Part IX: The Frog Prince
Sir Robin the Brave: I'm valiant and daring/And noble of bearing/Courageous and gallant/A mountain of talent/No wonder folks curtsy and wave/I'm Robin, Sir Robin, the Brave.
Kermit: You're also a frog.
- From Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince
Chapter 6: The Next Summit (Cont’d)
Excerpt from The Visionary and the Vizier, Jim Henson and Frank Wells at Disney, by Derek N. Dedominos, MBA.
In January of 1993 Albert “Al” Gore was inaugurated as America’s 42nd President of the United States. While this meant big changes for the United States, of course, it also meant a big change for the Walt Disney Entertainment Company. Per the deal/bet that he’d made with CEO Ron Miller, Chairman and President Frank Wells would be temporarily stepping down to assume a job in the Gore administration while CCO and Vice Chair Jim Henson and Disney Recreation Chair Dick Nunis would be filling in as Acting Chairman and Acting President, respectively. Roy E. Disney would become Acting Vice Chairman as well as Acting Chair and President of Walt Disney Studios.
Wells, meanwhile, would become the Undersecretary of Commerce for Sustainable Growth, an ad hoc position with a small committee of government undersecretaries and technocrats and representatives from industry and academia. For the adventurous Wells, the public service position offered a new set of challenges and opportunities. The planned committee would begin as a 2-year pilot with the option to extend further. The pilot program would be the first step in a long-term move towards a sustainable economic policy for power, infrastructure, transport, and regulations and would cross over between the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Interior, Defense, and Transportation, to include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and National Science Foundation (NSF). Wells would alternate his physical location between the Department of Commerce offices in the Herbert Hoover Building in Washington, DC, and the NIST Building 1 in Boulder, Colorado. Not only did this arrangement give Wells the opportunity for an easy-out if public service didn’t work for him, but the Boulder location, deliberately chosen by Wells for this reason, would let him reacclimate to high altitudes and practice his mountain climbing skills with the local Sherpa expatriate community in preparation for finally summitting Everest, the last of the “seven summits” for Wells.
For the humble Henson, the Chairmanship was a job that he hadn’t really given much thought to, being perpetually in the “here and now” of late, but for which all agreed that he was fully qualified. Not only had he served with distinction as the Chairman for Walt Disney Studios for the last almost-decade, but as Vice-Chair he’d filled in for Wells on several occasions, where his easy going and gentle nature had proven very effective at averting or limiting arguments, keeping egos in check, and gaining meaningful consensus, even if it had meant a shift in his old not-exactly-professional inclinations. The successes of 1992 and The Bamboo Princess and expected success of Jurassic Park had won over the more hesitant directors and the board voted unanimously and without much argument to hand the job to Henson, who retained his position as Chief Creative Officer. “Gosh, everyone, I’m really flattered,” he reportedly said, honestly surprised at the opportunity.
For the ambitious Nunis, the Presidency was the job he’d been seeking for a decade, but which his bald ambition had ironically held him back from achieving. But the Dick Nunis of 1993 was a different man from the aggressive bully that openly angled for the job in ’84. His time juggling the competing interests of his increased duties as head of the ever-growing Walt Disney Recreation, a job that included working closely with the equally ambitious and aggressive Director Al Checchi of Marriott and the genteel but unwavering Bill Marriott, Jr. – not to mention his experiences dealing with the mercurial Dragados in Spain – had humbled him and forced him to accept the limitations of yelling your way to power. Similarly, the runaway costs of Disneyland Valencia and Port Disney and resulting “bailout” by Pearson had shaken his rock-solid self-assuredness, forcing a bit of self-reflection of late. Furthermore, despite having a rocky start together, his personal and professional relationship with Jim Henson had grown tight and mutually respectful, Henson the yin to his yang in nearly every respect, and it had taught him the value of positivity, trust, and appreciation for one’s employees while he in turn had taught Henson the advantages of confidence, assertiveness, and a strong handshake in dealing with egotistical people.
As Wells had long suspected, and had secretly worked to make happen, Henson and Nunis complimented one another and helped balance each other’s limitations as leaders. Furthermore, Miller would be there to serve as a stabilizing force while COO Stan Kinsey would be there to quietly maintain Wells’ well-oiled operations machine, keeping the Company Ship sailing regardless of what happened on the board.
And as it turned out, things did start out a bit rocky. Nunis was a humbler man than he was in ‘84, but he was still Dick Nunis, “SOB 1”, and acted aggressively to impose his will as the new President in an early show of force. This, needless to say, resulted in pushback from VPs and Department Heads who liked to remind him of the “Acting” part of that title. Nunis and Kinsey also clashed over boundaries and responsibilities and even who “outranked” the other. Miller, in turn, reminded them both that they both worked for him first. Nunis also pressed his authority with Acting Chairman Henson, assuming he could dominate his friend in the way that he often dominated their conversations on their surf outings together.
But if Nunis had mellowed over the decade, then Henson had learned to become more assertive, particularly within the performance of his official duties. He’d developed what his daughter Lisa dubbed “business Tai Chi”, letting the force of personalities and business stress move past him and redirecting it, defusing the conflict, and steering everyone towards the “win-win” consensus. “You can scream at Jim all you want,” Kinsey noted. “You might as well scream at a smiling statue.” Nunis, particularly once Miller had a word with him, ultimately settled in to a firm but comfortable position as benevolent master of his domain. Nunis and Kinsey, at the urging of both Henson and Miller, drew out the respective lines in their areas of authority and ultimately learned to rely heavily upon one another.
Once this “forming, storming, and norming” process worked itself out, the Disney Board and Executive Committee settled into the “new normal” of life without the firm but gentle hand of Frank Wells there to steady the rudder. As Wells suspected, the four professionals, each so different in their personalities and leadership styles, balanced each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The Walt Disney Entertainment Company would, he felt, carry on just fine in his absence, and the Symphony of Disney would harmoniously play on.