WORK IN PROGRESS

Journal 2

Andrew Beck

Period 7 3/6/99

Mr. Luizzi

Probably the biggest shock in Eisner’s life was the death of his good friend and partner Frank Wells. Wells and Eisner never had a dispute over anything and felt the same about almost all the decisions. The death of Frank Wells took place while he was skiing with his son and good friend Clint Eastwood, among others. Wells had always been an avid outdoorsmen, once taking a year off from work to pursue an interest of climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. The tragic an unexpected death sent the Disney Company as well as Eisner into a state of turmoil. When the news of Frank Wells death went public, many panicked not knowing what was to come of the Disney Company now that it’s number two man was gone. One of Eisner’s biggest worries was Jeffrey Katzenberg. Jeffrey had been restless with the responsibilities of his current job and, “needed new mountains to climb.” He and Wells had been talking about widening Katzenberg’s responsibilities up to Frank’s death. Michael was put under immense pressure when Katzenberg proclaimed that he deserved Wells’ job. Jeffrey said that he would leave within ninety days if he did not receive the job he wanted. Currently, Eisner had taken over Wells’ responsibilities. Through a slew of bad media the pressure mounted but now Eisner was not in a position to give Jeffrey the job he had wanted. He could not give the job to someone he could not trust, and lately Jeffrey had shut him out, cutting off communication and leaving him out of meetings. It seemed inevitable that Jeffrey would leave and he did. This forced Eisner to implement a new management plan. He brought up promising men who had experience and dedication to the Walt Disney Company. This move would push Disney into the new millennium.