Disney had a big problem of disconnect and authoritarianism with the office of Strategic Management for the company which had been created by Michael Eisner. I’m experiencing the disconnect here. If the office of Strategic Management or what we call New Initiatives interferes or gets involved in specific divisional functions, they operate not as a resource, but as an impediment to growth. Based on that, new initiatives should be directed primarily to researching new opportunities for the company which then get turned over to divisionals who are responsible for implementing in particular areas. The divisions have the responsibility to operate within certain divisions and they may not necessarily have the bandwidth for the time to research new opportunities in their particular segments. An office of new initiatives or strategic development can offer them external concepts which can be implemented. However, when you task the responsibility for those new initiatives to that external team, make it very difficult to get the matter accomplished successfully. In light of that, and in many cases, we end up with a faulty execution not because the idea is bad, but because the new initiatives team─the strategic development team─is not fully cognizant of the nuances of the particular divisional vertical they’re researching. Hence, best to restrict new initiatives in a way which focuses them on research and development of new ideas with an intention of turning it over to the divisional category for implementation.

Original writing date: October 16, 2006

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