DizBiz: Walk the Walk

First published May 13, 2003

By C. W. Oberleitner

C. W. Oberleitner begins a series that will explain why the coming 50th Anniversary of Disneyland means so much to people all over the world. And why all too many folks inside the Walt Disney Company just don't seem to understand why this will be such an important event in our cultural history.

There is one word recognized anywhere on Earth that is likely to bring a smile to all who hear it and occasionally a tear to the eye. That word is Disneyland.

With few exceptions the executives at The Walt Disney Company do not fully comprehend the scope and value of the social and cultural legacy of Disneyland. When asked virtually everyone at the company will tell you what a treasure the park is but time and again during the past decade Disneyland has seen its reputation for innovation, imagination and customer service compromised in favor of short term financial gain by these very same people.

MBA 101

Contrary to what you may have read on the Internet the management team at The Walt Disney Company does not spend their days deliberately planning the dismantling of the legacy and traditions of the company and its flagship theme park. The men and women who run the WDC are dedicated, hard working, highly skilled business management professionals.

At its Burbank headquarters the WDC has one of the highest concentrations of MBAs in Southern California. There are hundreds of men and women trained by the finest business schools in the country staffing its many divisions. That same training, however, is at least partially responsible for the wide spread notion among Disney fans and watchers that management has lost sight of what it is that makes Disney, Disney.

The very first lesson the nation's business schools teach prospective MBAs is that business careers are no longer forty years of dedicated service to a single employer followed by a retirement party, gold watch, hearty handshake and comfy pension. MBA candidates quickly learn that their future and their fortunes are bound not by loyalty to one company but rather by how rapidly they can achieve success within a given company before circumstances require them to move on to other opportunities.

This conceit, like the proverbial double edge sword has its good points and its bad. It allows new businesses, and well run established ones, to embrace rapid change and new ways of doing things. Think coffee for a minute. By the 1980s it was a commodity selling for roughly thirty-five cents a cup with free refills. Nobody was making any money out of pouring coffee. Now think Starbucks. Millions of people paying two dollars or more for a wide variety of never before heard of types and flavors of coffee. And, no free refills.

On the other hand, in order to be able to achieve great success embracing change and new ideas you have to be prepared to not only let go of what came before but you have to be prepared to turn your back on it completely. If you aren't lucky enough to be working for a company that produces goods or services you really like and believe in, you have to be prepared to put your employer's success over and above the quality of those goods or services. Think cigarettes.

Actually I have a better example. Years ago I was called upon to consult with the promotions department of the home video division of a small film studio. My job was to help straighten out their data management systems. Because their systems were so heavily integrated with their daily operations I had to sit in on many of their meetings and learn the business.

Their business was to create promotional events that would increase the rentals and sales of the VHS versions of the studio's films. The problem was that most of the films this studio released were awful. The movies were so bad, well let's just say I could do twenty minutes of stand up about the quality or lack thereof in these films.

Not that it mattered to the staff of the promotions division. They spent dozens of hours in meetings planning the "consumer" launch of the "product". With a level of skill and precision that the Pentagon would envy they strategized every possible promotional scheme. From vacation sweepstakes to give-away glow in the dark blow up vinyl furniture no possible promotional tool was ever overlooked. The movies weren't even secondary to this process. The promotions staff rarely discussed the films and screened them even less. If they were seen at all it was usually by unpaid interns.

The promotions division was successful. Rentals of the films they promoted frequently doubled or tripled the amount of revenue a film brought in during theatrical release. With each successful promotional release the account executives involved promptly updated their resumes to reflect their part in that success. These bright talented people saw their jobs not as one of delivering a quality product to market but rather one of being a means to an end. That end being to get a better paying job.

The lesson here is that these folks began their careers by applying their skills to successfully marketing products with which they had little to no personal involvement. For the rest of their careers it will be virtually impossible to persuade them that first hand knowledge of the products or services they will be working with is in any way essential to successfully marketing those products or services.

It is this same type of thinking that has left many Disney fans and customers scratching their heads while trying to follow the logic of some of company's recent business decissions. Take for example the decision to hold the celebration of Walt Disney's 100^th birthday at the Florida property in Orlando. From a strictly business point of view this was a perfectly logical thing to do.

The Florida property is enormous. The Walt Disney Company owns thousands of hotel rooms and dozens of restaurants at Walt Disney World. There are four theme parks, two water parks, multiple shopping districts and a nightclub district. Compared to the company's newly expanded Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Walt Disney World was clearly the place to generate the greatest return on the marketing and promotional dollars invested in the 100 Years of Magic celebration. After all turning a profit and providing shareholder value is what being in business is all about.

The only problem with the decision to hold the 100 Years of Magic celebration in Florida was that Walt actually spent very little of his lifetime in Florida. He lived and worked in Southern California for more than forty years. His death in 1966 came before the opening of the first Florida theme park. The majority of people still around who knew and worked with Walt live in Southern California. Most overlooked of all was the fact that Southern California is the home of the one WDC theme park most associated with Walt himself, Disneyland.

Unlike Walt Disney World's resort wide yearlong celebration Disneyland celebrated Walt's 100^th birthday by rededicating the Partners statue on his birthday and offering a few commemorative merchandise items.

By the way, there's an interesting story about how the Partners statue came to be in the center of the Hub at Disneyland. There isn't time to tell it here. Let's just say it has to do with one of Imagineering's better ideas for keeping the "suits" from ruining Disneyland's sightlines. If you'd like to know more drop Jim a line and ask him to tell you the whole story.

You Heard It Here First

In yet another example of fuzzy corporate logic last week the Disneyland Resort confirmed what was first reported on April 8 in this column, Rumor Roundup. On Saturday June 28, Disneyland will close at 6:00 PM so that Walt Disney Pictures will be able to hold the premiere of their summer film release Pirates of The Caribbean The Curse of The Black Pearl.

At first glance the idea of closing Disneyland early and paying cast and crew to stay on and play host to a group of invited guests would seem to run contrary to traditional ideas of cost effective business management. After all shortening your operating hours on the busiest day of the week, keeping a large portion of your staff on the clock after you've shoed the customers away and running the risk of creating a public relations nightmare aren't the kind of things they teach at The Harvard School of Business. It would seem to make no sense at all until you look at from the studio's point of view.

The Walt Disney Company is one of if not the best company in the world at hyping and promoting its products. Marketing and promotions at Disney are second to none. At least that was true until recently. Last fall the marketing department at the WDC came under a lot of criticism for failing to adequately promote the studio's big holiday animated film release, Treasure Planet. Previously marketing had been criticized for going over board (no pun intended) in its efforts to promote Touchstone Pictures summer 2001 release of Pearl Harbor. They rented an aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor on which they held a star-studded premier.

With the disappointing box office for Treasure Planet due in part to a lapse in traditional Mouse House hype Walt Disney Pictures has decided to err on the side of excess and pull out all the stops when it comes to promoting Pirates of The Caribbean. Pearl Harbor didn't do as well in domestic box office as originally hoped either but it did have a big opening weekend. To the folks at Disney studio marketing closing down a company owned theme park is nothing compared to renting an aircraft carrier.

It's Not My Fault

The executives at Team Disney Burbank and Team Disney Anaheim are not entirely at fault believing that they are doing the right thing when it comes to running Disneyland and the Disneyland Resort. Despite critical stories in the national press and on the Internet, and countless discussion board rants about TDA's mismanagement of the park over the past decade Disneyland still attracts tens of thousands of visitors each week.

It is estimated -- Disney does not publish attendance figures -- that Disneyland draws over twelve million visitors a year. Even with a record number of attractions out of service or closed for good with no announced replacements the majority of park goers continue to tell guest relations opinion takers that overall they were satisfied with the experience they had while visiting the park.

Former Disney cast members will tell you that it comes as no surprise at all that even with many parts of the park out of service people say they had good time at Disneyland. As one Disney veteran put it, "Its virtually impossible not to have fun no matter who's running the place. That's what it was built for."

These folks see Disneyland's continued popularity more as a testament to Walt Disney's original vision and the dedication and hard work of the Imagineers and onstage cast members who make Disney magic happen everyday. However, with near record attendance and good customer satisfaction ratings it's easy to see how professional business managers within the WDC are able to overlook the accusations of neglect and mismanagement that appear regularly around the Internet.

Michael Broggie is the son of Disney's very first Imagineer Roger Broggie and author of Walt Disney's Railroad Story. Michael grew up on the Disney lot and often accompanied his father to work and to the Disney home. He once said that, "Disneyland has a life of it's own. It's unique and special (in the world)." The difference between what Mr. Broggie has to say about Disneyland and what the average Disney executive would say about the park is that he not only means it, he can feel it from deep within himself.

Michael Broggie is emblematic of countless people around the world who regard Disneyland as more than just a theme park. He knows that Disneyland is part of our culture and our lives. When Michael Broggie speaks about Disneyland he knows how to both talk the talk and walk the walk.

Epilogue:

The 50^th anniversary of Disneyland may be closer than you think. In fact there are those who say it's just 533 days from today (Tuesday May 13, 2003). See if you can figure out why.

Next: One World One Disneyland

How it took over two hundred years of history to bring together all the forces necessary to make Disneyland what it is today.

C'ya real soon!