Disney Institute adds even more classes

This time they are at Disneyland!

Disney’s Approach to Leadership Excellence
8/18 & 9/15
Learn proven leadership philosophies used to exhibit the values and behaviors that generate results — period.
Learn more

Disney’s Approach to Quality Service
8/19 & 9/16
Discover how attention to detail creates a consistent, world-class service environment for both employees and consumers.
Learn more

Here are the details on the costs and what’s included:

Pricing and What’s Included

1 Day Programs through September 2009:

Standard pricing - $499 per person

Early Bird (Booking 90 days in advance) - $399 per person

Non-profit and military/government - $399 per person

Alumni - $399 per person

Groups of 5 or more from one Organization in the same program date - $399 per person

Register for 2 consecutive 1 day programs for $799 per person for both days. 

The program fee for all 1 day programs includes the following:
· One one-day Park Hopper® Pass**
· 1 Day of Training starting at 8am and ending at 4:30pm
· Comprehensive reference materials of program content
· Professional Disney Institute Facilitators
· Special Field Experiences "On-Stage" and Behind-the-Scenes
· Meetings with front-line leaders and Cast Members
· A participant list for future networking
· Buffet lunch
· Accommodations are available for additional $230 per night plus tax and resort fees
· A twilight ticket (1 park, after 4pm or 4 prior to park closing) is available for an additional $38 (inclusive of tax).

The Cost Cutting Rolls On

The networks side of Disney Company today announced continued restructuring at ABC in a move that’s widely being seen as a continuation of cost control.  Both Bloomberg and other websites reported that ABC has decided to combine its programming and studios divisions into one unit.

Previously the two had been separate, which allowed the studios side to produce programming that was available to any potential market player (i.e. other channels, like NBC or cable operators).  The articles don’t say whether that will still be possible. Given however that there are less than 40 people reported to be affected, I suspect that somebody thinks producing more of their own shows will allow them more flexibility.  Things like lowering the production costs and/or being able to amortize those costs over a longer time frame since ABC will own all of the rights to the programming in question. 

If they buy their programming from another production house, then ABC only ends up with a distribution deal, and probably only for limited outlets.  The creator/producer could still retain the rights to distribute under other forms of media like iTunes, etc. denying ABC that ‘tail’ of revenue over time.

It’s a different cost cutting measure than the 400 people they laid off back in January.  My read is that it means they are going after structural costs, which are often harder to get too and take time to pay back.  Layoffs on the other hand tend to be a one time drop in costs you get from letting people go.  

We’ll get our next real insight as we approach the end of June when we near the end of Disney’s 3rd quarter.  If anything is going to happen short term to try and make numbers, it’ll come in the next 6 days or so.  Otherwise, we won’t find out much until the earnings call scheduled for the end of July.

Disney Institute launches new classes

Many of you Disney dweebs (myself included) may remember the brief spot that was the Disney Institute before it became today’s DVC site of Saratoga Springs.  You might also recall that Disney Institute’s concept was to offer classes to the public taught from people across the Disney family on a variety of things like cooking, art, animation and many other things that Disney has specialties in.

Of course you also might recall that it was supposedly given 3-5 years to build a business base and axed in less than a year.  Oh, and it gave us those recently rehabbed Tree House Villas as well.

What some of you may not know is that the Disney Institute never really died.  It just went back in general to it’s roots in offering executive training to companies and individuals interested in learning better operational and customer relations capabilities in the Disney way. 

I know this existed first hand from the summers that bracketed my freshmen year in college were I worked for a water park back in my home state of Missouri (Big Surf Water Park if you must know! :).  I’m a fair haired light skinned boy, so lifeguarding was out for me.  Instead I worked in the main office doing bookwork, cash management, etc. (funny stuff for a future engineer, but hey, it was work). 

It did give me access to almost all of the folks who were running the day to day operations however.  At the time they were using a program packaged and sold by, you guessed it, Disney.  I didn’t participate directly since it was aimed at mangers, but it was basically on how to improve operations and guest experiences.  That was almost 20 years ago now…  sheesh how time flies.  Of course, I don’t think it was called Disney Institute back then, but I digress. 

Anyhow, since Mr. Eisner and crew closed down the Disney Institute, it’s gone back to its roots.  Today it offers classes on the essence of Disney operations in a variety of topic areas:

• Leadership Excellence
• People Management
• Quality Service
• Team Experiences
• Behind the Scenes Tours

Today I just got an e-mail from Disney saying they’ve added two new classes:

You can check out the current schedule and pricing at http://www.register123.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKwebID=0x1408083eb&varPage=info.

BTW, those Behind the Scenes Tours are a mix of ones you see from Disney offered through the parks and some others that are unique to the Institute.  Most of them are of the 3 hour variety and around $60 - $100 per person in groups of 20.  You should check them out if your there with a group … I’ve done a couple through the Disney side and they are usually quite fun and informational.

Disney continues rollout of Disney XD and tech

Disney is continuing its rollout of overseas channels based on Disney Channel and other local fare.

The latest, according to C21 Media, is the rollout of Disney XD in the UK soon followed by Japan later this summer.  It will replace Jetix, the tween boy channel and property that Disney finished purchasing late in 2008/earlier this year. The CEO of Jetix also left the company shortly thereafter.

So it looks like very soon that the brand formerly known as Jetix will just about disappear in favor of Disney XD.

In some other interesting tech news today, Disney announced that they are rolling out a set of Disney branded netbooks called ‘Netpals’ (or small laptops if you prefer the Microsoft term).  Apparently Disney will offer the them initially through Toys’R’Us and online from Amazon for about $350. 

The laptop is based on the current Asustek model line, which means it will probably be some variant of the popular Eee PC.  The Eee PC has already been available from places like Target and other retailers in various Windows and non-Windows forms in the retail channel. This gives places like Toys a reason to carry it it their heavy tech section as well.

No specs for the machine were given, but given comparable Eee PCs at the price my guess would be something following the Eee 900HA:

• 1.6 Ghz Atom
• 1 GB RAM
• Windows XP Home
• 8.9” screen (at 1024x768 max resolution)
• 160GB HD
• Wireless G
• a couple of USB ports
• a .3 megapixel camera

Disney Backstories from the Outside

Many of us Imagineering geeks have always thought of Disney ‘owning’ all the back story work to their popular franchises and theme parts.  There are untold stories across Imagineering lore and legend about the cooked up stories that guide the design processes and thoughts behind just about everything that shows up in a Disney theme park.

I had always thought that somehow that was true for the entire company (if there were backstories to be had in other parts of the company), but no more.  Business Week recently ran an article about Jeff Gomez, the founder and head of Starlight Runner Entertainment.

It turns out that Mr. Gomez and crew have been busy building backstories for lots of products on the market:  Hot Wheels, Coca-Cola and Transformers to name a few.  It’s interesting to note that this ties to Disney in that they apparently built much of the backstory for Jack Sparrow.   That story led to the book series produced and released by Disney and that supposedly helped market the later films.  The article also notes that Gomez and crew are hard at work on the backstory for the upcoming Tron 2 movie as well.

Seems that the guys in Disney Studios are taking a page right out of the Imagineering play book – only sourcing it from the outside.

The Lousy Economy

There are several things in the Parks & Resorts business for Disney these days that are presenting significant headwinds to financial improvement as the summer rolls on.

Here are the several items that I’ve noted in recent weeks that don’t bode well for an uptick anytime soon:

1. On Friday, the parent company of Six Flags filed for bankruptcy in what had bee rumored to be in the works for quite some time.  It’s true that the parks continue to operate and seem to be doing well in terms of attendance.  However, it also has to be true that they wildly over anticipated demand and guest expenditures to get into that kind of debt in the first place. 
   
   Well, I guess there is the off possibility that the folks who made the loans should be taken out and beaten…  Either way, it shows that the theme park business is hanging (not cratering) but probably not growing much either.
   
2. As discussed on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money on CNBC (and other places and here) Home Depot last week announced upward adjusted earnings guidance for their current fiscal year (it’s still negative however).  At first blush that’s great news, but Jim pointed out (and so did Citigroup analyst Deborah Weinswig in the second link above) that almost all of that ‘growth’ is coming from reduced expenses and improved operations, NOT from increased spending on consumers parts. 
   
   Sounds familiar to a place like the Happiest Place on Earth no?  Still making money, but doing so in a large part due to reduced spending.
   
3. Gas prices are once again on the march up.  For Florida in particular that’s ALWAYS bad news, and I’m sure someplace deep in Disney’s finance department they have a model that helps guide them on what higher gas prices do to park attendance and spending. 
   
   Oil closed at it’s highest point since early last October at 72.25 on Friday, and it’s been straight up since April.  Higher oil ultimately of course means higher gas prices (which depending on which economist you believe is either a tax or inflationary, but either way makes you and I poorer for the pump), which leads to higher prices for everything you and I buy which ultimately leads to less discretionary income (i.e. money for vacations to Disney World). 

So in my opinion all of that (and probably other data too, like unemployment, etc.) is leading up to a rough 3rd and 4th quarter for the theme park business. 

UP! and Away?

My family took an open opportunity last night to take in the Mouse/Lamps latest movie creation: UP!.  Most of you already know the story about the movie or have seen it, so I don’t get into any plot discussions. 

My take on the movie is frankly a torn one.  The first 40-45 minutes were fantastic.  That part, in general, was movie making at it’s best and Pixar at truly the top of it’s game.  The story moved nicely, it was very poetic and poignant in places, and the general character development was pretty decent.  This part was only marred slightly, in my opinion, by the semi-unusual choice for how Pete Doctor and crew chose to display the executives constructing the building around the home of Carl Fredricksen.  They look like aliens...which I though was a strange choice.

The second half of the film on the other hand left me wanting for closure, for a lack of a better term.  Michael Barrier and others have been even less kind.  I don’t think I’d call it a disaster, but it left me with more questions than answers and generally just ended in a jumbled mess of quickly ended storylines.  The bad guy, dead; the dad, a jerk; the bird, a girl with her family to raise; the dog, a home; the curmudgeon, a ‘grand dad’.  My 2 year old thought the first half was ‘cool’, she thought the second half, with vicious dogs and guns wasn’t so much fun, so she and I left the theatre for about 15 minutes or so and came back in for the last 5-10 minutes.

I suspect that the story issues are mostly because of the pressures being on a schedule puts one under.  Toy Story was really good only because the guys making it realized at some point exactly how bad it was and then basically decided to re-do the entire movie.  I’m not trying to imply that UP! deserved that same treatment, but maybe 5 months more or so would have left them some room to work on the plot a little more.  Or even 5-10 minutes more movie.

Disney may get folks to go and watch it twice in 3D and in 2D, but unfortunately beyond that I don’t feel myself being drawn to run out and see it again.  I’m not hearing much different on the internet.

UP! will do pretty well, but I honestly think it’ll make about what Wall-E did when it’s all done.  According to Box Office Mojo, Wall-E made about $534 million world wide with it’s predecessor Ratatouille coming in at about $621 million (which is about the general range of all the Pixar movies when you look at it I guess). 

I’d peg this one somewhere in between when the dust finally settles, which makes an estimated $180 million film a decent win at about 3x production costs, but it won’t be a run-a-way hit.  That’s still at least 1 multiple better than the last Disney animated movie Bolt! (which for my money was actually pretty decent).

Disney Stock takes a jump

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here lately. That’s for a couple of reasons, mostly boring, but I’ll share anyhow.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, first and foremost, Disney is pretty much on auto-pilot for the summer. My guess is that they aren’t going to make any drastic changes, though they did extend the booking window for free food recently until the 21st of June.

Likewise for season pass members and other groups of which I don’t have a lot of insight, they have already essentially ‘pre-announced’ some deals for the typically slower fall months by offering as much as 40% off for the following specific date ranges:

40% off a Disney stay!

Select Walt Disney World Resort hotels available for stays most nights.

8/23–9/4/09 9/6–11/21/09 11/29–12/5/09 12/13–12/23/09

Beyond that, Florida continues to be wacky (we made an impromptu trip over Memorial Day weekend and the crowds were surprisingly light), with the ongoing maintenance upgrades in progress. My former Disney staffer friend for instance still can’t see HOW they’d have Space Mountain down for that long and NOT be doing more than just working over the queue and loading areas.

Remember too that we are in Disney’s fiscal third quarter, so any money you see being spent was already allocated and approved months ago. It’s also probably survived multiple budget drills, revisions, and more drills. The real question is what are they in the planning stages of for next year?

California continues to stay busy from the blogs we all read, and DCA is still under the knife (and ugly). Some folks have pointed out recent cut backs from what was proposed in the Blue Sky Cellar and what’s showing up in the park (ala King Triton’s Carousel and the loading area for the Mickey Wheel). So obviously despite John Lasseter’s involvement in WDI, even John can’t insist on money being spent that apparently doesn’t exist . . . even for good show. Or WDI’s capability to predict costs hasn’t been too good. Of course there is always the possibility that money is being moved around to spend more on Little Mermaid or such too. We may never know.

Speaking of WDI, I love them, and I’d love to work for them someday and so it pains me to be critical of them in any fashion. But come on guys, we have a Yeti that’s broken in Florida because someone couldn’t get the bracing right, we have several COOL Living Character Initiative’s that are so cool they break all the time (Lucky, Muppet Mobile, etc.) and now reports are coming out of California that the new dragon being done for the west coast version of Fantasmic! has lost its head in dress rehearsals – literally!

But hey, if you own Disney stock you should be happy – it closed the day at $25.33, it’s highest peak since May 6th, and second highest since last November.

Oh, and the other reasons I’ve been slow this past month? Summer class and a 2 year old’s b-day and end of the year! It’s good to be Dad.

Props to Microsoft’s BING.com

Cool!  Doing a search on All Things Disney at the new bing.com puts the All Things Disney blog right behind Mickey!

Woot!

The things that keep a media mogul up late at night

From a popular Windows Home Server website:

‘PS. Note to Sony – I have a PS3 too in the den, but you didn’t make the bar to sneak into the lounge. Who needs Blu-ray anyway?’ – Terry Walsh of the website ‘We Got Served’

The link and quote above are from a Windows Home Server enthusiast website.  Terry is talking about the death of the Windows Media Extender, those flat pizza boxes that are suppose to be to the Windows world what the probably soon to be dead Apple TV has been trying to be for the fruit company in Cupertino.  Fairly unsuccessfully I might add, at least on a scale that approaches the Wii, XBOX 360, or even the ridiculously priced PS3 for that matter.

Terry might as well be talking, however, about the death of just about every current heavily monetized form of media distribution that companies like Disney have figured out (VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.); and now it’s moving away from them faster than it came into existence. 

If the folks at the Yankee Group are even CLOSE to right with their prediction of 50 million connected HDTVs and 11 million digital media adapters in homes in the next 3 1/2 years, then it makes the moves that Disney has recently under taken with Hulu, Netflix and others as simply just the beginning of the end for the traditional home media market.  In fairness, they also predicted their would be 30 million connected Blu-Ray players as well.

So Bob Iger and crew are certainly making moves to be on as many of those ‘screens’ as they can be.  And to make money on all of them no doubt.  The day of the HUGE profits on home video purchases is quickly coming to an end.  That’s going to smart for the bottom line as DVD sales continue to fall until they find a new base that is somewhat sustainable for awhile until they die all together. 

Sounds a lot like trying to find the demand for new cars lately no?