Page 13 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

xii The Disney Way

are known only to those to whose lives they have brought meaning. One is a
quiet visionary named David Overton, CEO of The Cheesecake Factory. David
is the classic embodiment of perfectionism, having launched the now legend-
ary mega-menu, themed restaurants characterized by seemingly endless lines of
people anticipating a divine culinary experience. Another is Patrick Charmel,
the so-called “community savior” of Griffin Hospital, who transformed this
ill-reputed facility rapidly approaching bankruptcy to a cutting-edge profit-
able provider of healthcare, now the envy of its esteemed southern neighbor,
Yale Medical Center. Rounding out the list of the featured organizations are
Downtown School of Des Moines, Ernst & Young, Four Seasons Hotels &
Resorts, John Robert’s Spa (Cleveland area), and Men’s Wearhouse.
The revised edition of The Disney Way will captivate readers by these real-
world stories of Dream, Believe, Dare, Do passion that testify to the importance
of holding dear a set of self-evident and unwavering values. These four simple
principles have been practiced by great leaders for decades, standing against the
proliferation of fads and so-called new economy success principles that quickly
fade from view. The industry and community leaders in these inspiring tales are
dedicated to the long term, building their futures one step at a time.
At the end of each chapter is a riveting example of how one of the featured
organizations has put into action the lessons of the chapter. Adherence to The
Disney Way principles of Dream, Believe, Dare, Do has sparked these leaders
and their teams to achieve great things together. How each of these seven
leaders applied Walt’s four principles is the subject of Chapter 13.
At the time of the original writing of The Disney Way, the Disney organi-
zation was the envy of every CEO. Disney had it all: a decade of stock increases
beating the S&P average tenfold; growing theme-park attendance; animation
blockbusters that ruled the box office, rivaling Walt’s earlier classics; and a
culture of innovation, mutual respect, and trust.
With the 2000 recession, the horrific acts of 9/11, and stock prices plum-
meting, suddenly everyone had it in for the Mouse. In 2004, Roy Disney
(Walt’s nephew) rallied stockholders to oust Eisner: Pixar severed its ties with
the company; and Wall Street demanded loftier results. The stage was set for
the death of Disney’s image as “the happiest place on earth.”
In 1984, when Michael Eisner and Frank Wells were respectively named
CEO and president, they demonstrated the leadership to launch the Disney
organization from status quo to the iconic international organization it argu-
ably remains today. For a multitude of reasons (one being the tragic death of
Wells in 1994), by the late 1990s Michael had lost the “pixie dust” that had