Seeing Alan's expression, Eric realized that the results of the questionnaire survey were not optimistic. Although he was already mentally prepared for this, after returning to the hotel room, Eric opened the file bag that Alan gave him, and saw When it came to the statistics, he still frowned tightly.
The questionnaire was not written by Eric out of thin air, but based on some forward-looking data in Disney's original project plan. Putting the data aside temporarily, Eric turned on his Apple Powerbook laptop for office again, found the original data he extracted from the data that night, and compared it with the real data in the questionnaire.
Under normal circumstances, Eric is always easy to fall asleep after drinking, but after reading the data of the two comparisons, Eric is not sleepy at all, and even the original trace of drunkenness is gone.
After wandering in the study for a while, Eric picked up the phone and planned to call Katzenberg who had returned to Los Angeles, but after thinking about it, Eric put down the phone again, picked up the stack of documents and walked out of the room. Found a fax machine in the hotel manager's office and sent all the information to Katzenberg's office.
Although it is already late at night in Paris, it is only three o'clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles, and it is still working hours. With Katzenberg's workaholic personality, even if he is not in the office,... △, his assistant will send the materials in the shortest time To Katzenberg.
After transferring all the materials, Eric returned to his suite, sat at the desk and read the survey results again, and typed into the documents on the laptop for a while until one o'clock in the morning. Finally, I couldn't help but plan to go to rest.
He was just going to take a shower. The phone in the room rang.
Eric picked up the phone casually.
"Eric. It's me." Although the transoceanic phone call made Katzenberg's voice a bit distorted, Eric could still hear the seriousness in his tone: "I've seen what you sent, I Will arrive in Paris tomorrow."
…
Euro Disneyland opened for a week. Not only did the number of tourists on the first day exceed 100,000, but the total number of tourists in the first week also exceeded 500,000. Although the management of Euro Disneyland knew that this was because the park had just opened, they still Very optimistic estimates for the next four months of 1992. It is not a problem for the total number of visitors to the park to exceed 10 million.
At least, Patrick Schneider, the CEO of Euro Disneyland, thinks so, and the French investors involved in the construction of Euro Disneyland are also full of confidence in this. After spending the busy period at the beginning, Patrick Schneider has been attending various business or private parties recently, enjoying the overt or implicit compliments and flattery from investors who are looking forward to cooperating with Disneyland.
In the banquet hall of the Paris Hilton Hotel adjacent to the Champs-Elysees Avenue, there was another reception gathering with guests. Patrick Schneider was talking with a senior executive of the Vivendi Group, and his assistant hurried through the crowd to come to him. He made several gestures towards Patrick Schneider anxiously.
Patrick Schneider was a little displeased, but he noticed his assistant's expression. I still had to say to the middle-aged man in front of me: "Sorry, Mr. Melson. I may have to leave. I will carefully consider the cooperation between Euro Disneyland and Canal+ TV station."
The middle-aged man named Melson also noticed the movements of Patrick Schneider's assistant, and walked away tactfully.
Patrick Schneider slightly toasted the other party to leave, and then turned to the assistant: "Carl, what do you have to say at this time?"
"Mr. Schneider, Mr. Katzenberg is here," the young assistant named Carl said urgently.
Patrick Schneider raised his eyebrows: "Mr. Katzenberg, didn't he just return to Los Angeles three days ago?"
Carl shook his head, gestured in a panic, and continued: "Mr. Schneider, I don't know the specifics, but I just received a call from Mr. Katzenberg himself. Mr. Katzenberg is already in It’s over there at the Disneyland headquarters, and he also told you to go back within an hour and a half, otherwise... otherwise, you don’t have to go back.”
Patrick Schneider opened his mouth in surprise, and stared suspiciously at the assistant's eyes, as if he wanted to make sure that the other party was joking with him again, but a few seconds later, Patrick Schneider rushed out of the banquet hall, even forgetting Put down the goblet in your hand.
…
Because of the agreement signed with the French side at the beginning, Euro Disneyland was fully operated by Disney Corporation. Therefore, almost all the executives above the manager level in charge of various departments in Euro Disney are Americans, and the French partner can only get some symbolically. Inconsequential seats.
Patrick Schneider rushed into the conference room almost at the time given by Katzenberg. Seeing him come in, everyone in the conference room full of people looked at him.
Katzenberg was sitting side by side with Eric at the large conference table, whispering something, when Patrick Schneider came in, Katzenberg just glanced at him, then pointed to an empty seat below him , and then got together with Eric to continue talking.
Although it was just a glimpse, Patrick Schneider still saw the obvious eye bags behind Katzenberg's glasses.
Except for the whispering of the two big bosses, the other executives in the conference room were all sitting in their seats slightly tense. Patrick, who felt this atmosphere, felt even more uneasy and sat down in his seat. Afterwards, he didn't even dare to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He just cast a questioning look at the operation director sitting opposite him, but all he got was a dazed look.
"Okay, everyone is here, let's start," Katzenberg discussed with Eric in a low voice, and then clapped his hands lightly. The administrative secretary nearby distributed the materials that had been prepared long ago.
Eric just sat quietly aside, playing with a pencil in his hand, quietly paying attention to everything around him. Now that he has figured out the problem. It is the best choice to hand it over to Katzenberg, who is better at company management. Eric has always been very clear about his own strength. Although he has an innate advantage in making movies. But running a huge film company is already beyond his ability, and he doesn't have enough energy to do it. It is the best choice to leave professional matters to professional people. It also prevents him from feeling resentful because his subordinates are more capable than him.
With the sound of pages turning, the atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat relaxed. There were also whispers from the crowd. But this low-pitched conversation only lasted less than two minutes. As everyone flipped through the data in their hands, the meeting room became quiet again.
Katzenberg scanned the dozen or so executives in the room, and waited patiently for more than ten minutes until he was sure that everyone had finished reading, before he said, "Okay, now everyone has finished reading what they are holding. .With your professionalism, I think you must be able to realize the seriousness of the matter. If not, you can leave this room now. The company will pay you two years' salary in full as compensation for resignation."
No one spoke, and of course no one would choose to leave.
As in addition to the two bosses. The person with the highest position in the conference room, Patrick Schneider, even felt that a catastrophe was imminent. He secretly glanced at Eric who had not spoken, and hurriedly took it back before the other party noticed him. Patrick Schneider knew that the survey results in his hands were made entirely under the command of Eric. Euro Disneyland is part of Disney, and of course it is also an industry under Firefly. Of course, Patrick Schneider did not believe that Eric would use these data fake.
but…
Glancing down at the data in front of him again, Patrick Schneider tried again and felt a faint sense of exhaustion. The most important question in the questionnaire is, of course, tourists' satisfaction with Disneyland. This question is divided into five levels according to the usual practice, which are very satisfied, satisfied, average, dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. Among the survey questionnaires of about 10,000 people, only a mere 900 people chose to be very satisfied, while the number of tourists who chose to be very dissatisfied was as high as more than 3,400. least. If converted with a full score of 10, the data result will be far lower than the passing score of 6 points.
The guests who were able to come to play in the first few days of the opening must be the group of guests who have the most favorable impression and the highest expectations for Disneyland. Most of them are probably fans of Disney movies. The impression of these tourists is still so bad. Wonder how subsequent visitors will feel about Euro Disneyland.
"23% of the tourists chose to play and were satisfied with the results, 76% of the tourists chose not to have a second visit, and 90% of the tourists said that the charges of the park were very unreasonable. In the free feedback of the tourists, there were also a large number of problems such as language communication, Commodity prices and even parking spaces are very detailed but cannot be ignored. Without this questionnaire, perhaps we will not find such serious problems in Euro Disneyland until the quarterly summary. I think at that time, All the tourists who were looking forward to Euro Disneyland have already left with disappointment, and once the word of mouth spreads, it will be a long and difficult project to reverse it.”
After Katzenberg said what he just said, he was silent for a moment before continuing: "At the same time, I also asked the operation department to make a rough statistics on the per capita consumption of tourists. It was originally estimated that the average consumption of tourists visiting the park was about 300 yuan. The actual figure is only US$120. This is the data obtained when a large number of tourists feel that the tickets are inflated. The occupancy rate of the seven themed hotels is only 37%, which is far lower than the original estimate of 75%, that is, It is said that even if the current relatively good situation is maintained, the turnover of Euro Disney will only be 40% of the expected one. If Disney makes a profit like that, it will bring a loss of more than 150 million U.S. dollars."
After Katzenberg finished these words, the management of Euro Disneyland who was sitting at the bottom was already silent. Everyone could hear the anger suppressed in Katzenberg's tone. This was an anger that felt cheated. Katzenberg Senberg is indeed very angry, since he took charge of Disney at the beginning of the year, except for the business of Disney headquarters. Katzenberg's biggest concern is undoubtedly the Euro Disneyland project. In half a year, he also flew to Paris more than once to inspect the preparations for the Disneyland. But in the past six months. He found no problems in the materials submitted by the management of Euro Disneyland. Judging from the reactions of these people in front of him, Katzenberg knew that the possibility of intentional concealment was unlikely, and it was more likely that these people were blind to the project. Self-confidence, and many problems are ignored.
Glancing at Eric beside him, the anger in Katzenberg's heart dissipated a bit, and his lips moved. Katzenberg said: "In the current situation, I also need to take part of the responsibility, but none of you can escape, because I still have a submission from the local staff of the park in France, which lists many The problems mentioned by the tourists in the survey report, which shows that these problems have existed from the beginning, but you have ignored them, so, as a punishment, everyone present, the salary for the next four months of this year will be halved. Of course, I will personally bear this punishment with you, if someone disagrees, the promise I just made is still valid, and you can leave this office now."
All the senior executives in the meeting room looked at each other. Although many people secretly glanced at Eric, no one dared to point out the wrong language in Katzenberg's furious situation. At the same time, no one objected to the punishment. .
"Well, since this is the case, let's move on to the next topic and discuss how to solve the current situation, Pat, starting with you," Katzenberg pointed at Patrick Schneider unceremoniously, without saving face for the other party the meaning of.
Patrick Schneider adjusted his mood and said, "I think, first of all, we should make appropriate adjustments to the prices of the park tickets and theme hotels..."
…
From ten o'clock in the evening, this long meeting lasted until four thirty in the morning the next day. With such a serious problem in a large project with a total investment of five billion US dollars, no one present dared to raise any objections.
The meeting came to an end when the administrative secretary in charge of recording wrote down a thick stack of minutes.
After Katzenberg finished his final speech, he said to Eric, who had been silent all night: "Eric, do you have anything to say?"
Eric still held the pencil in his hand, and nodded when he heard Katzenberg's words: "I have a photo here, I can show it to everyone."
As he spoke, he picked up a roll of paper that had been placed by his feet, handed it to the administrative secretary behind him, and motioned him to hang it on the writing board in the meeting room.
Everyone looked at the writing board with strong curiosity.
The enlarged photo was unfolded by the administrative secretary, and the executives present discovered that it was a photo of Mickey Mouse, but the difference was that it was a Mickey Mouse in a kimono.
"Presumably everyone recognizes the costume on this Mickey Mouse, yes, this is a photo of an event held in Tokyo Disneyland. A large part of the reason why Tokyo Disneyland has achieved great success is because of Tokyo Disneyland's The management knows how to adapt to the local Japanese culture. In order to attract consumers, they can make Mickey Mouse wear kimonos, and they can hold coming-of-age ceremonies for Japanese youth in Disneyland. Disney culture is certainly the pride of Disney, but everyone must remember , Disney is a profit-oriented commercial company. We do not undertake tasks such as cultural aggression. What we focus on should be whether the company can make a profit. This is the ultimate philosophy that a commercial company should uphold. You may You will think that I am too utilitarian when I say this, but you can also think about movies. The most important reason why Hollywood movies can expand around the world is that we can give everyone what they want to see. So the decline lies in the fact that they have been holding on to their own stubborn artistic ideas without changing them. I want to say that a thing that is declining, whether it is a company or a culture, has nothing to be proud of. That's all. , everyone, think about it carefully."
After a moment of silence, the meeting room burst into applause led by some people.
Katzenberg clapped his hands and turned back to stare at the photo of Mickey Mouse wearing a kimono. After everyone quieted down, he said to Eric: "Eric, you are right. Is there an original version of this photo? I'm going to keep one on my desk."
After Eric nodded with a smile, Katzenberg looked at the people present again: "I also suggest that you make a copy and put it on your desk as a spur. Of course, this is just my personal suggestion , not mandatory, I hope that everyone can keep the idea represented by this photo in mind.” (To be continued..)