Ich bin zufällig heute auf ein sehr gutes und ausführliches Interview mit Mark Fisher, Managing Director Resort Theme Parks bei Merlin Entertainment, und somit Mairingers Boss, gestoßen.
Ist zwar aus 2010, trotzdem sehr interessant, da hier unter anderem erklärt wird, in wie weit Merlin Einfluß auf die Parks nimmt.

Das ganze ist beim fantastischen Themepark-Buiness-Magazin www.blooloop.com zu finden:
http://www.blooloop.com/Article/Merlin-Entertainments-Rocking-around-the-World/251

Hier mal ein paar Auszüge zum Teasern.

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We promote a culture of ownership in the business. Two reasons: first, Merlin is not big in the centre, especially for a business which is worth over £2billion, so we simply wouldn’t have the infrastructure to micromanage all these attractions; and second, ownership means that it’s their business, their ideas and their responsibility. Of course we develop strategic directions and views centrally together with fixing capex cycles, clarity on the brands and 5 to ten year plans, but our role is more one of guidance and giving them the teeth to make the decisions.
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With Gardaland I will be part of the team putting together their business plan but I won’t be leading it. For example, we have four different fast track operations and they are all good or bad in their own ways, with each business owner arguing theirs is the best. Were not going to go to a business and say you need to use X or Y as one solution might work well in one park but less so in another. We also have great people on the development side too, so there is a good amount of support and experience the businesses can call on. We are not “top heavy”. Indeed if you lopped the head off Merlin, in the short term the parks would simply carry on functioning day to day.
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In Merlin every single business has a 5 and 10 year business plan/investment cycle. I can tell you now what money we’ll invest in Alton Towers in 2014. So perhaps the biggest thing we’ve brought has been stability. We know where we want to go and we work with the teams at each individual attraction to help us map the route to get there.

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