HSM, a company that puts on interesting conferences like the World Business Forum, has been branching out into more personal events called “intensive seminars.” These are events where you can spend a day or two in a smallish group (100 people or so) listening to and rubbing shoulders with people like Jack Welch and Tom Peters for anywhere from $4,500 to $10,000.

I’ve always questioned the value of pricey programs like these because I don’t know how much more someone like Jack Welch is going to tell you in a group of 100 people that you just can’t get from reading his books or reading (or listening to the podcast of) his BusinessWeek column. But despite my skepticism over the cost-benefit ratio of these “intensive seminars,” I don’t doubt for a moment the quality of speakers like Welch and Peters, because they have long records of notable accomplishment.

And that’s what surprised me about the latest e-mail pitch I got from HSM: It was for an “intensive seminar” on creativity and innovation “from one of the world’s most respected creative icons”—Michael Eisner.

HSM wanted nearly $5,000 per person for a one-day session with the former Disney CEO where participants “will have the opportunity to work with one of the world’s most creative icons on how to successfully foster creativity and implement innovation in your organization.”

I’ll be the first to acknowledge Eisner’s creative skills, but unfortunately, his many talents in that area are drowned out by his bullying management style and bad decision-making skills, as anyone who has read the book DisneyWar surely knows.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter James B. Stewart (he also wrote the Wall Street classic Den of Thieves), DisneyWar  “describes Disney’s Darwinian corporate culture,” according to a 2005 review in The New York Times “What Michael likes to do,” one former Disney executive told Stewart,  “is put six pit bulls together and see which five die.”

I don’t believe anyone can read DisneyWar and not come away wondering how Eisner kept his job running Disney for as long as he did. Forget his unbridled ego and over-the-top narcissism; what shocked me were the way he ran through executives and subordinates, his total disregard for people and talent, and his terrible decision-making skills. This was a man who sold off all the rights to the Disney-produced hit The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis; who passed on TV staples like CSI and Survivor; who belittled Lost even as it garnered great ratings on Disney-owned ABC.

That’s just a tiny slice of what’s in the book, but it brings me back to this: Why would anyone in their right mind pay $5,000 to hear the advice of a guy who had 43 percent of his company’s shareholders vote against him? You would be better off buying the book and reading it yourself, because if nothing else, you’ll save $5,000, miss out on Eisner’s pomposity and learn firsthand how all too often, you get more from studying bad managers than you do from listening to good ones.