Transcript excerpt of a conversation (YouTube) in which Sonya Shelton discusses her time working at Disney during a turbulent period when CEO Michael Eisner was ousted after a shareholder revolt. Shelton, then head of internal communications, reflects on limits to implementing ideas internally and the influential role of external consultants who brought outside perspectives and were able to say things internal staff could not.
Chapters
With Disney, right? It's like you're working for Disney. You've got an executive leadership position there. What were some of the better ways that you saw that you couldn't implement? What was the trigger?
I was there in a very interesting time when the company ousted the CEO. Shareholder revolt. Right. So it was being led by a member of the Disney family ousting Michael Eisner, who is this longtime CEO of the company. It was kind of like the company was going through a divorce. And being the head of internal communications at that time really impacted kind of how I saw the world. And, and, and I. And I realized, you know, consultants coming in consult, you know, didn't matter what I would say. I would come up with ideas. The consultants that came in might have less experience than me, but they were always, you know, was always. Their ideas were brilliant. And I kind of resented it at first, but then I realized they have an outside perspective. They have the perspective of bringing what other companies are doing and things like that to the table, and they can say things other people can't say.