Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?ÿ Well it's not M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.ÿ It's the Leslie Bains and her group of four. In the wake ofÿthe recent Town Hall meeting of current Trustee members on campus the groupÿof recently resigned members of the American Board of Trustees have penned a wonderful point-by-point body blow on the Ad-Hoc group of thirteen whoÿsupported Uncle Ben.ÿ They even went to Imagineering School in Disneyland toÿdo it.ÿ It seems obvious now that the wonderful world of four has stolen a playÿfrom the playbook of that other recent boardroom scandal-the one at The WaltÿDisney Company. ÿ
A couple of years ago Roy Disney, nephew of Walt, was the only family memberÿof the left on the board at Disney.ÿ Roy was unhappy about the sales of Fantasiaÿ2000 and he thought Michael Eisner was a pretty bad dude.ÿ In retrospect whoÿcould blame him?ÿ Eisner bungled the Pixar deal and he released some crappyÿmovies and the theme parks were losing dough after 9/11.ÿ Still the board atÿDisney didn't think there wasn't a reason to fire Eisner.ÿ Eisner's defendersÿargued that Eisner was the guy who brought the Walt Disney Company backÿfrom the dead in the 80's.ÿ
Hold on a sec...Eisner brought a company back fromÿthe dead... so the pro-Eisner argument against dismissal was forgive me for theÿbad stuff going on now cause I saved you years ago?ÿ Hmmm kind of soundsÿlike the Ben Ladner defense to me. ÿ
Okay, so even in the face of some bad decisions that were going to cost Disneyÿserious money, the board still had his back.ÿ Heck, our good ol' boy Ben onlyÿblew a measly 500k on table crackers for his kid's engagement party, of courseÿthe Ad-Hoc group was planning to back him.ÿ
With no support for his plan to fire Eisner, Roy Disney did the only thing heÿcould think of, he quit the board. Now that might seem like a rash plan. Youÿgive up your vote on the board and those board retreats are gone and everytimeÿyou run into a former board member at the grocery you have to run down theÿaisle with the laxatives just to avoid the awkward scene. It's self inflicted exile,ÿits not as fun. ÿ
However Roy turned this frown upside down because he became a vocal critic inÿexile. ÿ Here's how you do it. First you give up your seat on the board and thenÿyou get mad as hell and talk to all the reporters who will take your calls.ÿ Royÿeven got the stockholders to revolt.ÿ Did it work?ÿ Faster than you can sing "It's a Small World After All," Eisner's exit plan was announced. To be fair it tookÿtwo years to work.ÿ But why did it work?ÿ One of the reasons it worked isÿbecause Roy's position was clearly defined.ÿ The goal was a definite one, get ridÿof Eisner. ÿ Sure Disney was upset that Eisner got to pick his own successor, butÿfor Roy Disney he won cause Eisner was out.
Our group of four renegade board members has done some great gutter snipingÿat our corrupt board.ÿ The problem is as leaders of a movement to fix theÿgovernance of campus they have not defined victory nor have they taken theÿinitiative.ÿ We have gotten rid of Ladner, but the underlying governanceÿproblems remain.ÿ If this gang of four wants to help American now they need toÿoutline a clear plan for resuscitating the University's vital organs.
Our gang of four has decided instead to spend their timeÿstraightening the record as if rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is goingÿto make the crew forget the boat is sinking.ÿ
We are now in the post-Ladner eraÿwe need to fix the mess he made first, there will be a time to correct the recordÿlater.
