Walt Disney Succeeded by Focusing on What Others Thought to be Unnecessary

© 2024, Barry L. Linetsky. All Rights Reserved

In my book The Business of Walt Disney and the Nine Principles of His Success (2017; Reissued Edition, 2023: 536-537), I identify as one of Walt’s success principles his commitment to “Let Creativity Work for You.” What follows is an excerpt demonstrating why and how Walt applied this principle.

Walt was said to have been in love with Paris. According to author and friend Ray Bradbury, “[Walt had] learned that one of the great secrets of cities like Paris is that there are fountains everywhere, and flowers and more places to sit…and you surrounded yourself with people and beauty that isn’t necessary.”

That there is a general lack of interest in making available “what isn’t necessary” was a key discovery for Walt. He knew from experience the inspiration and deep emotional joy that can come from receiving or discovering something heretofore thought to be unnecessary, or impossible, or perhaps not thought about at all.

As an entrepreneur, Walt made a career of identifying new information that other business leaders and managers didn’t think was necessary until he had proven otherwise. By creating and delivering the unexpected and the unarticulated, Walt was able to exceed customer expectations, set new standards of possibility, and raise the bar on himself and his competitors. An excellent example is the reaction of the leading amusement park operators to Walt’s concept of a modern, clean, emotionally pleasing and psychologically refreshing amusement park. Industry leaders considered this to be impossible.

Focusing on what others didn’t consider necessary—often because they believed that thinking about it and creating it meant extra work and wasted effort—didn’t just apply to big ideas. It also applied to the smallest details, which Walt felt were integral to creating an enhanced and more authentic audience experience for both his film and non-film projects.

As a typical example, consider that in reviewing the designs for the various scenes in the GE Carousel of Progress exhibit for the New York World’s Fair, the 1920s staging showed one of the characters sitting in a bathtub with his back to the audience. Walt took one look and in his usual way, was able to instantly improve the show by turning the tub around to face the audience. Walt proceeded to remove his shoes and socks and to sit in the tub with his feet sticking up and out of the end. Walt exclaimed, “He’d wiggle his toes, don’t you think?” By projecting himself into the show, Walt was able to discover and reveal how focused attention to small seemingly insignificant details can improve the authenticity, quality, and admiration by customers for the show.

Regardless of personal differences between individual staff and Walt, there was great mutual respect among them. Because Walt never lowered his standards, his staff enthusiastically put forward their best effort to make meaningful contributions and feel pride in their work. And because employees were engaged, Walt left them free to create and discover solutions to challenges in the manner they thought best, subject to review and approval by Walt at the appropriate time.

The recognized experts often criticized Walt for his attention to what they considered to be unnecessary and wasteful details, but time and again, customers proved Walt right and his critics wrong.

© 2024, Barry L. Linetsky. All Rights Reserved.

Barry Linetsky is the author of the acclaimed and best-selling book The Business of Walt Disney and the Nine Principles of His Success. He is a senior-level strategic advisor and enabler, writer, researcher, and photographer. His thought-leadership and research has been published by Rotman Magazine and Ivey Business Journal [https://iveybusinessjournal.com/?s=linetsky]. He blogs on strategic business issues at www.barrylinetsky.com. His current interests pertain to the application of new knowledge and skills to master value-creation under current and emerging conditions of increasing socio-technical complexity.