The Walt Within: What If Disney's Prize Wasn't Pixar, but Jobs? (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060202.html) -- I, Cringely
What if, instead of having to accept the board presence of Steve Jobs as a cost of getting Pixar's animation talent and film library, Disney actually views the transaction as buying Pixar TO GET Steve Jobs and then gaining the animation bits as a bonus? If Disney CEO Robert Iger is really an exceptional leader, he'll see it exactly that way.

I am not a big Steve Jobs fan. No fawning here. I once called him a sociopath in a book that was translated into 18 languages, and I don't take it back now. But even a sociopath has his moments, and I am beginning to see that this moment belongs to Jobs.

What made me come to this understanding was reading an op-ed piece this week in the New York Times written by film historian Neal Gabler, who is just finishing a monumental book about Walt Disney.

The Walt Within: What If Disney's Prize Wasn't Pixar, but Jobs? (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060202.html) -- I, Cringely

Nice theory. But wrong.

I don't feel that Jobs is the "prize" as much as Lasseter. Not to knock Steve's abilities and such, but... John is the one who will end up doing more for the "culture of Disney," especially inside Animation and Imagineering, in terms of transforming it.

Disney is floundering creatively, and has been for quite some time. And I believe John Lasseter has both the talent and motivation (almost out-foams Baxter in the "Disney Dweeb" dept, if you can believe it) to get WDC back on its creative track.

Steve's good... but John's better.

:D

Nice theory. But wrong.

I don't feel that Jobs is the "prize" as much as Lasseter. Not to knock Steve's abilities and such, but... John is the one who will end up doing more for the "culture of Disney," especially inside Animation and Imagineering, in terms of transforming it.

Disney is floundering creatively, and has been for quite some time. And I believe John Lasseter has both the talent and motivation (almost out-foams Baxter in the "Disney Dweeb" dept, if you can believe it) to get WDC back on its creative track.

Steve's good... but John's better.

:D

I realize John has much more intimate creativity than Jobs - but Jobs is a true "idea" guy who surrounds himself with very talented peope who do the real hands on work. I can't say Jobs is "just like Disney" but you could say that Lassiter is the "Herb Ryman AND Marc Davis" for Jobs that the two men were to Disney.

I agree with the story - to a point. I think the guy gives Iger too much credit. The issue has been that creativity and focus on quality has been gone for so long that anything may seem better in house than what they had. However, let's see how the rest of the board acts with Job's presence. That will be the one difference between the two men. Walt was THE boss, but in this case Jobs is just a hyper idea-guy who's brain runs at a higher speed than most - but does not have the say so (at least in public) as much as Walt did.