Within the pages of Disney U, a captivating story unfolds describing the development program designed for Disney employees. Many times reading a perfunctory book that is designed to improve one’s skills in leadership is, well, not a delight to read. However, Disney U is able to grab the reader’s attention and guide them through a thought provoking journey of ground breaking leadership tactics, inventive training methods, and creating an engaging environment for an employee.
Disneyland was Walt Disney’s dream of a theme park that would be, in his words, “The Happiest Place on Earth”. Walt understood too well that the people that were hired would need to be taught how to create that elusive atmosphere. He called on Van France to assist him in creating what has become a world renowned training program. This program taught their employees, or “cast members”, to achieve the ultimate result, a “good show”.
Walt and Van were known to be visionaries, always reaching for what seemed to be unattainable goals in guest experience. Perfection to them is every guest feeling that they are in “The Happiest Place on Earth” and enjoying the best show they have experienced. They were in fact able to reach these goals because they listened to feedback from everyone. These dedicated leaders especially took the time to hear from the people who knew Disneyland better than anyone, the employees that worked there every day. Walt and Van would solicit the feedback from all employees, not
Lee Cockerell was the Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World for over ten years, but he did not gain this position overnight. He had years of hard work and dedication that lead him to this position. His humble beginnings instilled the value of hard work and basic management skills into his life. He discovered along the way through being an intimidating manager that something in his management style was not working. He evaluated himself and decided to become a better leader. His improved management skills are responsible for his climb up the corporate ladder. In the position as an executive at Walt Disney World, he wrote the strategies that were used to create the Disney Institute program that have created many successes for the company. Upon his retirement, Cockerell decided to share these strategies with other managers and leaders across disciplines so that they might be able to have success as well. He decided to do this by collecting his thoughts, tips, and strategies in a novel called Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney.
Disney goal is to satisfy their guests, employees, and businesses. While making the company a desirable place to work through their consumer social responsibility efforts. Walt Disney performs strongly in customer satisfaction and giving back to the community and also helping the environment. Enrique Vazquez is currently a Walt Disney Company employee at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. He talked about his experiences with Disney and it being the greatest and how he loves the work experiences. He said “I love how the Walt Disney Company trained me when I first was employed one years ago. I enjoy how they treat and care about their employees” (Vazquez, 2014). He explains to me how he has never had a bad experience or had any problems while working for Disney. He receives great health benefits, negotiable wage raises, and great amount of vacations and free theme park entrances for him, his family, and his friends. He says Disney is a good working environment and treats their employees well. He has no complaints.
Walt Disney Productions prestige is to never disappoint and their latest movie Frozen, is no exception. The movie centers around the lives of two sisters, kind-hearted Anna and the frightened Snow Queen Elsa. Fearless Anna sets off on a journey to find her sister, who flees to an icy mountain after she accidentally traps the kingdom of Arendelle in an eternal winter with her ice powers. Disney’s 2013 animated film reeled in its target audience and more; the film was intended to appeal to children’s of all ages, however, surprisingly enough it enticed a wider audience largely comprised of non-families. Disney’s reputation for promoting happiness and the well-being of American families led to the direct success of the movie Frozen. The film met its purpose, depicting a touching storyline – showing the importance of family and undermining the traditional concept of “true love.” Furthermore, Walt Disney Productions established sufficient credibility within its viewers and audience with the use of artistic proofs such as; ethos, logos, and pathos. Disney’s tradition is to provide the audience with an educational piece of entertainment, Frozen is undeniably one of those Disney animated films worth seeing. Walt Disney Productions strategic use of rhetoric made it evident that the movie was going to be an all-time hit – some may even say “the biggest children’s film of all time” – simply because it was just that, a Disney movie.
After reading this chapter one can see that the magical aspect created for guest has many components involved and is a great lesson for all service-oriented companies. The lesson learned is that Walt Disney’s magic is created by producing exceptional quality of service. This includes innovation, beauty, families coming
And now, nearly four decades after his death, the maker of said creations, Walt Disney, is not nearly as recognized as he should be. Not only are his works and other projects intriguing, his morals and techniques personally behind them are as well. And yet they weren’t just his morals, they were shared by the country’s people who so desired an example of good principles. Perhaps the most significant scheme of all was his creation of his very own amusement park in 1955, Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California.
Walt had a mind that always told stories behind his ideas not just coming right out with his many ideas. Walt had a partner's statue with him holding the famous creation Mickey Mouse hand first made in the Magic Kingdom by Gibson. We begin to talk about Disney three main parts to running a great magically business for guests. The first one we talked about was customer/ guest satisfaction working as a team to help keep that magically alive. The second one we talked about was employee/cast excellence you want the cast to dress the part based on the story to always giving the guest there magically experience. The last one we talked about was the financial/ business Results bringing money into the company not just lowering prices because if Disney was to lower prices the park would be overcrowded. You would not want for your guest to be in an environment that would cause a safe hazardous with many people in one place. He was telling us about how if the prices were to be lower the park would bring more guests but would cause for a park to be overly crowded which would cause guests not to really enjoy themselves I actually agree with that because of the fact people wouldn’t really be able to get around the park easily. We then talked about Disney story line Walt first coming up with a story, having a storyboard with a musical score than the script coming up with the dialogue. He then having the character animation with the layout and background plus the effects, clean up, last but not least computer animated system and sound effects to set the mood. We learned about Disney speak employee will be called cast member, the job would be the role, the uniform would be a costume, customers would be guests, with customers would be on stage, employee only area would be backstage not using your phone, customer area would be
In this aspect of the employee program, Disney uses the multimedia platform of communicating its corporate values and work ethics to its employees. Through training videos developed specifically for Disney, employees are given inspiration and
Whether through escorting my younger sister to the Disney Animation slate of the early nineties, working with the College Program or introducing my own children to my Disney favorites, while they have introduced me to theirs; Disney has always been a big part of my life. So much so, that during my Hal Craft Leadership Program last summer when asked to define my leadership style, Pixar was the lens through which I shared my vision. Earlier that same week, I used “Quality will Out” as the motto for an imaginary company we created during an exercise.
Overall, through ‘Transformational Leadership’, Walt openly communicated his vision into the infrastructure of Disney and instilled values and a sense of purpose among his employees. With a wanted trust and respect for followers, he was able to encourage and challenge traditional methods to harness better, innovative ways to solutions (Flower 1991). Ruling by consensus, his consideration for the individual needs of his followers made him an ideal teacher and coach for his enterprise (Davis 2008).
Employees play a pivotal role in the development of a company. They can help build a positive corporate environment. It is extremely important for a company to contain valuable workers that can contribute to the work of the company. An employee can either help build or destroy a company. Today Walt Disney Co. represents one of the most diverse and largest human resource companies nationwide. This explains the success of the company because most of their entertainment relies on people skills, teamwork and cooperation. Despite the advancement of Disney’s company, Disney employees did not often agree with the ways he treated them. In 1941, Disney employees held one of the longest strikes in history (Disney Strike 1941 how it changed animation,2005).
Are Disney theme parks truly the happiest place on earth? According to Carmine Gallo, a contributor to Forbes, it is not the rides or attractions that continuously bring people to the theme park, but the “over the top” customer service. Disney provides an atmosphere in which establishes a relationship with customers, giving them the experience of a life time. From the cleanliness of the park, to the friendliness of the staff, Disney holds high expectations on service, keeping customers talking to others (word of mouth) as well as revisiting the park. Everyone is important when they walk into the theme park, and the staff accommodates to every need possible, making Disney’s standards for service above the rest. Why do more businesses not use service as a way to change people’s lives, establishing a lifetime relationship or partnership? We will examine what Disney does to truly give people the ultimate theme park experience, and the expectations of their business.
In 1964, Walt Disney began to secretly buy millions of dollar’s worth of central Florida (History). Also known as “D” Day for Orlando, Walt announced that he planned to build a spectacular theme park. Micky Mouse was one of the characters that got to escort some of the first visitors into the magic Kingdom. Numerous people including celebrities took part in the celebrations (History). Disney World has the incredible ability to turn every vacation into a once in a life time experience (Don). The attention in detail that Walt put into the park makes it seem almost magical to many. An example of the details of Disney World would be their rides. Many parks rides can feature a ton of steel, pipes, and fences (Albert). Disney makes their rides have a good theme along the way and one can hardly see any sight of backstage stairs up the roller coaster or fences around the ride (Albert). Everywhere someone would look not only on the rides there will be pleasing to the eye, funny or fits in with the theme of the land (Albert).
No one knows more about this kind of leadership then Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Disney World for over a decade. He formed the cultural bedrock of the world’s number one vacation destination. Lee shows great leadership is not about mastering complex management but by following his common sense strategies outlined in this book. His leadership lessons include, Everyone is important, Make your people your brand, Burn the free fuel: appreciation, recognition, and encouragement. Also give people a purpose, not just a job, are just a few of the remarkable lessons that follow in this
Culture and Training: The early pioneers of business understood the value of a strong corporate culture. Walt Disney often attributed his impressive growth and prosperity to the cohesive culture found in his organization. What separated Disney from others at the time was a deliberate and conscious effort to strengthen and align the culture towards the values and mission of the company. Disney took great measures to ensure the culture was influenced through all employee development initiatives. Each program shared common themes, designs, and symbolism that reinforced key values at
My dream had finally come true; I was at Disneyland. The second I stepped foot onto the amusement park’s property, I could feel the magic swirling all around me. As I raced through the crowds of people, young and old wearing Disney apparel and Mickey Mouse ears, I noticed every aspect of Disneyland was completely enchanting: the