Page 27 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

8 The Disney Way

was completed. There was nothing new about Disney’s reaching for perfec-
tion, but the park was on a tight schedule with opening day near at hand,
and this idea clearly seemed to be a waste of time and money. Imagine ask-
ing your janitors, elevator operators, or other low-level employees for critical
input about a new product or service just before you’re ready to launch it.
Disney’s request was a bit farfetched. Or was it?
Although a great deal of what Disney did sounds strange to many man-
agers, this was Walt’s way of doing whatever needed to be done to achieve
his vision. It was another way of making absolutely sure that everything was
the best that it could be and that nothing was missing.
As it turned out, something was missing from a swashbuckling
Disneyland attraction called The Pirates of the Caribbean. A construction
worker, or “cast member” in Disney’s language, who happened to hail from
Louisiana bayou country, approached the boss after taking the ride and told
him, “Something’s missing, but I can’t figure out what it is.”
“Ride it again and keep on riding until you’ve figured it out,” Walt
told him.
Finally, after repeated trips through Disney’s Caribbean, the cast mem-
ber realized what was wrong: in tropical climates, the night should be alive
with fireflies, but there were none on this attraction. In short order, Walt
Disney saw to it that his version of a Caribbean fantasy had fireflies blinking
in the dark.
Whether it was fireflies in a theme park attraction, the portrayal of a
wise and lovable cricket, the treatment of a Disney “guest,” or the removal
of a candy wrapper threatening to litter Disneyland’s landscape, Walt was
a perfectionist down to the last detail. As for those candy wrappers, it isn’t
only the staff of street cleaners that is charged with litter removal at Disney
parks. Any employee who spots a bit of trash sweeps it up practically before it
flutters to the ground. That is part of the Disney culture that is ingrained in
everyone from the beginning. Employees of The Walt Disney Company are
trained extensively, and the Disney mindset is constantly reinforced because
Walt considered such an approach essential to executing his vision.
He also knew that execution was impossible without a framework within
which ideas could be effectively implemented while controlling costs. To that
end, the company follows a rigorous process of project management. And to
solve problems that arrive in planning and communicating project ideas, it
has adapted the storyboarding technique originally used to keep track of the
thousands of drawings needed for animation of cartoon features.