Making Financial Headlines · Page 5
Disney's Cost-Cutting Plan Gives Several Thousand Workers an Unhappy Ending
· New York time
Disney expects to lay off several thousand employees and has asked some managers to cut costs by up to 20%. The planned reductions put a concrete human cost behind the familiar corporate promise of greater efficiency. Disney operates across entertainment businesses including films, television, streaming and theme parks. Its request to some managers means the search for savings reaches beyond a single headline figure and into individual budgets. The requested cuts are up to 20%, not a uniform reduction assigned to every manager or department. The number of layoffs is also an expectation, rather than a completed final count. For affected workers, the prospect of a job loss is considerably less abstract than the language of cost discipline. For management, the exercise turns the budget into a contest in which every expense must justify its place and every manager is asked to find room. Disney has built a vast business on stories in which problems can be resolved before the credits. A spreadsheet offers a less comforting format: the savings appear neatly in one column, while the people affected do not fit neatly into the next. The company may be seeking a leaner operation, but the work of making those cuts will be felt well beyond the finance office. Even magic, it turns out, has a cost center.
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