Chapter 3
You Better Believe It
When you believe a thing, believe it implicitly and unquestionably.9
Walt Disney
When Walt Disney was still an infant, his family moved from Chicago to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, about 100 miles east of Kansas City. Farm life is hard and demanding, and a growing boy, then as now, always has chores to do. But after the barn was mucked out or the apples picked, young Walt would lie in the grass and gaze up at the Missouri sky or watch insects and butterflies flit overhead. These were memories that he treasured all his life.
From those early years growing up in a rural environment, Disney formed beliefs and values that stuck with him throughout his life from which he never deviated. His love of nature, handsomely depicted in numerous animated and live action films, surely can be traced to those experiences, as can the basic foursquare family values that still guide The Walt Disney Company today.
Perfectly complementing Walt’s firmly held beliefs was the philosophy expressed by his brother, Roy: “When values are clear, decisions are easy.”10 Together, these precepts formed what is, in effect, The Walt Disney Company’s mantra: “Live your beliefs”—or what we simply call Believe.
Carrying that theme a step further, we might add that if “seeing is believing,” then the unparalleled success of The Walt Disney Company is convincing proof of the power inherent in the Believe principle. But as our clients know, before success can be achieved, a personal set of core values must be formalized, communicated to the company at large, and actually lived day to day. Disney has shown the way.
Built on Beliefs
Early on, Walt infused his work with the personal core values that also came to define his company. In his initial Mickey Mouse cartoons, for example, the character of Mickey was overly rambunctious and even a bit crude at times. But Walt quickly recognized that such behavior would never do if Mickey was to be embraced by audiences young and old. The mouse would have to reflect the solid values held by his viewers. Thus, Walt saw to it that honesty, reliability, loyalty, and respect for people as individuals—the same principles he would espouse within the company—formed the essence of Mickey’s character.
In more recent times, the “Gong Show” idea that grew into the 1997 movie Hercules was approved precisely because it fit so perfectly with the Disney Company’s core values. Inspired by the tale of the mythical Greek hero, the film idea was based on the premise that a person should be judged not only on his or her outer strength but by inner moral strength as well.
“The core value puts process into creativity,” says Peter Schneider, president of the film division. That’s the way The Walt Disney Company sees it. Thus, the first step in any project, moviemaking or otherwise, is to determine what core value is being promoted. When it came to the making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example, the creative team decided, after much discussion and soul-searching, that the core value of the story was self-value. They had to agree on this premise before they could go forward.
We are convinced that a refusal to compromise values is necessary if an organization is to scale the heights. What’s important is not necessarily the content of a company’s core ideology, but rather how consistently that ideology is expressed and lived. In Chapter 2, the story of Patrick Charmel of Griffin Hospital illustrates how one great leader was unwilling to allow outside influences to alter his beliefs and decisions.
The Levi Strauss Company, for example, has shown an extraordinary commitment to core values in its everyday operations. The original maker of the quintessentially American blue jeans has long enjoyed a reputation as a good place to work, and it is known for its commitment to empowering workers and compensating them generously. In addition, it has formalized its beliefs in its mission and aspiration statements, and in 1991 became the first multinational company to set down guidelines governing business partners 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 understandably 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 happen, they will be treated much better than they would be elsewhere.”11 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 cast members, which resulted in a larger payroll. Instead of adding more boats, Dick simply increased the speed, told his cast members to talk a little faster, and perhaps leave out a joke or two. In those days, Walt would frequently walk around the park to observe the reaction of the guests. He would even ride many of the attractions. One day, Walt decided to take a Jungle Cruise and experienced the “super charged” speed. Needless to say, he was not happy. When he got out of the boat, he called Dick aside and read him the riot act. He told Dick that guests expect a consistent show. Walt also reminded Dick of his responsibility for ensuring the quality of the show, and that if that meant bringing on additional crew to deliver the “good show,” then so be it. Walt said, “Frontline equals bottom line.” Deliver unforgettable front-line customer service and the bottom line dollars will follow.
Just as Walt refused to accept a substandard Pinocchio, even though reworking the characters significantly bumped up the cost, so too are certain extravagances countenanced on a regular basis today because they greatly enhance the show. The exquisite topiaries in the theme parks are one example. Because it takes 3 to 10 years to grow and shape the trees to look like Dumbo, Mickey, and other characters, it would obviously be more efficient and less costly to install plastic statues instead. But the topiaries add natural beauty that imparts a greater level of excellence to the entire show. Plus, they are enjoyed and photographed by thousands of guests.
In the end, of course, Disney’s adherence to basic beliefs and the company’s willingness to spend time and money to deliver the excellence it values have been amply rewarded by the huge success of its films, theme parks, and other ventures.
Formalizing the Beliefs
To ensure that employees at all levels would be guided by his beliefs and his visionary sense of purpose, Walt Disney fostered what amounted to an almost cultlike atmosphere. His passionate belief in the need to instill a company culture led him to set up a formal training program that has come to be known as Disney University.
The program, which stresses the uniqueness of the company and the importance of adhering to its values, came into being as a result of a situation Walt encountered when Disneyland opened in 1955. Initially, he hired an outside security firm and leased out the parking concession. “I soon realized my mistake,” he said, explaining that with “outside help” he couldn’t effectively convey his idea of hospitality.12 That’s when the company began recruiting and training every one of its employees.
Walt wanted each and every cast member to embrace the basic Disney belief of courtesy to customers, of treating them like guests in their own homes. “I tell the security officers,” he once said, “that they are never to consider themselves cops. They are here to help people.”13 Setting up a security force and training the officers in the company’s values and beliefs was no doubt more expensive than outsourcing the job, but monetary considerations took a backseat to ensuring that everyone exhibited courtesy.
Every new cast member must spend several days in Traditions training before starting the job. During this orientation period, the Disney culture is communicated through powerful storytelling. The value of the program was proven several years ago when cost-cutting corporate types decided to reduce the training period by just one day. Complaints from supervisors throughout the parks began to pour in. “The quality of guest service is not the quality we had last season,” they said. “Have you changed the hiring policy?”14
Top management took a close look at the process and found out that only one thing had changed. The missing day of Traditions training was added back in and the complaints stopped. Instilling the culture takes time, but anyone who has visited a Disney theme park is well aware of what the training program brings to the show: Questions are answered courteously, crowd control is unobtrusive, and cast members at every turn willingly go the extra mile to make each guest’s dreams come true.
On the face of it, our advice to strictly adhere to a formalized set of beliefs and values may sound naïve and unsophisticated, if not downright impractical. It may come across as the kind of do-good counsel you read about in an inspirational pamphlet. But this is not theoretical; it is practical and proven in the stories of companies that have adopted the Believe principle.
One company that displays a strict adherence to its own values is Lensing Wholesale. A long-standing, family-owned business in Evansville, Indiana, which distributes building products, Lensing’s strong family values are transparent to all who enter its doors. While the company provides outstanding service to all its customers, we were especially impressed to witness the determination of Lensing’s president, Joe Theby, to formalize the company’s values and mission in written statements at our recommendation. Many family businesses ignore this important step, believing that employees are already clear about company values, since they have been in place since the company’s formation.
In formalizing Lensing values, Joe’s first priority was to define the word value. At Lensing, a value is “a desirable standard of personal conduct or action; a worthy trait.” Joe and his team decided on 11 core values, ranging from quality to customer relations.
At one company meeting that we attended, Joe gave a heartfelt speech to his employees about the value of customers and great service. During the meeting, he said that anybody could put up a warehouse and stock it with wholesale building products, but few could gain a reputation for truly understanding their customers and being there when the customers needed them. Illustrating the importance Lensing places on its ability to do just this, the company’s customer relations value incorporates the following aspects: to deal well with customers; display honesty, integrity, and a sincere concern for their needs; remember names and faces; and maintain poise, integrity, and confidence during all interactions. A firm belief in this value and a strict adherence to its concept is what comes through loud and clear when speaking to any Lensing employee.
The Long-Term Mentality
Again and again, we have witnessed how companies are strengthened when they impart a clear understanding of their basic beliefs and core values. For one thing, a set of bedrock values gives a sense of security to all stakeholders and serves as a touchstone for company leaders. Although Walt Disney often teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, he was able to stay focused on his goals for the future because he believed so strongly in what he was trying to do and how he was trying to do it.
We call that the long-term mentality, but unfortunately, many companies manifest just the opposite. Their satisfaction with present achievements evidences a short-term view of the world and causes them to rest on their laurels—often with disastrous results. The Xerox Corporation, for example, squandered its lead in the copying-machine market to the Japanese and found itself left with only a 7 percent market share before it began a turnaround in the 1980s. So, too, with the Raytheon Company, which invented the microwave oven in 1947. Raytheon now has an insignificant share of the microwave market. The point is that even companies with innovative product ideas can be paralyzed by a short-term mentality that causes them to end up on the losing side.
It is a measure of Walt Disney’s certain belief in his product that he was also able early on to envision a continuing demand for his cartoons and movies. With brilliant foresight, Disney decided on a re-release policy that would bring his movies to a new generation of viewers at 5- and 10-year intervals. But again, Walt’s prescience was dependent on his adherence to core values. He intended his movies to last—and last they did, because he insisted on excellence.
Disney’s cartoons and animated films look as fresh today as when Walt’s animators created them. That’s because he paid attention to even the smallest detail of production and combined the most skillful drawings with the best available technology. At a time when many animators were using 6 to 8 drawings per second, for instance, Disney insisted on 24 drawings. (All animation went to 24 frames per second with the advent of sound, but the superiority of the Disney technique can be better understood by comparing it to today’s average Saturday morning cartoon. Even though these cartoons run 24 frames per second, they use only 6 to 8 drawings per second, which means the same drawing is repeated three to four times. Disney animation provides 24 unique drawings per second.)
Equally important to Walt’s long-term planning was the fact that he never lost sight of his market and the family values that endure. Re-released Disney films have made as much, if not more, money on their second release than they did on the first.
Today, The Walt Disney Company applies the same policy to the DVD market. When a Disney movie is released on DVD, it stays on the store shelf for six months and is then withdrawn for a specified period. People who don’t buy it during the Disney-designated time frame simply have to wait until the next time it’s back on the shelf. Tightly controlling distribution allows Disney to market its product over and over to succeeding generations of viewers. Since 1992, according to Video Store Magazine, six of the eight top-selling videos were Disney videos, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Lion King tied for number 1.
The long-term mentality is apparent throughout the Disney empire—in its real estate transactions, for example. Although Walt was never interested in real estate as a personal investment, he took a wholly different approach when it came to his theme parks. And his experience with Disneyland only served to harden an already instinctual tendency to take the long view.
In 1954, when Walt bought the 160-acre Anaheim, California, parcel for Disneyland, he was constrained from acquiring additional land by limited financial resources, the already heavy debt he was incurring, and estimates of what it would cost to build his park. But Walt never ceased to regret not buying more land, especially as his extraordinarily successful park became hemmed in by tawdry fast-food outlets and motels. He vowed that he would not make the same mistake twice.
When it came time to plan for Walt Disney World, Walt was not hampered by such monetary constraints. He bought 29,500 acres of Florida real estate for an average price of $200 an acre. Less than half of that acreage is being used today, while the remainder has risen in value to more than $1 million an acre. Selling off the undeveloped land would bring more than $10 billion into corporate coffers.
Why doesn’t the company sell the Florida acreage? Because such a sale would be at odds with the Disney long-term mentality. Still adhering to Walt’s beliefs, the company is looking ahead to expansion that will further upgrade the show. The theme-park business, after all, is driven by a need to constantly offer new attractions that will entice both first-time and repeat guests.
Michael Eisner made it clear that short-term gains are not what Disney is about when he said at an industry conference in 1997: “I’m not looking for some outrageous, ridiculous multiple that blows in the wind or gets battered by changes in the economy. I hope people like the company, but I don’t want to promise them Nirvana.”
Leadership for the Long Term
In today’s business world, where technology is driving an accelerated pace of change, a long-term mentality is a must for survival. But not everyone recognizes this imperative, as evidenced by some of our consulting experiences. The one-man roadblock we encountered when we began working with a large Fortune 500 manufacturer is a case in point.
We had asked a top management team to formalize the plans and specifications for an initiative intended to take their division into the future. The team worked for three months on the plan, meeting one full day a week to establish their values, decide on the organizational structure, and determine how best to communicate the vision underlying the plan.
The plans were great, but the boss failed to act on them. Sure, he talked about what he was going to do, but he never, as the saying goes, walked the talk. No changes were made until the boss was transferred and a young engineer named Steve was installed in his place.
Suddenly, plans turned into actions. Working together with his planning team, Steve established four subteams charged with developing new technologies, providing back-up systems and facilities support to engineers, improving processes, and empowering teams and individuals. Another group set about redesigning the workspace to facilitate better communication.
It is worth noting that none of these changes were part of any kind of overall directive from corporate headquarters. In fact, about the only thing in the way of change that emanated from headquarters was an annual gesture amounting to little more than calling in a consultant who prepared brochures and produced videos touting the value of some “new” culture.
Later, headquarters had issued another new cultural initiative. This time it included a management kickoff meeting at which a “talking-head” video was shown to communicate the importance of getting everyone on board with the high-performance principles. Steve’s division was apathetic about the whole thing—and understandably so.
“It’s almost an insult,” some said, “when we’ve already been practicing these principles for years.” These team members knew that Steve embodied the vision, and under his leadership they had achieved what the rest of the company was still contemplating. They had been living the vision.
The key element in this situation was the presence of a well-respected leader with a clear, long-term mentality. He had, in effect, become a pioneer in the company. What a contrast between Steve and his predecessor, who not only lacked vision himself but couldn’t even muster the energy to implement the ideas generated by his staff.
Our experience working with Abbey Press further confirmed that leaders who uphold their strongly held values, even in times of economic downturns, are a key to solid achievement. Abbey Press, which publishes inspirational books and sells religious merchandise, is run by Benedictine monks with the support of a secular staff. As Gerald Wilhite, general manager of Abbey Press, told us, “Father Carl believed in his dream of a transformed workforce, which one monk said was ‘very Benedictine.’ He perceived that our success had waned a bit, and worked to rebuild the culture, and that brought big paybacks.”15
We organized a Dream Retreat for Father Carl and his staff. At the end of our three-day retreat, John Wilson, Father Carl’s boss, who had been invited at Carl’s request, jumped to his feet to declare somewhat sheepishly that he had been reluctant to attend the meeting. Three times in the days before the retreat, Wilson had been ready to pick up the phone and say that he and his staff would not be able to participate after all. Only his respect for Father Carl, who had voiced great excitement about the teamwork a new culture would bring, stopped Wilson from backing out.
Now Wilson was admitting how close he had come to making “a big mistake.” After experiencing the Dream Retreat, he, too, was pleased and excited about the initiative and, in fact, wanted to bring the process to “the Hill,” the term used to describe the various administrative functions that support the monastery.
One step had led to another in the unfolding of events. Father Carl’s pre-retreat enthusiasm and his strong belief in the value of the change process had captured John Wilson’s attention. After listening carefully and participating in the retreat, Wilson came to share Father Carl’s enthusiasm. Through the leadership of these two, the plan for cultural change was communicated to the entire staff and to the board of directors and has now taken root throughout the organization. “We benefited greatly from the changed culture,” said Gerald. “Many of our people have remained with us for years, and are contributing to our new dreams to do things differently in keeping with our new kind of customer. Through all the rebuilding...our values, what the product stands for, and how we want to do business remain unchanged.”
Believing in Innovation
For Walt Disney, innovation was second nature, which is one of the reasons he was such a strong leader. Our definition of leadership, in fact, revolves around the ability to create and manage an environment for innovation. But as we’ve discovered over the years, too many managers find the idea of innovation downright scary; some even react as if we are suggesting a revolution without a cause. Another common reaction is that of the CEO or vice president who, while looking completely self-satisfied when we mention innovation, remarks, “We have one of the best R&D divisions of any company in the country. It’s their job to come up with new products.”
Our response to this statement is that R&D product innovations rarely change the whole culture of a company. Innovation is a three-legged animal that must encompass product, service, and process. In terms of product, innovation not only means making something entirely new, but perhaps rethinking how the old works or how it is used. Process innovation leads to improvements in the way the product is produced, and service innovation changes the way the product is integrated into the entire organization.
As we remind our clients, the goal of every organization should be to encourage innovation at all levels and in all functional areas, not just R&D. But in order for everyone in the company to become an innovator, the leadership has to be committed to creating an atmosphere in which people and teams are motivated to achieve team goals while still maintaining respect for one another’s personal values.
And what exactly does an innovative environment look like? For one thing, there is no such thing as “crazy.” Radical departure from the old ways is often precisely what’s needed if you are going to come up with solutions to customer problems. In 1937, Walt Disney sent Jake Day to the woods of Maine to take hundreds of photos and make numerous drawings in preparation for the production of Bambi, which would be released in 1942. Crazy is probably one of the kindest words that many of Walt’s contemporaries in the animated film business used to describe such a radical and innovative approach to capturing the magic of the forest. But Disney let his beliefs guide his actions regardless of what the naysayers thought.
The message is: Go the extra mile yourself and encourage your people to do the same. Let them know that it’s okay to take risks, to let their off-the-wall ideas take flight. Above all, encourage everyone to have fun!
In our research into companies that are considered to be particularly innovative, we found that certain core values repeatedly jumped out at us. One of the most common of these was respecting individuality and encouraging individual initiative. From service organizations such as Ernst & Young to manufacturing organizations such as the Whirlpool Corporation, top companies in a variety of industries all make it a point to clearly state their faith in their employees. They encourage everyone to contribute, or as Walt would say, they encourage everyone to dream. And from those vast stores of knowledge and creativity flow the innovative ideas that consistently keep them at the pinnacle of business success.
Other oft-stated core values are honesty, integrity, and an insistence on superior quality. Our featured organizations—Downtown School (Des Moines), Ernst & Young, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Griffin Hospital, John Robert’s Spa (Cleveland), Men’s Wearhouse, and The Cheesecake Factory—all espouse these upright notions, and all are among the greatest of American business success stories. It’s fair to assume that an adherence to these basic beliefs has helped foster an atmosphere in which innovation can flourish.
And so it goes. Service to customers, hard work, continuous self-improvement, responsibility to society: These, too, are values that frequently carry great weight at many of the top companies. But don’t mistake this as a laundry list from which you should choose your core values. While any or all of these may be relevant to your personal situation, the point to be made is that successful, innovative companies define what is important to them and then communicate those values to their employees. By encouraging everyone to live those values day to day, a secure, familiar atmosphere arises in which employees at every level feel comfortable breaking down traditional barriers and participating in a worthwhile way.
Innovation in terms of service is much of what defines Disney; indeed, stories of the company’s employees going to great lengths to provide extraordinary service are common. One such story concerns a family that visited Walt Disney World and stayed at a Disney hotel. The family included three little girls still young enough to take their teddy bears with them.
At the end of the first day, the family returned to their hotel room. There, seated around the table, were the three bears with cookies and milk placed before them. The little girls were delighted, of course, and the following evening they urged their parents to hurry back to the hotel. This time, the three bears were placed sitting up in bed “reading” Mickey Mouse books. One can imagine the joy this scene evoked in the youngsters. The third evening, the girls found their bears again at the table, but this time they were arranged as though playing cards!
The hotel cast member had truly taken to heart Walt’s pronouncement that “visitors are our guests” and had come up with an innovative way to please the children and, by extension, their parents. At some shortsighted companies, management might have objected to spending extra money on cookies and milk. But at Disney, this welcoming gesture was a natural outgrowth of the company’s unshakable commitment to customer service.
At Disney, providing innovative service extends into the business process arena as well. Some years ago, as we were walking through one of the parks, we noticed a kiosk for the Disney Vacation Club time-share condominiums. The first surprise came when we approached the kiosk operator; the lack of pressure was the complete opposite of our previous such experience at Lake Tahoe. There, after a high-pressure, two-hour sales pitch at a resort on the top of a mountain, we decided to forget the whole idea.
The Disney approach, we later learned, came about because Michael Eisner firmly vetoed any high-pressure sales tactics when he permitted the selling of time-share condominiums. So at Disney, we were told the purchase price right up front and were asked if we wanted to see the units. When we declined, the Disney cast member gave us what proved to be an informative and fun video that allowed us to tour the units at our leisure when we returned home. After our video tour, we were hooked.
Despite our excitement over buying a Disney product, we still dreaded the thought of closing, particularly a closing conducted by long distance. We both had memories of incomprehensible papers to read and sign, not to mention the mind-numbing and time-wasting interval spent sitting through the formalities. When we spoke to a Vacation Club cast member about our desire to buy and our fear of closing, he assured us that Disney had taken the pain out of the process. What an understatement! Within a few days, we were sent an accordion file with color-coded and tabbed sections, all clearly marked and explained in understandable, nonlegalese. Even the place for signatures was designated by its own color. Plus, there was another video. This one walked us through each step of the closing process. It was so simple, so attractive, and so enjoyable that we were almost tempted to buy a second unit just to repeat the experience!
In coming up with a successful process innovation, Disney basically reinvented the entire sales and closing procedure that has been standard in the real estate industry since time immemorial. The result for us and for every other Disney time-share condo buyer is fabulous service. Our experiences with The Walt Disney Company reinforce the point that innovative companies begin to achieve real success by clearly stating their values and communicating them effectively to their staffs. An inspiring, well-written vision statement is imperative in achieving full employee participation. However, writing such statements is not a simple task. Michael Snyder, former vice president of public relations at Caldwell VanRiper (now MARC USA), relayed to us his experience in this area:
During Caldwell VanRiper’s conversion to client-centered teams, we began the task of preparing a new vision statement of what the agency would reflect in the year 2002. The first two versions I prepared were rejected; they contained the content of an executive retreat we conducted in 1997 but did not reflect the spirit. After the second version was rejected, I had the opportunity to hear your presentation of “Dream, Believe, Dare, Do.” Following this, I rewrote the statement as I really believed it ought to be. When the statement was later presented for the discussion, there was total silence. One of the first comments from a CVR executive was, “I want to work for this agency!”
Surging energy, great people, and a near-fanatical obsession with excellence will drive Caldwell VanRiper into national prominence. Top clients and superb talent will choose CVR because of its hot, progressive environment, 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 entertainment. 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 textbook 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?
In the case of the technicians, the team members were unable to explore the depths of their true purpose and decide what values were important to them. We challenged them to go back and rethink their original draft, which they begrudgingly agreed to do.
After a few weeks, we reconvened. The leader of the technician team stood up and said, “When you asked us to go back and rethink our mission, we thought, “What’s the point? It’s only a bunch of words.” But then we began discussing our values and listening to everyone’s opinions on how we served our business partners.”
The result was that when the team seriously answered the mission questions we posed in the earlier meeting, their values became crystallized and were evidenced by the inspired words in their new statement.
The important point to this story is that this team of hourly technicians had the motivation and conviction to reexamine critical aspects of how they do business without any supervision from management. This was a team that had fared poorly on all of the team categories, from goal-setting to conflict, by which they were benchmarked during their initial year of teaming. However, largely as a result of a visionary mission statement clearly aligned with company values, they made incredible advances within the next two years, perhaps more than any other team in the entire organization, while at the same time increasing the productivity of the entire department.
That’s not to say that aligning team missions with the organizational vision is an easy task. It isn’t. But with a little effort, you can come up with a system that allows you to integrate short-term activities with your longer-term vision. In tackling what we refer to as Vision Align, you will realize a number of benefits, such as:
Creating an established process for executing strategy
Increasing departmental cooperation
Giving your leadership a mechanism by which to understand key problem areas
Enabling quicker, more accurate feedback
The concept of Vision Align involves setting up a structure that will allow your organization’s overall objectives to cascade down through the various staff levels to the natural work group. We worked with a manufacturing team that used Vision Align to illustrate the process. (Figure 3-1 illustrates the Vision Align process for a client manufacturing team.)
Figure 3-1. Vision Align process for a client manufacturing process.
The organization’s core strengths, values, objectives, and stakeholders are recorded on one axis. This represents a set of criteria by which the organization is measured. On the other axis, the key points of the mission or vision are recorded. The use of check marks (
), question marks (?), and exclamation points (!) designates how well the mission or vision is aligned with the measurement criteria. In this example, the preferred consumer product vision is not supported by any of the objectives. One objective, the 2 percent net material cost reduction, could even be in conflict with the mission if the cost reductions compromise customer needs. The general manager of this organization said, “The value of Vision Align is not in the final output document; it is in the process that my staff and I went through to develop the document.”
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; anyone 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 nightclubs, the company discovered, claiming it was too close to adult entertainment 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; nightclub 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, and customers. In short, we are not suggesting that you embrace Disney’s beliefs, values, and actions wholesale.
Figure 3-2. Vision Align process for realignment of Pleasure Island to the Disney criteria.
Source: Disney University
What we are urging is that you consider Disney’s four principles—Dream, Believe, Dare, Do—and come to understand how devotion to your own core ideology can strengthen your organization. Having done that, you will be ready to enjoy the power that flows when everyone is engaged in living the same set of values and beliefs.
In the next two chapters, you will see how Disney extended the Believe principle to encompass both customers and suppliers.
Questions to Ask
What are the values your company lives by?
Who established those values?
Customers?
Employees?
Managers?
Directors?
Stockholders?
Founders?
Are your personal values in conflict with those of the organization?
What products and services does the organization provide?
What methods does the organization apply to provide these products and services?
For whom does the organization provide the products and services?
Why does the organization exist?
Are the actions and behaviors of your leaders consistent with the company’s values?
What mechanisms do you use to communicate your values to new employees?
Does every department/team have a mission?
Does the mission statement take advantage of the organization’s core strengths?
Does the mission create value for these stakeholders?
Is each mission aligned with the overall company vision, values, and objectives?
Do all departmental or work group goals, objectives, and tactics support the organization’s vision and values?
Do you refer to your mission when making decisions about products, services, customers, or coworkers?
Do you share the mission statement with potential new hires?
Can everyone, including the company janitor, articulate the organization’s mission and values?
What do your product development policies say about your values?
Are all employees encouraged to be innovative in product, process, and service?
Do your recent business decisions confirm your company’s values?
Actions to Take
Formalize your mission and values in a written statement to be used as the constitution.
Encourage each department to prepare a Vision Align exercise that aligns their mission with the organization’s vision, values, core strengths, objectives, and stakeholder needs.
Communicate all missions throughout the organization.
Exhibit commitment to the organization’s values through everyday actions.
Evaluate all business decisions in light of the values.
Conduct regular companywide meetings to reinforce the organizational vision and values.
Hold a semiannual crazy-invention contest where everyone can submit off-the-wall product and service ideas. Reward winners and prototype their ideas.
A Shared Vision
It isn’t enough to corral a bunch of people and then expect them to function like a team. It needs much more than that. Every member’s personal view of the project must be linked to the team’s ultimate purpose so that a shared vision propels everyone’s commitment.
“The way I saw my role,” Whirlpool team leader Jerry McColgin remembers, “was one of bringing this group together, of making sure I was utilizing the talent that was there. I had an incredibly high level of competency within this group and my task was to harness this competency and to guide and direct the team.”
One of the first steps Jerry undertook was to determine the personal values, the expectations, and the dreams of his group. As we facilitated this discussion during the team’s Dream Retreat, spotting the similarities and striving to reinforce them was extremely rewarding. Jerry wanted to understand how the members saw the long-term value of their work and how strongly they believed in what they were doing. He attempted to paint a picture of what the team’s work would involve. He pointed out that most major projects like theirs were given three to four years to bring to completion. Management expected the team to finish in a little over two years. In addition, the budget had been cut by a third.
McColgin, in consultation with us, decided that the best start would be to take the team off-site for a five-day retreat, a kick-off session. There, removed from outside distractions, this disparate group of people could begin to develop a true team spirit. We had created other teams for the company, but they were more traditional groups. As Jerry likes to say, he had “a whacko group of people from around the world who clearly weren’t going to fit into a conventional business mold.” Then, too, he had specific ends in mind: He wanted to establish a culture; he wanted the team to understand what his expectations were; and, most of all, he was determined to create a 100 percent commitment from each team member.
Our Featured Organization: Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
THE GOLDEN RULE IS ALIVE AND WELL
Walt Disney set the standard for animation and theme parks as we know them today. Isadore Sharp, chairman, CEO, and founder of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, has set the standard for luxury hotels. Both The Walt Disney Company and Four Seasons have become legendary for offering experiences of exceptional quality. And, like Walt Disney before him, Isadore (known to his loyal staff as “Issy”) has built his Canadian-based company on the premise that mediocrity is not an option.
In the mind of Isadore Sharp, being innovative and delivering an unsurpassable level of service are the only options. After a decade of building hotels in the 1960s, Isadore came to understand that what business travelers want most is personalized, round-the clock service. He was determined to grow his business through delivering fabulous personalized service and distinguishing Four Seasons from the competition. But how does one go about becoming the best service provider in the hotel industry? Rather than just talk about giving good service, would it be possible to differentiate ourselves from the competition by simply treating the customer as a true guest? Could service really be a competitive advantage? Could a workforce become so dedicated and loyal that they would become our greatest asset? Could we create a culture and work environment that would allow our people to develop to their maximum potential?
These were some of the questions Isadore mulled over in the late 1970s before his company became the international icon it is today. He set out by testing the strategy of having a dedicated workforce live by The Golden Rule of “treating others as we would wish to be treated.” Ever the consummate, unassuming gentleman, Isadore told us, “There was no list of rules. It was just that we trust you to use your common sense, and we trust you in terms of how you do your job. I think that if people know you are trusting them, they will rise to levels beyond their own expectations of themselves.”16
The night before our first meeting with Isadore in 2001, we arrived at the flagship location, Four Seasons Toronto, and asked a bellman what was so special about the Four Seasons. To the best of our knowledge, this 22-year veteran employee had no idea who we were, and without hesitation, he recited the company’s heartfelt credo, The Golden Rule. The next day when we shared with Isadore the story of the bellman encounter, he was not the least bit surprised. We think he would have been very surprised had the bellman failed to recite The Golden Rule.
Selling The Golden Rule as an acceptable and appropriate business strategy to his senior management team was no easy feat for Isadore. When he made the presentation at a formal board meeting, they nearly laughed him out of the room. They asked, “Are you joking? This is like motherhood and apple pie, and you’re going to put this out as a business strategy?” Isadore replied, “Maybe you’re right, but you know what? We are going to do it.” Before he announced The Golden Rule mandate, Isadore had discussed the idea with his team members and listened to their reactions. What he discovered was that they believed in The Golden Rule but didn’t feel particularly comfortable talking about it openly. Isadore encouraged and challenged each and every one of them to consider what The Golden Rule meant to them personally. After much contemplation, all but one team member was ready to move forward and adopt the strategy. “We had to ask the most senior person in the company to leave,” confessed Isadore, “because if you don’t have the senior people prepared to abide by it, you can’t expect the people below them to abide by it … because then they won’t be supported.”
Many companies today complain that they can’t get good people, or that no one is willing to work for low wages, or that the wage pool is undereducated. To those arguments, Isadore retorts “Nonsense.” He believes that there isn’t a country, a city, or a village anywhere in the world where you couldn’t bring together a group of people, give them an opportunity to do their best in a work environment that supports them, and fail to achieve a five-star level of service.
A great example of this truth is Four Seasons Istanbul. Isadore recounts the following story, “In Istanbul, our partners there are Turkish. A few years after the hotel was opened, I was having dinner with the owner and his wife and she said, ‘Where did you get these people from?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She replied, ‘Where did you hire them from?’ I said, ‘We brought a few in from other properties around the world, but 99 percent are Turkish people.’ She said, ‘No, no they are not Turkish people.’ I said, ‘They are Turkish people, all living in Turkey.’ She said, ‘I have Turkish people working for me and these are not Turkish people.’ I realized that something was being lost in the translation. The general manager, Marcus, was there, and I said, ‘Marcus, will you please explain in your native language?’ He said, ‘These are local people who we’ve hired and trained.’ She said, ‘But they are so different.’ I said, ‘They’re not different. All we are doing is giving them a chance to be themselves.’ This happens over and over again at many of our properties. That’s why Disney was successful. He understood the importance of believing in people.”
Most employees do not set out to fail. They fail because management does not train them, nurture them, and support them. Management is typically to blame for the failure of employees. When you have people with the same vision working for a cause they believe in and can be proud of and, if and only if, they are given the freedom to perform, the results are always amazing. People simply cannot flourish under paranoid power-hungry leaders who watch their comings and goings like a perched hawk. At Four Seasons, all employees are treated according to Golden Rule tradition.
Living your values can be the difference between providing mediocre service and creating legendary, memorable guest experiences. In Isadore’s profound words, “You can write your values on paper, but they are only words … the words have significance only if behaved. Behaviors have significance only if believed.”