Page 72 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

You Better Believe It 53

No company outdoes Disney in concern for its guests. But even Disney
has occasionally made mistakes by failing to align short-term missions
with overall beliefs and values. In the end, the company had to change its
approach.
When its Pleasure Island attraction at Walt Disney World opened with a
jazz club, restaurants, and nightclubs, it was intended as a place for guests to
go after other attractions had closed. The entertainment was still geared for
the family, though, and even the nightclub atmosphere was relatively sedate.
But in a reversal of Disney’s usual policy, Pleasure Island was not gated; any-
one could just walk right in. Problems arose almost immediately at this new
entertainment complex. In the words of the company, “The fact that it was
an ‘ungated’ attraction led to a number of security and guest-service issues.”
Some guests were disturbed by the entertainment offered at the night-
clubs, the company discovered, claiming it was too close to adult entertain-
ment and not appropriate for their teenage children. It didn’t take long for
Disney to respond to the complaints. Within a year, new leadership entered
the scene and used a similar matrix (see Figure 3-2) to highlight where the
misalignment to the Disney measurement criteria had taken place. Once
the misalignment was identified, a new vision of Pleasure Island was created
to conform to the overall measurement criteria of the Disney theme park.
The attraction was gated to control the entrances and promote safety; the
entrance policy was changed to bar teenagers, with or without parents; night-
club entertainment was aimed at audiences between the ages of 22 and 45.
In this case, The Walt Disney Company briefly lost sight of the vision
that had guided it for so many years, but in typical Disney fashion, it wasn’t
long before the mistake was rectified. Management’s swift reaction saved the
attraction from failure and turned it into a success.
You may not share all of Walt Disney’s beliefs. He insisted, for example, that
every production celebrate, nurture, and promote “wholesome American values.”
Cynicism was verboten at all levels. He could not and would not countenance a
cynical attitude in his films, among his employees, or even from potential partner
companies. Whatever your particular beliefs and values are, however, they should
serve as a filter through which all decisions pass in order to test their validity and
worthiness. The German writer Goethe observed that “when values are clear,
laws are unnecessary. When values are not clear, laws are unenforceable.”
Nor do we expect that most organizations will want to establish their
own universities to train employees. Nevertheless, they can devise a process
that will effectively communicate beliefs and values to employees, partners,