Dick's best quote ever

Walt pointed this out to me, and I think he wanted to save it for an appropriate time, but it's too good not to post now.

“The park managers know their parks the best and I don’t want to interfere with them. I like to think we are here for support if they need it.” --Dick Kinzel

Do you think Tim O'Brien ever spoke to the managers he allegedly oversees? Micromanagement is not exactly a new phenomenon with him, not even in 2005.

That's funny.

This man needs to move on. In my opinion, he is just hurting the company more than anything. He was good for them in the 80's, but he still has the 80's mentality.

They need someone with some new ideas, and someone that has a grasp on todays technoligy.

I just read that artical that Jeff posted, and I have not laffed that hard in a while.

“We are putting more emphasis on customer service today than ever, for all ages."

Riiiiiiigggghhhttt!!!!

"Everyone in the park seems to know him, and he calls most of his frontline employees by their first names. One can’t get much higher in integrity than Dick Kinzel"

Duh...they have name tags on.

"In early 1971, he sent his resume to Walt Disney World, which was getting ready to open in central Florida in October of that year.
“I heard back from Walt Disney World, and when they asked me what my salary requirements were, I said $15,000 per year. They said that was too much, and I wouldn’t budge, so I stayed in Toledo,” Kinzel recalls. “Then I heard from Cedar Point and accepted the job there, for $13,000. I started as a supervisor in the food department.”

Wouldn't budge huh?

I still can't stop laffing at this.....
"But it’s not just about excellent cus­tomer service. Over the years, Kinzel has seen a need for operations to change with the times. “Technology has changed things significantly, and today’s parks are safer than they have ever been,”

Thank's for the laff's Jeff. I needed that today.

As much as I agree with the criticisms of Kinzel I dread to think of how worse the company will become when Jack Falfas replaces him.

I don't know if there's any evidence that warrants that kind of dread. The Falfas people seem to know from the Knott's days doesn't sound at all like the one who has the next office over from Dick. Can you not micromanage when you're being micromanaged? That's a wait-and-see in my book.

I've seen some flashes of good from Falfas over the years. But, I don't think he has ever been able to show us what he can do because of the heavy hand above him.

In fact, I don't think we have seen the potential talent in most Cedar Fair employees to this point because it is not an environment suited to empowerment, thinking outside the box, creativity, etc. There is no doubt that I wouldn't be the leader I am today if I were still working at Cedar Fair because I was rarely able to make decisions with any sense of autonomy.

My fear is that, when Dick goes, people will be a little shell shocked at the idea that they need not rely on his firm hand anymore. Sort of like when Walt died. The Disney people were capable (more than capable) people but they were afraid to make any type of decision because Walt handled nearly all of the details.

I think a lot of Cedar Fair people have the ability. The question is when the light finally shines on them will they be blinded because they have been in the dark so long or will they relish in the moment and take the company to new levels?

I don't really know.

Dick's a nice enough guy, but in my experience, he is not the guy that the article describes him to be. It's not like he walked the park every day. Heck, I didn't see him but a few times a year when I worked there. You'd think that he'd come ride Paddlewheel a few times a year, wouldn't you?

He just seemed to hide away in his office. If one was lucky, they may catch a glimpse of him in his office on the way to the employee cafeteria.

Jeff said:Can you not micromanage when you're being micromanaged? That's a wait-and-see in my book.

I guess you can't, when as the corporate operations officer, you are noted walking around Cedar Point more than once cutting positions (applies to Kinzel as well). I guess maybe they don't (he doesn't), you know, trust their park level department managers to know their staffing needs...

While Falfas and others may not have had a chance to really "show themselves" under Kinzel's heavy hand, I have little hope those at the very top will actually do so once Kinzel has gone simply because micromanagement has become the "company policy" for Cedar Point specifically. I am simply not inspired by the thought of someone who has been under the microscope and heavy handed influence of the Kinzel era at the corporate level stepping up and leaving that behind.

LostKause said:
Dick's a nice enough guy, but in my experience, he is not the guy that the article describes him to be. It's not like he walked the park every day. Heck, I didn't see him but a few times a year when I worked there. You'd think that he'd come ride Paddlewheel a few times a year, wouldn't you?

He just seemed to hide away in his office. If one was lucky, they may catch a glimpse of him in his office on the way to the employee cafeteria.

He was all over the park the day my girlfriend and I met him on Maverick PP ERT night in May 08. In fact, I did notice him monitoring food service operations by Raptor, which was a little weird seeing the CEO of a billion dollar company performing quality control on pizzas and hot dogs!

Yeah, I'm not fond of that behavior as a unit holder either.

tigellinus said:
He was all over the park the day my girlfriend and I met him on Maverick PP ERT night in May 08. In fact, I did notice him monitoring food service operations by Raptor, which was a little weird seeing the CEO of a billion dollar company performing quality control on pizzas and hot dogs!

Not only is what he (they) doing interesting, its that it largely takes place at just one park. Just because corporate offices are on the peninsula does not mean corporate should be regularly meddling in the daily operations. This brings me to something I've said/asked for several years; what is the importance of having the corporate offices right there on the edge of the park? I feel the location encourages the micromanaging, and also imposes that constant "you're being watched" feeling among the front-line employees in a negative way. Yes, there can be importance in having conference space and such overlooking the park to impress/intimidate guests, but having all the corporate offices there? Move the offices off-Point to a nice location (heck, the foot of the causeway would be fine, just get them off the peninsula) and maintain nice conference/entertaining facilities in the park/on the peninsula. Of course, with the new "castle" having been recently built that won't be happening anytime soon.

I think it would've been good PR to Sandusky also to have the headquarters on the mainland. It would have been a year-round indicator showing their commitment to the city that both hates and depends on them.

Jeff said:
I think it would've been good PR to Sandusky also to have the headquarters on the mainland. It would have been a year-round indicator showing their commitment to the city that both hates and depends on them.

Heck, why not put CF corperate offices away from ANY of it's parks, say Denver, CO, Santa Fe, NM?, or even Boise, ID!

That way, the corp big wigs would have to really think before they meddle in the park manager's works face to face.

Um...well...Kinzel has a house about a mile from his office. They owned the land and did not have to buy any on the mainland. Sandusky makes for a relatively easy trip to either Detroit or Cleveland airports.

And, the Erie County area isn't a bad place to raise a family.

The company owns a number of hotel rooms so that any time there is a need to congregate folks from around the company they can do so at little cost. (They have annual meetings at Castaway.)

While it does seem to invite corporate "meddling" into Cedar Point more than others the reasons for being there seem to make good business sense.

Okay, you make a good point about location.

tigellinus said:

...I did notice him monitoring food service operations by Raptor, which was a little weird seeing the CEO of a billion dollar company performing quality control on pizzas and hot dogs!

I hope the the quality of the food isn't any indication of the quality of his work.

Maybe his problem is that every time he was promoted, he thought he had to keep doing his previous job as well. That would explain the food supervision, right? ;)

LostKause said:
I hope the the quality of the food isn't any indication of the quality of his work.

So do I! Although from the way things have been going, it seems there is some correlation there...

Wahoo, I have no problem with the corporate offices being in Sandusky. Like I said, put the offices at the foot of the Causeway and I'd think it would be great! Just get them out of the park so that they have to do a little more than just walk outside their office door before they can start micromanaging at the lowest levels whenever they feel like it.

wahoo skipper said:
They owned the land and did not have to buy any on the mainland

And they own a bunch on the mainland too that they wouldn't have to buy. In fact, I believe they own that area across from Castaway/Friday's.

Where exactly are CF headquarters on the island? The 2 times that I have been to CP, I never saw any structure resembling an office building. Or is it just a small building within the park itself that isn't noticable?