Paramount, another American entertainment giant, and he was in charge of Paramount's core business: movies.

During his 7-year tenure, Paramount has successively released "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease", "Flash Dance", "Full of Power", "Forty-eight Hours", "Crazy Night", "Indiana". "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Mother and Daughter" and other blockbuster movies have box office of more than 100 million U.S. dollars. Among them, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has a box office of 214 million U.S. dollars in the United States. At the same time, he is very good at controlling shooting costs. Paramount made huge profits, which also allowed Paramount to jump directly from the eighth place in Hollywood to the top three.

Of course, these cannot be said to be the credit of Michael alone, but it is only half of it. However, no one is perfect. Like Jobs, people who are too successful are sometimes too paranoid because they disdain to spend too much time. To explain the reasons for his actions to others, and therefore, within Paramount, Michael's interpersonal relationship is very bad, and the director and other colleagues are not willing to work with him, and because of his great achievements, he threatens the incumbent Martin Davis, the chairman of the company, is also a professional manager. When he has such a capable person under him, he is naturally uneasy.

As a result, Michael's life at Paramount became more and more difficult, and the workplace began to become unsatisfactory.

But Chen Zhiwen didn't care about these things. No matter how bad Michael's temper was, he didn't treat his leaders badly at Paramount, let alone being his boss. , already lying in the halo of the past, unable to extricate themselves, raising too many idlers, but because I signed an agreement with the government that no large-scale layoffs will be made within 2 years, it is better to let Michael handle this matter, as long as it is strict enough, those If he can't bear it, he will leave. As a boss, he doesn't need to do such a thing. The most important thing is to have a good reputation.

"If I say that I have absolute certainty, I don't think you will believe it." Michael said with a smile: "But I will spend a little time studying anime movies."

"Okay, I agree with this point. In fact, I have my own method, but I need to know whether you are willing to officially join Disney, Michael. This will be your basic salary, and at the same time, you will have a certain level of bonus every year." After finishing speaking , Chen Zhiwen handed over an envelope.

Michael smiled, took the envelope and opened it, and saw a white piece of paper with a 5 on it, followed by 6 0s, not counting decimals. Then he stuffed the blank paper in again, nodded and said, "This number is very sincere, and I am very happy to join Disney."

"Okay, then I very much welcome Mr. Eisner to join." 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, but any company of this kind of large group will also have other income, such as various dividends and bonuses, etc. Theoretically speaking, it is important to the company The higher the income, the higher the income. For example, it is normal for some top Hollywood directors to have an annual income of tens of millions of dollars. There is also a normal business phenomenon, that is, if they can save a company that is in trouble, they will naturally need to give more. For example, Lee Iacocca, who saved Chrysler, got hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends after Chrysler came back to life, which is what this kind of people deserve.

Today's Disney is not comparable to Chrysler, which almost declared bankruptcy, and it has its own boss, and will also have its own vision and investment help, but today's Disney still needs a strong person to operate at the management level , the most suitable person is Michael Eisner.

Furthermore, relying on several films that have made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office and blockbuster serial films such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Eisner can get similar figures from any Hollywood company he goes to. What I did was to at least ensure that I could give a little more money to keep him.

"But apart from myself, I also need to bring some people from Paramount to Disney, which worked well with me." Michael Eisner said again.

"That's no problem. The more these people, the better. I can promise that their salaries will be 30% higher than before, as long as they have the ability." Chen Zhiwen said indifferently. Generally, if a large company recruits a CEO or top management, the other party will also Bringing a team here may mean that the other party wants to have more people of their own when they do 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 wished for it. The current Disney interior is basically a piece of trash. The big company has been sick for too long and is hopeless. Only a few people may have certain abilities.

"In that case, Eric, can you tell me about your plans for Disney in the future?" Michael Eisner asked again. He will be the CEO of Disney in the future. If it is a company with more and more scattered shareholders, Of course, he, the CEO, has the final say, but if the other party has a major shareholder, or a shareholder family, or a sole proprietorship, then it is not the case. From a legal point of view, the other party has absolute power, and any CEO is capable. Don't pass this level.

But this also has an advantage, that is, big investment and big plans, only one person needs to be persuaded, and other listed companies need to persuade too much, a dozen directors, 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 try to persuade the other party, if it is reasonable, then use the boss' plan as the basis to formulate a detailed development plan and so on.

"What is Disney's biggest problem right now?" Chen Zhiwen didn't answer, but asked rhetorically.

"The biggest problem on the surface is that there is no money, and there is a problem with the capital chain, which leads to the lack of support for all businesses, and eventually gets 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 big company’s disease is too serious. After the founder’s death more than ten years ago, the new generation of management will only keep the old, dare not innovate, and desperately want to cut costs to maintain the benefits of the year. In the process, they will hinder the company's innovation and metabolism, because innovation costs money, and over time, the company will become rigid, weak and dead.

In the next few years, when they found that this was not going to work, they blindly expanded, intending to copy the achievements of other Hollywood companies in different fields of film, and ended up losing their fortunes, but gave up the development of various animation IPs that they should be best at. .

It is also a pity that Japan's Disneyland, when they could invest together at the beginning, only chose the authorization model in order to save costs, and share it from their tickets and rental income. As a result, Japan's Disneyland is now popular. Look, if you chose a joint venture at the beginning, you can earn at least 100 million more dollars a year now. "

"That's right. Since the Japanese Disney business is already like this, let's do it like this. It's okay for An Xin to charge a licensing fee of 20 to 30 million U.S. dollars a year." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "What I'm concerned about , is to solve Disney’s current big company disease.”

The Disney company is really a shame. It invested 700 million US dollars in Disneyland in Orlando. It lost money and 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. He refused to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in funds, and only gave an authorization. As a result, Disney in Japan exploded.

Later, in the original history, Disney was built in Europe in the 1990s. They learned the lessons of Japan and participated in the investment themselves. As a result, European Disney suffered a loss. Fortunately, Disney at that time was already well-capitalized under the leadership of Eisner. Otherwise, it might That's it.

"The disease of a big company can be solved by taking some measures, but the problem is that when you bought it, you promised that the Ministry of Commerce would not lay off large-scale employees, so it is difficult to do so." Michael said with some concern.

"The Ministry of Commerce allows me to lay off 2% of my employees. This is the limit I can get. Although the number of people to be laid off is not limited to this number, it can still be used as a deterrent." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. In the interviews with the public, he didn't say very much in detail, so most of them didn't know about it.

"2%? This can be used, as long as there are three bullets, it is not difficult to control 30 people." Michael nodded and said.

"Okay, I can't control too much about management. You do it, and I support you, but within three months to half a year, I want to see changes." Chen Zhiwen said again. Although he didn't understand management, he He can still know whether a specific company has changed. 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 has this confidence. After all, he has been a vice president of a major Hollywood company for many years, and he has very rich 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 that kind of super masterpiece, the investment is usually a few million dollars, and it can be tens of millions of dollars at a higher level. Cartoon movies cost even less.

"When you officially join the job, you come to Hong Kong to find me." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile. He hasn't joined the job yet, so how could he tell you about those movies with a box office of hundreds of millions but the cost is ridiculously low?

Although the movie is a bit cliché, it is the best strategy at present.