Page 31 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

12 The Disney Way

This story begins when the company decided that the refrigerator it sold
abroad had to have a different design and be smaller than the refrigerator sold
in the United States. In other words, this was, technologically, a completely
new product, which needed to be built from a different set of blueprints.
The project was a groundbreaker from the beginning. Not only was
the refrigerator a departure from previous products, but the approach to
the implementation of its engineering, its design, and its marketing was a
departure from accepted procedures. And the team we helped to establish
to carry through these plans, from the first step to the last, was as much
of a groundbreaker as the product itself.
We developed a close relationship with Jerry McColgin, who had
been appointed leader of the team. An engineer by training who also
had marketing experience, Jerry had led a team before. It had been a
disappointing experience, but he had come away from it with a vision
of how this global team should be created and how it would function.
Later, when we reviewed the progress and the final success of the team,
we concluded that here was a group of people, diverse in profession and
in nationality, who exemplified everything that Walt Disney meant when
he talked about his dreams, his beliefs, and his willingness to take risks
in the execution of his vision. It is for this reason that we have decided
to tell the story of this team, from its inception to its final celebration
of success.

Our Featured Organization: Men’s Wearhouse

I GUARANTEE IT!

George Zimmer, founder and CEO of Men’s Wearhouse, is a leader in the
Walt Disney mold of dreaming, daring, and following gut instincts. Having
crafted one of the largest men’s business attire retail organizations in the
United States on a simple slogan, George is the antithesis of a traditional
CEO. Seated behind his modest desk cloaked in a dark sweater and sport-
ing an unlit cigar in the corner of his mouth, he seems as relaxed as a party
host who is totally prepared for the guests to arrive. He is as charming as he
seems delivering his now famous trademark line, “You’re going to like the
way you look. I guarantee it.” He seems an unlikely candidate for the TV
commercial spot, and when asked why he chose to be the spokesperson, he