Page 220 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Chapter 11

Give Details

Top Billing

There are two words that make [operations] work around here . . .
quality and pride. If you design, build, operate, and maintain with quality,
people will take pride in what they do. 72
Dick Nunis (Retired Chairman, Walt Disney Attractions)

usiness people of every stripe place a great deal of importance on
seeing the “big picture” or coming up with the grand idea. But sel-
Bdom understood is the fact that details give the big picture depth;
they bring the grand idea clearly into focus and produce pride in workers’
skills. Paying attention to the little things is what turns the vision into a top-
quality product or an outstanding service. As the great architect Mies van der
Rohe once put it, “God is in the details.” 73
No one had to tell Walt Disney the significance that seeming trifles can
have when excellence is the goal. Perhaps because he possessed an artist’s eye,
he recognized that attention to detail was the key to complete realization of
his dreams. As a result, the company he founded has no equal when it comes
to creating the thousands of intricate drawings needed to produce nonpa-
reil animation, bring together the mind-boggling number of parts required
to build a Disneyland or a Walt Disney World, or carefully attend to the
numerous small details that make every guest’s experience a magical one.
Often overlooked in Disney’s awe-inspiring success is how the company
as an organization has managed to give extravagant attention to detail without
bankrupting itself. It has achieved a careful balance between the competing

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