Josh D’Amaro Steps to the Plate

In case you hadn’t heard, Josh D’Amaro is currently making his grab for the brass ring.

The wildly popular Chairman of Disney Experiences, the theme park division, is hoping for more.

In a perfect world, D’Amaro would succeed Bob Iger as the CEO of The Walt Disney Company.

Should that scenario unfold, it would prove a rare example of a nice guy finishing first.

Of course, if Dana Walden, the other co-favorite, wins instead, it’d be a nice woman finishing first.

Disney has two ideal candidates here and several others on deck. And that’s why the company is currently testing the favorites.

Walden recently appeared at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, which is important for her candidacy.

James Gorman, Disney’s Chairman of the Board, will select Iger’s successor. And Gorman most recently worked as the CEO of…Morgan Stanley.

On Wednesday, May 14^th, D’Amaro faced a similarly daunting test. He appeared at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet and Communications Conference.

This is an event where Iger has spoken in the past. So, it’s a huge opportunity for Disney’s potential CEO to prove himself.

Josh D’Amaro just stepped to the plate. Here are a few things he said.

A Vision for the Future

Before we discuss D’Amaro’s comments today, I want to circle back to something he quoted in a recent Bloomberg interview.

The Parks Chairman shared some advice Iger had given him: “Be ambitious with your thinking, be ambitious with your creativity, and be ambitious with the future.”

What we recently learned is that D’Amaro’s future has already begun. Specifically, it started last week with the Disneyland Abu Dhabi reveal.

Here’s what D’Amaro says about the project: “This is a city that’s relatively young.

(Abu Dhabi) celebrates its culture and heritage, but has a really compelling vision for where it’s going in the future, particularly from a tourism point of view.

The designs and infrastructures are elegant and sophisticated and very tech forward.”

Soon after those comments, Disney Abu Dhabi officials confirmed that it’ll be an indoor theme park.

So, we can read a lot into just a few seemingly perfunctory states. This new theme park will propel Disney into a new future of theme park design.

From this point forward, every new creation will focus on technological innovation with a touch of weather consideration as well.

As I mentioned the other day, Abu Dhabi’s high temperatures are typically above 100 degrees for five months of the year.

During two other months, the high temperature averages more than 95 degrees.

So, that’s more than half the year of high temperatures over 95 degrees. Thus, Disneyland Abu Dhabi needs to be indoors.

But this statement applies to Walt Disney World and possibly even Disneyland as well. The world’s getting hotter.

Now, Miral and the United Arab Emirates will effectively pay Imagineers to determine the best solutions to address the heat.

That’s the true vision for the future here.

The Abu Dhabi Deal Is Not a Prototype

In 1979, the Oriental Land Company (OLC) begged Disney to license its theme park brand.

At the time, only two theme parks existed: Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.

So, Disney proved understandably reluctant to make a deal. However, the OLC wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Disney executives involved with the deal laughingly suggested it was one of the most one-sided business deals ever.

OLC executives regret nothing, as Tokyo Disney Resort stands at the top of the industry after more than 40 years in business.

Meanwhile, Disney receives substantial licensing revenue annually from this deal, along with the prestige stemming from the exceptional theme parks.

Many theme park analysts consider Tokyo DisneySea THE best theme park in the world.

Disney pays nothing for it, yet the company earns praise for its existence.

More than 45 years later, Miral has offered Disney a similar deal. Backed by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they’ll pay for it all.

Also, Disney will once receive a licensing fee for Disneyland Abu Dhabi.

Thus, the interviewer at the Q&A asked D’Amaro whether this deal may function as a prototype for future developments.

Ostensibly, there’s nothing stopping Disney from licensing 10+ more theme parks around the world.

Why This Deal Is Unusual

D’Amaro flatly states this isn’t the case.

“I don’t think that this model is necessarily a predictor of how we’ll do it in the future.

If you look around the world today, we have a variety of models that match the market, the partnership opportunities, and the specific timing of the park and how we’re thinking about capital allocation.

Our domestic theme parks are vertical. Disneyland Paris is now a vertically operated park.

Our two Chinese parks are partnerships. And in Japan, we have a licensing deal with the Oriental Land Company.

So, it really depends on the specific situation. And for Abu Dhabi specifically, given how strong we thought Moral was and what our investment portfolio looks like right at this time, we think that’s the right model for this market.”

That’s the head of Disney theme parks acknowledging that timing is everything in business.

From 1980-2023, licensing a second theme park didn’t make any sense for Disney. Right now, it does, and Disney has adjusted its practices accordingly.

We may go another 45 years before Disney licenses another one. But I’ll add a counter to that.

Many deep-pocketed companies have just noticed the dynamics of this deal.

They’re probably going to make a run at Disney at some point in the future to secure their own officially licensed theme parks.

I just don’t think they’ll be successful in the short term, as any additional deal would distract away from Disneyland Abu Dhabi.

Therefore, I expect this to be the only deal of its nature at least until the new theme park opens in the early 2030s.

“It Grows the Brand”

Even Philip J. Fry understands the need for brand growth.

Okay, he really doesn’t, but he was also born without the Delta Brainwave.

The point is that everyone in business understands the significance of branding, and that’s doubly true in Disney’s C-suite.

When asked to expand on how Disneyland Abu Dhabi grows the brand, D’Amaro replies with this:

“Our experiences are incredibly powerful. So, bringing stories to life through attractions and entertainment, and doing so in a way that can pull consumers into these stories that they love, is incredibly powerful.

And when done at scale, which we do in our theme parks, it essentially creates brand ambassadors that then utilize the full array of businesses that we have in The Walt Disney Company.

We have somewhere around 120,000,000 guests on average every year coming through these theme parks.

So, anytime we plant the Disney flag, so to speak, in an international market, it has a very powerful effect on the company.

That’s happened in Shanghai. We opened in Shanghai in 2016. We saw an immediate impact.

(It was a) positive impact on the brand as well as an incredibly powerful business. And we know the same thing will happen with Abu Dhabi.”

I’m gonna level with you that despite my liking D’Amaro a great deal, that first half of the answer is word salad.

He didn’t seem to know what he wanted to say or where he was going with it.

To his credit, D’Amaro landed the plane anyway. Starting with the bold part, he makes the same point Iger had during the live interview on CNBC.

Disney sells more and to a larger number of customers when it adds a theme park in a new part of the world, as proven by Lotso’s celebrity.

Why Josh D’Amaro Is My Choice for CEO

I come from the entertainment industry, although my first real job – sorry, fast food/pizza restaurants – was in the hospitality field.

So, I’ve been uniquely trained to understand Disney’s entire business model, and I should ostensibly favor Dana Walden as Bob Iger’s successor as CEO.

Based on her near-flawless track record, Walden is squarely in the conversation for most accomplished television executive of the 21^st century.

Right now, Hulu churns through several seasons of epic television, and I’m counting down the days until The Bear returns next month.

Still, I’m a theme parks person at heart, and that reality positions me squarely in D’Amaro’s camp. Plus, he says things like this:

Question: “How do you tap into Disney’s creativity to drive that innovation and develop within your overall portfolio?”

D’Amaro: “Yeah. I think you’re talking probably about the Imagineering Group.

Specifically, we have 3,000 Imagineers around the world. And this is essentially the creative heartbeat of our company.”

Those are words that would NEVER come out of Bob Chapek’s mouth. Remember that he chased off many veteran Imagineers.

The Leader Who Adores Imagineers

D’Amaro hero-worships them and views visits to Walt Disney Imagineering as the best part of his job. As proof, here are more of his comments:

“These are the folks that are thinking ambitiously about how to create that next experience, how to raise the bar on immersive storytelling.

As we sit here today, we have more projects underway than we ever have in the history of Disney experiences or the Walt Disney Company.

And that means that our creatives are incredibly hard at work to deliver all of these new projects, like Abu Dhabi, like all the work that’s going on at Walt Disney World and, again, around the world.

I’m incredibly lucky in that this is part of my organization.

So a few times each week, I’m with the Imagineers reviewing all of the creative, making sure we are actually pushing the bar, being ambitious in our planning and creative deployment.”

When you hear the head of Disney’s theme parks saying things like this, you know the company is in good hands.

The only way the situation could improve would be if D’Amaro became CEO and controlled ALL decision-making at Disney.

Promising Teamwork

How likely is that? Well, D’Amaro definitely helped himself today. Here’s the quote:

“One of the things that’s working really well for us right now at Disney is the interaction and the relationship back to Alan Bergman.

(He) runs our studios, is doing a phenomenal job, and he and I are hip to hip.

As he’s thinking about the next franchise that he wants to birth or the next movie that’s coming out, he’s pulling the Imagineers in very, very early.

And that allows us to, in some cases, influence the story and, at a minimum, to start thinking about how we’re gonna build these immersive new worlds.

So much so now that when a film hits the screens, we’re doing something in the park immediately to showcase that story and bring it to life in physical form.”

That’s the kind of response that’s a bingo to someone like Gorman, who will ultimately decide who succeeds Iger.

Gorman just handled succession at Morgan Stanley, choosing between three worthy candidates.

At Disney, Gorman has four internally and several others outside the company.

Based on his selection of Ted Pick at Morgan Stanley and the promoting of the other two candidates, Gorman prioritizes teamwork.

I suspect D’Amaro has deduced that, as this isn’t the first time the Disney executive has emphasized his partnership with Bergman.

D’Amaro is trying to show that if he becomes CEO, nothing will change at Disney, something I suspect Gorman already knows.

Final Thoughts

The trick Disney’s Chairman of the Board will try to pull off is finding a way to promote one of Walden or D’Amaro without the other one leaving.

Based on D’Amaro’s comments today, he’s already in his dream job, which could feasibly hurt his candidacy.

By fostering the perception that’s thrilled to be where he is, D’Amaro runs a strange risk.

Gorman could feasibly perceive Dana Walden as a flight risk if she doesn’t get the job, whereas D’Amaro appears to be right where he wants to be.

As proof, here’s another quote: “We’ve got land in all of our locations around the world that we can continue to utilize to increase capacity at those theme parks.

We’ve only scratched the surface in terms of the stories that we’re telling.

We haven’t told the story of Coco, for example. We haven’t done anything with Wakanda.”

That sounds like someone who hasn’t done everything he wants to do at his current job.

In fact, these comments make me wonder whether D’Amaro already knows he’s lost despite the perception in some circles that he’s the frontrunner now.

Should that be the case, Disney fans should still take comfort in knowing that a true fan of theme parks remains in charge of Disney Experiences.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!

Feature Photo: JIM CARCHIDI