Forty years later, does more than his name live on?
December 15, 1966
TO: ALL EMPLOYEES
FROM: ROY DISNEYThe death of Walt Disney is a loss to all the people of the world. In everything he did Walt had an intuitive way of reaching out and touching the hearts and minds of young and old alike. His entertainment was a national language. For more than forty years people have looked to Walt Disney for the finest in family entertainment.
There is no way to replace Walt Disney. He was an extraordinary man. Perhaps there will never be another like him. I know that we who worked at his side for all these years will always cherish the years and the minutes we spent in helping Walt Disney entertain the people of the world. The world will always be a better place because Walt Disney was its master showman.
As President and Chairman of the Board of Walt Disney Productions, I want to assure the public, our stockholders and each of our more than four thousand employees that we will continue to operate Walt Disney’s company in the way that he has established and guided it. Walt Disney spent his entire life and almost every waking hour in the creative planning of motion pictures, Disneyland, television shows and all the other diversified activities that have carried his name through the years. Around him Walt Disney gathered the kind of creative people who understood his way of communicating with the public through entertainment. Walt’s ways were always unique and he built a unique organization. A team of creative people that he was justifiably proud of.
I think Walt would have wanted me to repeat his words to describe the organization he built over the years. Last October when he accepted the “Showman of the World” award in New York, Walt said, “The Disney organization now has more than four thousand employees. Many have been with us for over thirty years. They take great pride in the organization which they helped to build. Only through the talent, labor and dedication of this staff could any Disney project get off the ground. We all think alike in the ultimate pattern.”
Much of Walt Disney’s energies had been directed to preparing for this day. It was Walt’s wish that when the time came he would have built an organization with the creative talents to carry on as he had established and directed it through the years. Today this organization has been built and we will carry out this wish.
Walt Disney’s preparation for the future has a solid, creative foundation. All of the plans for the future that Walt had begun-new motion pictures, the expansion of Disneyland, television production and our Florida and Mineral King projects—will continue to move ahead. That is the way Walt wanted it to be.
On the day of Walt’s passing, exactly 40 years ago last Friday, his brother Roy sent this letter to the company’s employees. He wanted to assure everyone, many of whom had passed up higher-paying positions elsewhere for the opportunity to work for Walt, that the business would be operated the same way that it always had. He was promising that Walt would live on, in his characters, products, and principles.
So committed were his successors to preserving the ways of Walt that they began taking their eyes off the audience and their evolving tastes, mistakenly thinking that mimicking Walt’s creativity was creative in itself. It wasn’t. It was repetitive and stale. Under today’s corporate management, Walt’s image is kept around for promotional and motivational purposes.
And, in many ways, Walt still lives:
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His classic creations are just as popular and in some cases—such as Disneyland, Winnie the Pooh, his animated princesses—even more popular than they ever were.
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Many of his innovations are still in use and being expanded upon by Disney and others inspired by Walt, from theme parks and animated features to entertainment technologies and techniques such as storyboarding.
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Despite decades of “brand erosion,” many consumers still associate the name Disney with “the finest in family entertainment.”
Yet, the business philosophies that fostered Walt’s legend were almost as important as his products. Basically, they boiled down to:
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Create the best product possible, preferably combining something new (technology, artform, unique story twist) with something familiar (recognizable characters, comforting setting).
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Make sure it appeals to your core audience (the family).
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Charge a reasonable price, which will create goodwill with your customer base, encouraging loyalty and positive word of mouth.
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Constantly remind the audience of the brand, while meeting or exceeding their expectations.
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Continue reinvigorating the business by taking a gigantic risk once in a while.
Listen to Bill Hoelscher, a Club 55’er from Disneyland who spent years as an instructor at the Disney University, oversaw the Preview Center at Walt Disney World, and later was top man at the Magic Kingdom:
“One thing that Walt used to say was you had your guests, they deserved a good value. You had the employees, you wanted to make it something other than a carnival. You wanted there to be good jobs so it would be people in the community who could own their house. And then you had the stockholders. There were all three of those people that you had to keep happy. Each of them had to get a piece of that pie, whatever it was. Added value for the guest. Profits for the shareholders. And good jobs for the people who worked there.”
Today, one side of Walt’s triangle is a lot heavier than the other two. Some executives consider the ways of Walt quaint, clever little ploys that got him by in a more innocent time. Others are outright resentful.
The attitude has changed to:
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Create the most marketable product possible. Use established characters and formulas and proven technology whenever possible. (It’s cheaper and it’s effectiveness, appeal and reliability have already been tested. The market is built in and you already know how to sell it.)
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Appeal to as many market segments as possible.
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Charge as much as the market will bear.
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Unnecessary risks are stupid.
As proof, look no further than Disney’s current fascination with outsourcing everything from hotel service jobs in Florida to the actual design and development of theme park attractions. At Disneyland, Walt quickly discovered that it was impossible to keep to Disney standards by having outsiders run parking, security, merchandise and food services. Within a year, he started bringing in his own people.
Starting next month, Disney World will begin outsourcing key guest contact positions at several of its hotels. Union leaders claim that Disney said the move was being made not to save money, but to “improve quality.” In other words, Disney was arguing that an outside company, paying even lower wages, could provide better service than could Disney-hired and trained cast members. Unbelievable.
Ten days ago, the resorts began distributing an official “Disney Dictionary” to cast members. The 3.5 by 5.5-inch, 44-page booklet, with a brown paper cover designed to simulate leather, provides official resort definitions in both English and Spanish.
Several cast members reported that they were not told why they were being given the dictionaries. One speculated that it was to entertain themselves in the breakroom, snickering at such elementary terms as Guest (“The term used to describe visitors to the Disneyland Resort. Each Guest is regarded as a VIP; a Very Important Person.”), Cast Member/CM (“An employee for the Disneyland Resort.”), and Theme (“Refers to the creation of an atmosphere from a particular time, place or subject, incorporating a themed motif into every aspect operation; e.g., room décor, menus, attractions and costumes.”).
Granted, Wall Street pressures and Harvard MBAs have been quite effective at marginalizing Walt’s ideas and sweeping his spirit of the Disney Company. His philosophies have been banished to the scrapheap of outdated thoughts, somewhere between “Butter is good for you” and “The world is flat.”
Yet, as deeply as Walt inculcated his employees, he did an even better job at embedding his spirit within the hearts and minds of his audience. I can testify first-hand that internalizing Walt’s dream leads to frequent disappointments, since we expect superior performance from his successors. We in the audience regularly hold Disney to a higher standard, one they no longer wish to hold themselves to. But our refusal to forget keeps the dream alive. We should encourage them to reach for the stars and reward them when they achieve greatness and originality. We should also go elsewhere when Disney doesn’t or when a competitor does better.
In some ways, the parallel phenomena of annual passholders and online communities have detracted from the Ideal Disneyland Experience. Side effects include increased crowding and turning visits from annual events into weekly appointments. However, these communities have also been the greatest forces at keeping Disney from becoming complacent. A decade of whining and complaining has helped bring about a renaissance at Disneyland. Once again the park appears to be safe, well maintained, and regularly introducing something new.
Walt Disney World, on the other hand, has a large online fan base, but lacks a comparably vocal annual passholder base. Since they are vacationers, rather than regulars, Disney thinks it can buy their silence with freebies and other temporary fixes, rather than by making fundamental changes at the resort.
My hope is that as the Disney Vacation Club continues to grow (now 100,000 member families and growing), DVC becomes the new generation of Disney World regulars who find an outlet—MousePlanet or wherever—to band together to become a force for Disney to reckon with. As a group, hopefully they can push for lasting improvements at the resort, as opposed to discounts or incentives designed to improve nothing more than their individual vacation. Remember, when DVC members get tired of Disney World, they can easily resell their membership. In turn, they now compete with DVC’s own sales force in selling new memberships and conceivably hold down the price Disney can sell memberships for. Worse, Disney World has lost a regular customer.
Even if DVC members don’t jump ship, they become more likely to at least skip a vacation or three and rent out their year’s accommodations (reducing the number of guests on property and creating competition for Disney’s hotels).
The spirit of Walt similarly lives in the hearts of many of Disney’s best employees, the ones who recognize the company is no longer the same, but doesn’t let that stop them from creating classic entertainment and experiences for the customer.
And, his spirit also lives in the hearts of many of Disney’s competitors, the ones who have learned from Walt’s philosophies and taken them as their own.
Today’s Disney Company may no longer guided by the ways of Walt. That doesn’t mean that those of us who are can’t continue encouragng them back on track.
