Page 30 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Walt's Way 11

life without dreams to make life better, and the same holds true with
our business and our practice.

In the chapters that follow, you will see how the Dream, Believe, Dare,
Do principles are being put into action on a daily basis by organizations from
healthcare to manufacturing. We will share our insights as to how even Disney
stumbled along the way, especially over the last decade of Michael Eisner’s
regime, and we will present our recommendations for re-creating the magic.
We will follow the Whirlpool Global No-Frost team in a series of sidebars
as they experience and test the limits of each of the highlighted guidelines.
Last, we will feature seven dynamic organizations that share an inner compass
that steers their course: deeply held values that have crystallized and led them
to achieve tangible results. The leaders in these inspiring tales are dedicated
to the long term, building their futures one step at a time. Most of all, they
continue to prosper in both personal and financial measures. These illustra-
tions in practice, combined with a list of questions to ask and actions to take,
will help you to make Walt’s way your way.
We, however, are not suggesting that managers merely imitate Disney.
Obviously, each company’s and each individual’s situation is different, and
the wholesale adoption of another’s methods is neither wise nor practical.
But more importantly, Disney itself has won continued success by constantly
reinventing its products to maintain superb quality. To imitate another and
adopt a particular method lock, stock, and barrel implies a contentment with
the status quo that flies in the face of everything Walt stood for.
Rather, we believe that gaining an understanding of the hows and whys of
The Walt Disney Company’s growth and excellence, and embracing the spirit of
Walt’s four-pillared philosophy will enable businesspeople everywhere to inno-
vate, make changes, and find their own unique pathways to continued success.

A Groundbreaking Project

In the mid-1990s, we became consultants to the Whirlpool Company
during a restructuring that the Evansville Technology Center was prepar-
ing to undertake. In the process, one of our challenges was to set up teams
for a variety of different projects. Among these, there was one team whose
mission it was to design a radically new refrigerator for the company’s
global markets, which stretch from Latin America to Europe and Asia.
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