Page 58 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

You Better Believe It 39

abroad. Its aim is to ensure that workplace standards and business practices
in foreign operations are in line with company policies.
When tough competition in the mid-1990s forced the company to close
11 of its 37 factories and lay off more than 6,000 employees—its first major
cutback in more than 140 years of operation—the experience was an under-
standably painful one for management. In characteristic fashion, the company
set about making careful preparations to ease the trauma of the layoffs. Each
affected employee was given eight months’ notice, and $31,000 per laid-off
employee was put aside to help facilitate job searches. The company worked
with unions and with local governments to get retraining programs off the
ground quickly. Every step taken by Levi Strauss was an expression of its core
values and its basic respect for each individual in its workforce.
“Our people will know,” CEO Robert Haas said, “that if bad things hap-
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pen, they will be treated much better than they would be elsewhere.” In the
midst of extremely difficult times, both financially and culturally, the company
held firm to its values while also making sure that its product continued to be
the best it could be.
Offering your customers the best product or service means not only
establishing certain values, as Walt Disney did, but also having the good sense
to recognize when the situation dictates that one value takes precedence over
another. Walt insisted on safety, courtesy, the good show, and efficiency, but
he also expected common sense to prevail. First and foremost, it was never
permissible to jeopardize a guest’s safety in any way, at any time, no matter
what the attraction or performance. That meant that if a child was in danger of
falling out of a Jungle Cruise Boat, for example, courtesy, show, and efficiency
temporarily fell by the wayside until the situation was corrected. Or if someone
was having difficulty understanding directions, courtesy to that guest won out
over show and efficiency.
By the same token, the concept of the good show carried more weight
than did a desire for efficient operations. Excellence at every level was, and is,
the watchword at Disney, because Walt believed that only by giving audiences
the best of entertainment could he live up to his core values of honesty and
reliability. He refused to take short cuts merely to inflate the bottom line.
Dick Nunis, retired chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, started his career
selling popcorn at Disneyland. One of the jobs Dick had on his way up the
corporate ladder was managing the Jungle Cruise Boat attraction at Disneyland.
Shortly after being promoted to manager, Dick devised a way to save money
whenever the wait times become too long. Scheduling more boats meant more