Page 292 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

The Magic Continues 273

decisions to create those special moments for their customers. Be it the door-
man at Four Seasons, or the hairdresser at John Robert’s, or the manager at
Ernst & Young—they all know that management has entrusted them with
one of the most important elements of any business: the customer experi-
ence. An empowered workforce is a self-motivated workforce.
Like Disney, our featured organizations have a working definition of
“long-term” that speaks volumes about culture. In the typical company, long-
term thinking relates to a strategic objective for adding products, services, and
perhaps new locations. Companies such as Four Seasons and The Cheesecake
Factory define long-term thinking in terms of values and beliefs upon which
their growth is based. They go to great lengths to ensure that their cultures
can support new ventures and still remain true to their credos.
Arguably the most important part of Walt’s leadership definition is
“mutual respect and trust.” Without exception, these two values represent
a common thread woven through each of these organizations from The
Cheesecake Factory’s five-year profit-sharing programs that rival many
30-year retirement plans, to the Downtown School’s teachers who never
raise their voices in anger in their classrooms, to Ernst & Young’s “People
First” philosophy, to Four Seasons Hotels’ Golden Rule strategy, to Griffin
Hospital employees’ willingness to risk their jobs to retain their cherished
leader, to John Robert’s relationship with the patients and families of
Cleveland’s Children’s Hospital, to Men’s Wearhouse leaders who take
responsibility when their employees fail.
Since the dawn of our new century, these seven organizations have
cemented their “best practices” success. We believe that Walt Disney would
be proud of their many accomplishments and especially for the proof that
there is still magic in his original credo: Dream, Believe, Dare, Do.

In Tune with the Nation

Disney thrives on the business of making magic. Success of the magnitude
Disney has achieved always brings out the critics and the fear-mongers, those
who cry that the company is too powerful and wields too much influence in
our society. But investors don’t share the angst; for the past 20 years, they
have driven the price of the company’s stock higher and beat the S&P per-
formance by over threefold. They sense that The Walt Disney Company has
its finger firmly on the pulse of the nation, indeed the world.