Alex Cabe reviewed Disney War by James B. Stewart
Much More Readable and Personality-Driven Than Your Average Business Book
4 stars
More than anything this is a business biography of Michael Eisner, and no matter the depth of Stewart's access, he remains mysterious throughout. At times it was difficult to tell if people were behaving so bizarrely because that's how top level executives are, or if Michael Eisner is just that odd a person.
Stewart is great at giving senses of each profiled person's personality and juggling a huge cast of characters in a way that keeps everyone relevant.
It was a great idea to make this book about Disney because it anchors complex business intrigue in a company the reader is familiar with and cares about.
Criticism here is that, narratively, the book ends too early and doesn't show the end of Eisner's tenure. You get the climax of the Roy Disney campaign, but not the denouement. It seems like that, in the years since, the author could have added …
More than anything this is a business biography of Michael Eisner, and no matter the depth of Stewart's access, he remains mysterious throughout. At times it was difficult to tell if people were behaving so bizarrely because that's how top level executives are, or if Michael Eisner is just that odd a person.
Stewart is great at giving senses of each profiled person's personality and juggling a huge cast of characters in a way that keeps everyone relevant.
It was a great idea to make this book about Disney because it anchors complex business intrigue in a company the reader is familiar with and cares about.
Criticism here is that, narratively, the book ends too early and doesn't show the end of Eisner's tenure. You get the climax of the Roy Disney campaign, but not the denouement. It seems like that, in the years since, the author could have added an afterword about the end of Eisner's tenure.