Page 69 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

50 The Disney Way

and superb talent will choose CVR because of its hot, progressive environ-
ment, where people don’t care about what you look like or where you come
from. At CVR, mediocrity is condemned. Superlative work sets the bar.
Caldwell employees will celebrate life, achieving a positive balance between
their professional and personal lives, fostered by the environment at CVR.
Client marketing problems are not just resolved at CVR, they are attacked
and consumed by staffers, culminating in a reputation that transcends the
definition of traditional communications. Experts and editors nationwide will
eagerly seek out CVR staffers to tap into its communication mindset, which is
akin to a band of well-trained, highly armed guerillas storming a stronghold.
Winning awards and achieving 30 percent growth annually are considered by
staffers to be a by-product of CVR’s savage and unyielding commitment to
brilliant solutions.

Aligning the Mission

The Walt Disney Company is part of an industry that draws its strength from
artistic talent, an intangible asset. At the same time, however, it must keep an
eye on the very tangible bottom line. This is the kind of balancing act that
concerns many businesses, not just those involved in providing entertain-
ment. We help our clients to understand that missions clearly aligned with
the overall values and beliefs of an organization produce hard-core business
success. A visionary spirit can indeed rejuvenate a slumbering company. We
have seen it happen often.
On one such occasion, we had the privilege of working with Jake Egan,
former manager of the product-testing lab at the Whirlpool Refrigeration
Technology Center. Jake was managing two pilot teams, the “testers” and the
“technicians,” in the organization’s new cultural initiative. We asked both
teams to individually contemplate their missions and draft statements that
embodied their decisions.
The technician team’s resulting statement seemed like motherhood and
apple pie. Their generic sentences could easily have been pulled from any text-
book or corporate mission statement poster. In a group meeting, we weighed
the value of the statements against the following criteria: Does the mission
address a means as well as an end? In other words, does it address how the
mission should be accomplished as well as its desired result? Does it meet
stakeholder needs, and is there buy-in from the critical stakeholders? Will the
mission be used as the constitution?