Interesting fact I heard from a CM today at Magic Kingdom

MrConbon

MrConbon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So in each land their is a proprietor that is sort of like the head manager of that specific land. I was walking alone and a CM started chatting with me and I expressed I was planning to work in the parks once I finish college.

She started to explain to me that Disney is really pressuring the managers to find new ways to make money. Even going to far as to threaten them if they don’t make new ideas.

It was the proprietor of Adventureland who thought of the idea of the Tiana riverboat cruise and got a nice bonus for thinking of it and got to keep her job.

What are your guys opinions of Disney pressuring employees to find new money making schemes?
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
While as a leader I do have goals set by the company in areas such as financial results and guest service scores, as well as thinking of new ways to build these results, I’ve never felt threatened by anyone above me about it. However, Disney is a Company, and that company has commitments to not only its guests, but also to its employees, community and shareholders, and if you’re not making those results you’re going to get asked why not and what you plan to do to fix it.




*my thoughts and not that of TWDC
 
TwilightZone

TwilightZone

Well-Known Member
MrConbon said:
So in each land their is a proprietor that is sort of like the head manager of that specific land. I was walking alone and a CM started chatting with me and I expressed I was planning to work in the parks once I finish college.

She started to explain to me that Disney is really pressuring the managers to find new ways to make money. Even going to far as to threaten them if they don’t make new ideas.

It was the proprietor of Adventureland who thought of the idea of the Tiana riverboat cruise and got a nice bonus for thinking of it and got to keep her job.

What are your guys opinions of Disney pressuring employees to find new money making schemes?
Click to expand...
Wouldn't be surprised some employee came up with some of the rides...
 
piglet21

piglet21

Well-Known Member
My husband used to work for M&M Mars and as a job requirement needed to submit continual improvement ideas quarterly when he had his reviews. All employees were required to do so! I think it's fairly common in large companies
 
disney4life2008

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
This sounds 100 percent adequate to me especially of front line managers. If you aren't bringing anything innovative to the table you got to go. And the reality Disney is a business.

Now who ever thought to sell those pathetic birds in pandora must have received a massive bonus. That is the most ridiculous souvenir I have ever seen.
 
John park hopper

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
castlecake2.0 said:
While as a leader I do have goals set by the company in areas such as financial results and guest service scores, as well as thinking of new ways to build these results, I’ve never felt threatened by anyone above me about it. However, Disney is a Company, and that company has commitments to not only its guests, but also to its employees, community and shareholders, and if you’re not making those results you’re going to get asked why not and what you plan to do to fix it.




*my thoughts and not that of TWDC
Click to expand...

Here is an idea you may use free of charge and it is fool proof- everyone needs it- you have a captive audience-people need it several times a day-not affected by weather-can be installed in every park and resort- guaranteed too generate massive amounts of revenue
PAY TOILETS
 
jloucks

jloucks

Well-Known Member
MrConbon said:
So in each land their is a proprietor that is sort of like the head manager of that specific land. I was walking alone and a CM started chatting with me and I expressed I was planning to work in the parks once I finish college.

She started to explain to me that Disney is really pressuring the managers to find new ways to make money. Even going to far as to threaten them if they don’t make new ideas.

It was the proprietor of Adventureland who thought of the idea of the Tiana riverboat cruise and got a nice bonus for thinking of it and got to keep her job.

What are your guys opinions of Disney pressuring employees to find new money making schemes?
Click to expand...

I find it weird that they are depending on non-imagineers for this sort of thing. Likely not in the Head Managers job description. The bonus is very appropriate (here hoping it is a big one, $10,000 - $100,000+ for any idea that ends up in practice), and I hate to say it, but rotating head managers if they are not creative makes sense. Moral crushing, but logical if moral is not of import.
 
EOD K9

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
John park hopper said:
Here is an idea you may use free of charge and it is fool proof- everyone needs it- you have a captive audience-people need it several times a day-not affected by weather-can be installed in every park and resort- guaranteed too generate massive amounts of revenue
PAY TOILETS
Click to expand...
I used to do that in Rollercoaster Tycoon. Ten cents per use. It generated a lot of revenue.
 
Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
jloucks said:
I find it weird that they are depending on non-imagineers for this sort of thing. Likely not in the Head Managers job description. The bonus is very appropriate (here hoping it is a big one, $10,000 - $100,000+ for any idea that ends up in practice), and I hate to say it, but rotating head managers if they are not creative makes sense. Moral crushing, but logical if moral is not of import.
Click to expand...

Morale is key. You need to engage the front line people and make them part of the team. Your front line people are the ones who interact with customers every day. They are the ones who overhear (and directly hear) things. They are also the ones who see firsthand the inefficiencies in operations.

Just about every company out there today is running some sort of Lean, Agile, or Kaizen type process.

Sure, something like introducing a riverboat ride is a huge deal, but cost savings comes from little things like noticing that maybe packaging is causing damage to some of the product, or that there is wasted space in a storage area, or that a conditioned space has a giant air leak to the outside.

It's great that they have a process for allowing a large project like a river boat ride to be moved along, but most of the time it is about small things. You need to engage your front line people with an attitude of a continuous improvement process. You can read "Who Moved My Cheese" or tell the stories of the Monkeys and Water Hose all day long, but if your front line people are not engaged, you are going to be missing out many opportunities.

As for bonuses that you list. Highly unlikely. I would give my people $100 or so when they did something. I could do that with no other approvals. Now if they did something huge like a riverboat ride, then I would have pushed it up the line for a senior executive approval, but even that is only going to be $500 - $1,000. $100,000 bonus for coming up with a good idea is way too much.

Geez, Apparently I really need to find a job soon. It's come to me posting about CIP on a Dinsey board.

-dave
 
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danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
jloucks said:
I find it weird that they are depending on non-imagineers for this sort of thing. Likely not in the Head Managers job description. The bonus is very appropriate (here hoping it is a big one, $10,000 - $100,000+ for any idea that ends up in practice), and I hate to say it, but rotating head managers if they are not creative makes sense. Moral crushing, but logical if moral is not of import.
Click to expand...

It's really not surprising, these are the people who are in contact with the guests every day so can probably spot ideas that a imaginer wouldn't. Imagineers earn their paycheck by taking the idea and turning them into reality.
 
Starlight67

Starlight67

Well-Known Member
John park hopper said:
Here is an idea you may use free of charge and it is fool proof- everyone needs it- you have a captive audience-people need it several times a day-not affected by weather-can be installed in every park and resort- guaranteed too generate massive amounts of revenue
PAY TOILETS
Click to expand...
Haha! When I was real young I remember the G Fox store had these in the ladies room (called the 'ladies lounge' back then.) Cost to use bathroom was a dime. Of course people carried around a pocketful of change then. Wouldn't work today.

But, a pay toilet app--where you just scan your phone to unlock the door-that WOULD work today. You could add money to your app in the same way you add it to your Dunkin' Donuts app. Maybe earn bonuses just like at Dunkin' (free unlock after every 10?).

As a customer this would suck. But from a corporate standpoint I think you are really onto something here! :hilarious::cool:
 
yensid67

yensid67

Well-Known Member
"It was the proprietor of Adventureland who thought of the idea of the Tiana riverboat cruise and got a nice bonus for thinking of it and got to keep her job. "

I don't think Disney requires Management like that, but I could be wrong. Ideas like that are usually the role of Imagineers!
 

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