Page 130 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

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Indicative of how much the company values the personal touch is the
three-day get-together Eisner planned prior to the Disney-Capital Cities/ABC
merger in 1996. The CEO invited 200 people—executives and their spouses—
from ABC television and The Walt Disney Company to the Disney Institute
in Florida so that the two companies could build a more personal relationship.
This may have been the last true act of partnering performed by Michael
Eisner at Disney. It seems that Michael lost the “pixie dust” that once enabled
him to re-instill the magic in Disney’s once floundering movie studio. During
Michael’s last 10 years, he dismantled arguably the most accomplished group
of animation artists in the history of the industry and severed ties with Pixar.
Destroying this partnership may have proved to be the final curtain on
Michael Eisner’s stage at Disney. The recently ordained CEO, Robert Iger,
has repeatedly stated that he is determined to restore artistic integrity at all
levels of Disney. His actions speak louder than words. Mere months after tak-
ing the reins of the Disney organization, Iger announced the acquisition of
Pixar. Pixar’s creative genius, John Lasseter, was named chief creative officer
of the animation studios, as well as principal creative advisor at Walt Disney
Imagineering. Reporting directly to Iger, Lasseter will lend his expertise in
the design of new attractions for Disney theme parks around the world. The
verdict is still out, but the Pixar deal could be the catalyst for rejuvenating
animation in the tradition of Walt Disney’s original classics. By all initial
accounts, Iger is a leader who understands the fragility of new teams and
intends to carefully protect the relationships he is developing with Pixar.
As we stated in Scene 12 of The Disney Way Fieldbook: How to Implement
Walt Disney’s Vision of “Dream, Believe, Dare, Do,” establishing solid partner-
ships helps create a “best show” experience for your guests and cast and will
lead to profitable financial results. This was certainly true for Mello Smello,
founded by husband and wife team Jon and Leah Miner, who teamed up
with 3M in 1980 to create and produce “Scratch ‘n’ Smell” stickers of Disney
characters. Over the past 20 years, Mello Smello has developed an innovative
variety of other products and has also grown to become a multi-million dol-
lar business and a valued partner to the nation’s largest retailers, including
Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreen’s, and Kmart.
In 1986, the late Evelyn Overton, founder and co-owner of The
Cheesecake Factory, learned how accepting the guidance of a larger and
better-known branded company could result in a great partnership. Evelyn
had always prided herself on her strict methods of creating fabulous cheese-
cakes. Cleanliness and accuracy were huge factors in each and every step of