The
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The book is centred around the very essence of Walt Disney himself and talks a lot about his philosophy in life which he applied to Disney world and all the Disney ventures. To start with he believed in the principle “Dream Believe Dare Do”.
“I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true. “ – Walt Disney explaining his success and his principle.
The book starts with the chapter titled “Walt’s Way”. This chapter tells us about why Disney came about and what Walt Disney’s dreams were all about. It introduces the reader as to how Walt Disney managed to transform animation from a marginal segment of the entertainment industry to a new art form. Walt Disney used technical innovations to create a seamless mixture of story, colour and sound and keeping his vision in mind, he followed his instincts. The chapter also talks about the 10 concepts that are the heart of the Disney Methodology. I am not going to list them here as the chapters further elaborate very well on them. In fact each chapter is based on a principle.
“Make everyone’s Dream come true” is the title of the next chapter and here we are told about making the organisations dream everybody’s dream and in the process it does come true. Also, setting the right direction by helping everyone envision the dream is very important in fulfilling this. An example in this context - When the Disney World just started being constructed, Walt Disney insisted that before anything else would be constructed, the Sleeping Beauty Castle had to be constructed. This was indeed a very good move I think, as it gave the employees and everyone working them a life size vision of what their dream would look like eventually. Another interesting example in this chapter was the Koshima monkey story which explains how a paradigm shift takes place in anything. The example is about the monkeys who initially eat their potatoes without cleaning it and one day, a monkey finds out how to clean the potato of the sand and eat it. It tasted better. She taught this to another and so the process went on and on till eventually every monkey on the island waned to eat only washed potatoes. This concept can be applied in any organisation as it brings about a better way of doing things and changing the mindset of the people working in the organisation and hence making them work towards a common goal.
The third chapter is about the Believe principle where the fact that you have to believe your dream and make everyone who you are working with believe in it too to see it fulfilled some day is talked about. Having a vision and setting the right targets and believing that you can fulfil these dreams is the Walt Disney story as he was but a farm boy who became what he is today by believing in his dreams. There are many examples in the chapter about how making everyone in the organisation believe the dream and work towards it can give spectacular results. One such example is about a family who came to live in the Disney Hotel during their visit to Disney Land. The family had three little girls who used to carry their teddy bears everywhere. One day when they family got back to the room, the teddies were seated around a table with milk and cookies kept in front of them. The little girls were delighted and indirectly so were the parents. Every time the family got back in the evening the bears were doing different things like reading a Mickey Mouse book or playing cards or something like that. This made the family extremely happy and shows the extra effort that staff were putting in just to make sure that the three little girls smiled every time they stepped into the room. This is indeed exceptional customer service in a way Customer Delight and this makes sure that the Hotel gets a lovely review from the customer and the family is sure to talk about this experience everywhere and indirectly some awesome publicity for the place. Underlying this publicity and all lies the true spirit of how the employees believe that it is their duty to do the maximum they can for their customers irrespective of the cost incurred or the efforts put in.
The next chapter focuses on the customer aspect and how important they are to any organisation. Hence the very word customer is replaced by Guest as a guest is always someone who gets the most attention when they come into a house. There is this one striking example from the Four Seasons story. As I already mentioned, the book has a lot of examples from other organisations as well. The example – Just as a guest was being whisked away in a cab, the doorman noticed that there was a briefcase lying on the curb. It seemed like the guest had left his briefcase there by mistake. On opening the briefcase and calling up the number inside, the doorman was told by the man’s secretary that, the guest was on his way to an important meeting and he would need the briefcase as it contained a lot of important details. The doorman followed the guest to the airport only to find out that the flight had already left. So, he bought a ticket to Boston which was the guest’s destination and handed him the briefcase to an overwhelmed guest. Now, the thought here is, in any other company the employee would have to go through so many procedures and approvals to get a flight ticket and server the customer in this manner. Here every employee is empowered to take action right away and deliver the needful by solving the customer’s problem then and there. This same approach is followed by Disney as well. Now for this kind of a system to work, the employer and the employee relations have to be very strong and the trust factor plays a very big role. Hence, the recruitment of the right person for the right job is very important. There is another striking example of customer service, once again at the Four Seasons. Once, there was a black – tie event in the hotel in which Nancy Regan was supposed to come. One of the guests for the even was not dressed appropriately and was pondering as to what should be done as there was no time for him to go back home and change. The concierge observed the guest thinking deeply and asked if he could be of any assistance to him. On hearing his dilemma, the concierge said that there was one of the waiters who was on an off that day and he was sure that the waiter would not mind the guest wearing his tuxedo. However on reaching the locker, it was discovered that the tux had been given for laundry. So the concierge immediately offered his own tuxedo even though he was 2 sizes bigger than the guest. The concierge then proceeded to call the staff tailor and make the required adjustments so that the tux would fit the guest properly. The guest as you can guess was overwhelmed by this kind of help and he kept repeating that he was not even a guest at the Hotel, he had just come for the conference. To this, the concierge replied “Hopefully, someday you will be”. And indeed when this guest who was a CEO of an organisation had to organise a function, he but naturally chose The Four Seasons Hotel where he made this concierge the guest of honour which the concierge did accept gracefully but all the while he kept reiterating that he had just done his job. Talk about bringing in customers by providing exceptional service. I would say this was a very amazing marketing technique, not counting the sentiments behind the act. Hence from both the examples it is clearly seen how problem solving along with empowering your employees can bring about some exceptional results in not just your sales and revenue but also your reputation.
Even in the Disney theme park, it is a common thing for the theme park characters to stop by and have a chat with the guests who have come to visit. The saying “Front Line equals Bottom line” is practised in all these organisations.
“Many hands, and hearts, and minds generally contribute to anyone’s notable achievements.”
– Walt Disney.
The concept of teamwork is very important in any organisation. The spirit of team work is seen in all the productions of Disney. One example is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” There are seven dwarfs in the movie namely Happy, Sleepy, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Grumpy and Dopey. Each of these characters is drawn with special characteristics but first and foremost we always remember them as a team. Through these characters Walt Disney made the notion of cooperative endeavour an integral part of the script , with the dwarfs illustrating how different talents and personalities can be brought together to accomplish shared goals. Another thought which is touched upon in this chapter is the use of competition as a tool to motivate and drive employees and getter better results. This idea is pretty much thrashed in the book an there is a mention of Alfie Kohn, who is the author of “No Contest: The case against Competition”. The very use of competition is wrong to get the result and teamwork should be encouraged. We are taught from childhood to compete against one another but the fact remains that it just ends up deterring us in some way or the other.
“Share the Spotlight” explains the importance of partnership in business and in personal life. Walt Disney started off by persuading his brother Roy to invest his life savings ($200, which was a good amount of money then). Roy took over the financial aspect of the company which gave Walt the space and time to create all his characters and the world today has Mickey, Donald, Pluto and many others thanks to this partnership. There is a mention of “Oswald the rabbit” too where Walt struck a partnership with a New York Distributor who later got married and the business was taken over by her husband. Here there was a problem with the ownership of Oswald which the distributor bought over from Walt because of a contract he had signed earlier. Of course, later on this Oswald fiasco led to the birth of Mickey Mouse. But this clearly shows that partnerships with likeminded people is important. Partnerships with anyone and everyone need not work out beneficially every time.
Another one of Walt Disney’s partnerships was with a small New York stationary store. This store was the only store for a very long time to have the rights to the Mickey Mouse logo. The firm paid $300 in 1929 for the rights. Walt Disney at that time needed every nickel he could get and hence made the deal. Although this was a very small amount and a small deal, it opened Disney’s eyes to the various business prospects which were possible. A few years later, he licensed the sale of Mickey Mouse watches, which initially sold at the rate of about 1 million per year. In the 1930s, the Mickey Mouse Book is said to have pulled the company from the edge of bankruptcy. When Disney Land was being made, the cost was about 17 million dollars and Walt could only come up with about half of it. At this point, he signed agreements with Frito Lay and Coca Cola giving them exclusive concessions in Disney Land. He also brought in small unknown partners , a corset maker, a real estate agency to set up shop in the park. Kodak also made a big profit by making a deal with Disney in the initial years. It is said that 5 percent of all the photos taken in North America are taken in Disney Land or Walt Disney World. The profit made by Kodak in this endeavour can only be imagined.
Taking risk is one of the ingredients of success anywhere. Walt Disney identified this and daring to dare is one of the reasons as to why Disney is Disney today. Disney pioneered the use of sound in animation with “Steamboat Willie”. He signed his contract with Technicolor before the revolutionary process had even been accepted in the industry. He originated feature length cartoons with “Snow White” and defied all odds by making people willingly sit for a 90 minute cartoon. Even the concept of Disney Land was the first of its kind. Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca’s decision to make the mini van which became a huge success later over General motors and Ford is also mentioned. Disney’s endeavour in the Broadway was also a risky venture. The opening of Lion King was a huge risk mainly because the company had poured in a lot of money into renovating the theatre. The end result was fabulous with one of the reviews calling it “A visual tapestry”.
It is always important for a company’s employees to be trained perfectly so that they can perform well and in turn the company performs well. Walt Disney practiced this principle and believed that every employee should go through a training program where they are taught the values of the organisation which each and every employee is expected to practice while working. When an employee does not perform well, the original training imparted is re examined. It is important to make excellence a habit and not a target was the motto of the training program. The very fact that all employees are empowered to take decisions means that they are all in sync with the company’s values and beliefs. This will in turn lead to good customer service and in turn good marketing and generation of revenue as already illustrated previously.
Disney might seem like magic to all of us, but its existence is not magic. It is the vision of an individual which was realised by planning and methodical execution. Conception, creation, risk evaluation and mitigation coupled with appropriate amount of research will see the success of any organisation. Walt Disney recognized that although creativity does require space to grow, the generation of ideas is considered part of the corporate process and requires careful management. This Project Management Process facilitates communication and the holistic thinking that everyone is working for the common good.
Walt Disney originally conceived the idea that eventually became known as “Storyboarding” as a way to keep track of the thousands of drawings necessary to achieve full animation of cartoon features. From its genesis in animation, the technique has spread to many other areas. Advertising agencies now use storyboarding to sketch out commercials before they shoot them. Storyboarding involves giving everyone a full picture of what is happening and hence is a very effective technique as compared to flip charts as only one step is seen at a time in such techniques. The story boarding process is said to be like building a house and entails a logical progression. This technique was even known as “A Real Mickey Mouse technique”.
Perfection is something most of us want to achieve in whatever we do. The difference between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t is often this very word. Paying attention to detail is very important if you are a perfectionist. Walt Disney and Disney have instilled in themselves this quality of perfection without a doubt which has helped them excel. For example – When it was discovered that a merry go round at Walt Disney World was installed 2 inches off centre, the company insisted that it be moved. This is the attention to detail. Who would notice you wonder. But the Disney folk seem to believe that this will give their guests imperfect pictures and hence giving them imperfect memories. So the cost did not matter, the customers did and this kind of commitment can only be termed as perfection. Constant feedback and gaining response of how your implemented methods can be bettered are very important if your goal is perfection. Pretty much like the PDCA cycle.
Walt Disney is truly a remarkable man, as outlined by the continued success of the organization he started in 1922. The Disney techniques in management, partnerships, advertising or be it marketing have all over time proven themselves true to the success of the organization. The book also gives a good insight on how other companies have succeeded by applying the techniques practiced by Disney. Truly, this book is inspiring in many ways and I have even considered applying to this organisation and getting any job they offer just to understand the way the function and to experience the feeling of being a part of supreme quality. Ending this review with a statement made by Walt Disney.
“To all those who have come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past ...and here youth may savour the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America...with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”
- Walt Disney, July 17, 1955
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