So today on the podcast, we're going to talk about a couple of Disney World restaurants that have made some rather poor business decisions.

And we'll also talk about why these decisions were problematic.

To put this directly, we'll talk about how the Disney World model works and what does and does not succeed in that environment.

The first half of our episode today looks at an interesting experiment that didn't really

work out.

And the second half looks at something that I would describe more as an opening fiasco, a project

with a long line of specific missteps. And here's the other thing. Both of these

restaurants occupied the same location, first one and now the other. My general education,

microeconomics professor from many decades ago would probably fail me for saying this. But maybe there's

something here that at least feels like this might be a cursed location, a building that

seems to pull in flawed plans. And these two restaurants, and also a discussion of the

Disney World model, are at the center of our episode today.

Today's story is mostly about how the Disney Company grows and changes.

In my view, there are two main historical phases to the Disney Company.

There's the original phase in which the company followed ideas established by Walton Roy,

in which most films, TV shows, and projects were started in-house, and overseen by Disney executives and lead artists.

During this period, Disney acted like a traditional company in which a small group of managers

oversaw nearly all aspects of production. Let's say that this phase of the company starts with

its founding in 1923 and ends in

1984 when Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron Miller steps down as CEO.

He was the last person to run the company who had spent a good deal of time with its founders.

And let's say that the modern Disney Company also begins in 1984 when Michael

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