Bob Iger has only been CEO of The Walt Disney Company (again) since Sunday night, but he’s already made one important change in the company. Kareem Daniel, the man seen as the right-hand man of former CEO Bob Chapek, and the head of Disney Media and Entertainment, a new part of the company Chapek created, is gone. It also looks like the DMED will be undone and things will go back to the way they were. Now Iger needs to reverse another major Chapek decision and cancel Walt Disney Imagineering’s move to Florida.
In July last year it was announced Walt Disney Imagineering will be moving out of its old home in Glendale, California to a new location in Lake Nona, Florida, bringing it closer to the company’s flagship resort at Walt Disney World. Initially the plan was for the move to be completed by 2023, but in June this year due to construction delays, Disney has postponed the deadline Until 2026.
Bob Iger needs to cancel the WDI move to Florida
Now it’s time to finish this step completely. There is simply no reason to make this move. people who work in Walt Disney Imagine They established their lives in California and being asked to move to Florida has already resulted in a lot of talented people leaving the company. Others will do the same if it goes forward.
Losing talent would hurt the imagination for years. And if the move is cancelled, there is still a chance that those who have already left can return. It’s also an important PR move for Bob Iger that would show cast members all over Disney that he cares about them as people, something most people already believe is true, at least when compared to Bob Iger’s, but some action to prove it doesn’t hurt.
Many saw the Imagination movement as the first step in its destruction. It was well known, and is in fact part of the plan, that people would quit rather than move. The idea was to cut back on the imagine considerably, and perhaps move to using outside contractors more often, which would be cheaper than running the imagine at home. Whether or not the goal is to shut down WDI, that idea must end by now, and ending the perception that WDI is expendable is essential.
Imagination is, and always has been, a major part of Disney
The company that Walt Disney founded in order to create the original Disneyland attractions is one of the elements of The Walt Disney Company that really sets it apart from its competitors. There are other movie studios, there are other theme park companies, but nothing in the world quite compares to WDI.
There are probably some people out there who would like to move to Florida, and since Disney probably has office space now anyway, having a Imagineering office in Florida isn’t a terrible idea. Having the staff assigned to Walt Disney World in Florida would be a good thing. It wouldn’t hurt to have those for Disneyland Paris several hours away, but no one should be forced to go.
And moving the Imagineers away from the Disneyland Resort, the place where it all began, as well as away from the parks of Asia, does not make sense. These people should stay in California.
Disney and Florida had their issues. Disney’s public comments, eventually, over the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law landed the company in a bind that led to the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District that governs Walt Disney World. But the truth is, Bob Iger is already on record that he doesn’t like the law either, so it’s unlikely that playing nice with Florida here will get Disney anything. All that matters now is what’s best for the people, and what’s best for them is to leave everyone at 1401 Flower Street alone to do their jobs.
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