Michael Eisner's tenure as chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company saw remarkable growth. When he started in 1984, the company had revenues of $1.65 billion, net income of $98 million, 29,000 employees, and a market valuation of $2.0 billion. By 1997, these figures had soared to revenues of $22.0 billion, net income of $2.0 billion, 110,000 employees, and a market valuation of $75.0 billion. Eisner credits the success to the company's ability to constantly invent new products and the team's creativity. He emphasizes the importance of storytelling in engaging and informing audiences, which remains at the heart of Disney's operations.
Michael Eisner, born in 1942, had a privileged upbringing in New York and attended private schools before enrolling at Denison University in Ohio. Initially a premed student, he switched to English, discovering a passion for entertainment during summer jobs as a page at NBC. Post-graduation, he worked as an FCC logging clerk at NBC, earning $65 weekly, and supplemented his income with weekend traffic reporting for WNBC Radio. Eisner's career trajectory changed when he joined CBS, liaising between programming and sales for children's shows, a role that doubled his salary to $140 weekly. Despite facing rejection for a prime-time show concept, he persevered and in 1966, secured a position at ABC. There, he read scripts and developed show ideas, quickly rising through the ranks without engaging in corporate politics. By 1968, Eisner was promoted to director of East Coast prime-time development and soon after to director of feature films and program development, working under Barry Diller. His next role was as executive assistant for Marty Starger, head of programming at BAC. Recognizing the potential in daytime TV, Eisner became head of daytime and children's programming at ABC in 1971, a move that allowed him creative freedom and the chance to improve the network's last-place daytime ratings. Eisner's success led him to Los Angeles in 1973 as vice-president of prime-time development for ABC. When Diller moved to Paramount Pictures, Eisner joined him as president at the age of 34. However, following the death of Gulf & Western's CEO, Charlie Bluhdorn, in 1983, Eisner clashed with the new CEO, Marty Davis, and left Paramount to become chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 1984. At Disney, Eisner formed a close partnership with Frank Wells, president and COO, until Wells's untimely death in 1994. Under Eisner's leadership, Disney saw remarkable growth, with revenues soaring from $1.65 billion in 1984 to $22.0 billion in 1997, net income increasing to $2.0 billion, employee numbers rising to 110,000, and market valuation reaching $75.0 billion. Eisner's tenure at Disney involved nurturing and expanding the company's reach globally, with over 60-percent of revenues by 1997 coming from ventures started or acquired since 1985. His role was multifaceted, balancing creative vision with fiscal responsibility, advocating for change while protecting the brand, and managing the tensions between quality and commerce, tradition and innovation. Eisner's approach was simple yet ambitious: set goals, strive for perfection, learn from mistakes, and hope successes outweigh failures. At the core, Disney's mission was to tell stories that entertain, inform, and engage audiences worldwide.
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