Rebuilding Tomorrowland (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.12/rebuilding.html) - Wired Magazine, 12/2002

A very good, indepth four page article dealing with Walt Disney Imagineering, which includes a quote by Al Lutz on page 4.

QuikQuote: "Disney executives ask, 'How tiny can Imagineering be and still maintain a strategic advantage,'" says Ken Wong, a former president of the group who left in 2000. "Years ago, I was in discussions about whether Imagineering should be zero." Competitors like Universal Studios do much of their theme park development using contractors, keeping fewer than 100 creative employees on the payroll. These days, executives wonder whether Disney should follow that model, outsourcing as much as possible and working its magic with off-the-shelf technologies instead of those developed in-house.
"Disney is in a bear trap right now," says former Imagineering executive Larry Gertz, who left earlier this year. "They're incredibly investment-averse. But the problem is, if you don't fund the Imagineers to constantly come up with something new, you lose a big piece of what the brand means — which is that you go to the Disney parks to see stuff you can't see anywhere else."

That IS a well-written article. I don't agree with the author's premise or conclusions, but at least he did some research and presented alternate ways of looking at the current situation. I'm even willing to forgive him quoting Al Lutz--"he knows not what he does"... ;)

Imagineering has always expanded and contracted its workforce depending on the demands of the moment. When building a major new attraction or park they hire, once the project is complete they let people go. This is not new, and to look at an ebb period now and decry that the company has lost its focus is to ignore the bigger picture.

I don't like the current focus on mildly-themed off-the-shelf attractions any more than anyone else, but these things tend to swing like pendulums--Disney has moved too far toward using outside talent and products, so now it is time for another renaissance in Imagineering. People like Bran Ferrin may have annoyed the more practical thinkers in WDI, but visionaries like him are needed to keep Disney beyond the cutting edge.

In summary, I think if everyone at MousePlanet would generate one truly creative idea and submit it to WDI, that would be a much better use of energy than another post about how much DCA sucks or why Eisner should be fired...