A Dozen Who Shaped the 80s

California’s image as a pacesetter held up fairly well in the 1980s in the world of business and economics. Californians were a force for dramatic change.

Some achieved change on a grand scale--inspiring a revolution in economic policy or transforming corporate finance. Some of the change may seem minor, but it altered our daily routines and our life styles. Some business people built firms that are monuments to America’s spirit of enterprise; others brought companies to ruin and became symbols of corporate recklessness.

Here is a sampling of California residents who gave American business a 1980s makeover--making it better, or worse, or just more fun.

MICHAEL D. EISNER

Among California’s entertainment moguls, Michael D. Eisner exhibited the most golden touch in the 1980s, lifting a legendary American company from the doldrums. Revenues at Walt Disney Co. nearly tripled, and net income grew seven-fold in the five years after Eisner took the helm as chairman and chief executive.

Some biographers contend that Eisner has led a charmed life from birth--his father was a Harvard-educated lawyer, and his mother was heiress to a razor company fortune. He was reared in a posh Manhattan apartment and attended the Lawrenceville School and Denison College before landing a job at NBC. He worked at all three networks before joining Paramount Pictures after his ABC mentor, Barry Diller, became that studio’s chairman.

Eisner had a few anxious days in 1984 when he was passed over for the top Paramount job, but the Disney directors turned to him in the wake of a demoralizing eight-month battle with corporate raiders that halted only when the powerful Bass clan of Texas made a sizable, stabilizing investment. Eisner owes his appointment to the Basses, and he surely has not disappointed them. In turn, he has been well-compensated. Eisner received $40 million in 1988 and owns Disney shares worth about $133 million.

Even competitors give grudging due. Says one: “Michael took raw clay and has done a masterful job running the parks, raising the admission prices and making movies.”