employees as customers

The Walt Disney Company, we’re in the business of

creating entertaining, magical experiences for millions

of guests, viewers, and consumers around the world.

We’ve found that there is no better way to help our

people understand the Disney experience than to

“be” the guest. Our legacy depends on our ability to

continually craft products and

services that remain inherently

and unmistakably Disney. One

component in securing this

legacy is ensuring that our

employees and executives are in

touch with our products and have

the opportunity to experience them as

consumers and guests.

From the day that employees join Disney, they receive a

steady stream of opportunities to immerse themselves

in our products and guest/consumer experiences. We

screen releases of our movies, provide behind-the-scenes

glimpses of new rides and attractions, offer discounts on

our products, and provide complimentary tickets and

annual passes to our theme parks, just to name a few.

To keep the Disney legacy alive, we provide heritage

classes, guest speakers, and tours to give employees a

chance to understand key milestones and decisions in

our history that shaped our company. During lunch, our

Disney Archives team regularly screens early Disney fi lms

and animated shorts.

For our executives, it’s no

different. In fact, we go

to great lengths to ensure

that our senior leaders

not only understand our

products, but experience

them as well. For our

most senior level leadership

team, we provide a week-

long experience called Disney

Dimensions that takes our

executives deep into every

major business unit across

the company.

Please turn to page 7.

volume 4 issue 2 autumn 2008

Discovering What’s Relevant | Strategy “Selling”: Think Like a Marketer | Plus a visual tool you can use now!

Point of View

Making “Magic” isHard Work: “Being” the Guest

Steve MilovichSenior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources, Organization and Leadership Development The Walt Disney Company

Employee as Customer www.watercoolernewsletter.com

at

Keeping our employees and executives close to our product helps us ensure magical experiences

for guests and consumers.

Employee as Customer2

one day a few years ago, a top

executive at Siemens

AG was on his way to an internal sales meeting at one of

the division offi ces when he encountered a sales manager

carrying a folding chair with him into the meeting. Curiosity

aroused, the exec asked what was going on. The manager

replied that whenever he brought this chair into a meeting,

the whole character of the discussion was different. “Just

watch,” the manager said, as they both entered the

conference room.

Several people, including

sales reps, were already

gathered in the room

when the manager

brought his chair in,

unfolded it, and set it

down empty next to his

own chair.

“Who are you expecting to join us?” asked several of the

sales reps already gathered for the meeting. “Shouldn’t we

just get some more chairs brought in here?” some others

suggested.

“No,” the manager replied, “this is my customer’s chair.

I brought it into the meeting so my customer can sit right

here and listen to our discussion.” Then, with a nod to the

empty chair, the manager said the meeting could begin.

But, as the sales manager had predicted, the character

of the discussion was indeed quite different from the

typical sales gathering. Several times during the meeting,

participants found themselves asking whether a particular

point would be made in this particular way if the customer

were actually sitting there and listening. Would we say this

in front of our customer? What would our customer think

of our plan for dealing with this issue? How do we think

our customer would interpret this new policy? Would our

customer agree with us that this is a good idea, or not?

In the corridors of Siemens, based on this and

other similar meetings, this sales manager

became known as “Der Mann mit dem

Klappstuhl,” or “the man with the folding

chair.” But there’s a lesson in this story for all

of us: We should be putting the customer’s

perspective into every discussion we have

and every decision we make. Nothing is more

important to the long-term health of our business than

the trust and confi dence of our customers.

You might even consider carrying a folding chair yourself,

just to be sure of capturing your own customers’

views and representing his or her interests.

Excerpted from Rules to Break and Laws to

Follow: How Your Business Can Beat the Crisis

of Short-Termism (Wiley, 2008) by Don

Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D.

www.peppersandrogers.com

www.1to1.com

Marketing Perspective

the Manwith the Folding Chair

Martha Rogers, Ph.D. Founding PartnerPeppers & Rogers Group

Don PeppersFounding PartnerPeppers & Rogers Group

We should be putting the customer’s perspective into every discussion we have and every decision we make.

www.watercoolernewsletter.com 3

if you’ve ever worked in a

large organization,

you’ve probably experienced this scenario: The

CEO presents a new strategy. It’s about world-class

customer satisfaction, operational excellence, innovation,

expansion, growth targets, and the importance of

people. You receive an e-mail or newsletter to review

some of the concepts and, after that, not a whole lot

seems to change. The presentation was the equivalent

of watching paint dry, and the follow-up has little

relevance to your day-to-day activities.

We’ve seen this unfold many times with clients. Quite

often, organizations underestimate the importance of

not just conveying a strategy effectively, but making sure

it has the broadest appeal and creates an emotional

connection that results in a sense of excitement and

conviction about the direction of the organization.

A lot of our client work focuses on getting everyone

to understand the strategy, connect to it, and build

the skills to execute organizational objectives. What is

often underestimated is how to effectively “market” the

strategy to employees to drive excitement and adoption

of what the organization is trying to do.

By marketing, I don’t mean creating an ad campaign to

convince people that your strategy is something it is not.

Employees see through that, and missing the proper

tone will cost you credibility. It also won’t resonate with

Generations X and Y, who have grown up in a media-

saturated, brand-conscious world and are inherently

skeptical of anything that could be conceived as overly

image-building or inauthentic. After all, there’s a reason

why advertising campaigns such as “Come fl y the friendly

skies” or “Something special in the air” aren’t getting

much play anymore – for anyone who travels frequently,

the skies just aren’t that friendly or special, no matter

what airline.

Thinking like a marketer and creating authentic

awareness, education, and conviction about a strategy

can have a profound impact on the execution of strategic

objectives. We don’t often think of employees as the

customers of our strategy, but merely as those who must

comply with what the organization is trying to execute.

While this is true to some degree, it’s not an effective

way to build commitment and passion. If you think like

a marketer of your strategy, you’ll strive to understand

your audience, their level of awareness and capability,

and their key points of emotional and rational receptivity,

as well as how to best reach them. You’ll also monitor

what’s relevant to them and why, and further invest in

those areas.

One of our current clients recently suffered a slowdown

in growth. Morale declined, along with employee

energy and enthusiasm for the business. The company

redefi ned its strategy and applied these marketing

concepts. Through focus groups, they got clear on the

pulse and knowledge base of the organization and how

these related to the strategy. They then conducted an

organization-wide dialogue on the strategy, supported by

a video-based marketing campaign showing how leaders

are living the new strategy. They’re driving momentum

through a wiki, a blog, and live events where people are

discussing the strategy

and progress made.

The key is to get the

message to places

where employees

naturally congregate.

The goal is to accelerate

strategy adoption and

create an emotional

connection to it.

In marketing-speak, most strategies resemble products

that sit on shelves way too long with limited sales. If you

think more like a marketer and create a plan for “driving

sales” of your “strategy product” with your employees

as the customer, you might be amazed at the impact on

your business.

Strategy “Selling”:Think Like a Marketer

Industry Perspective

Rich BerensPresidentRoot Learning

Try this: Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on how well you apply these marketing concepts, where “10” is world-class. Then, consider what might happen if you could raise your score by 2 points.

1. The left side of this sketch represents a company’s typical

product launch. What do you see happening? Read the

labels and quote bubbles.

2. Is this what happens at your company when you introduce

a new product or service to your customers?

3. Now, look at the right side, which illustrates what happens at

many companies when they launch a new strategy. Read the

labels and the quote bubbles.

4. Have you experienced a scene similar to the one on the right?

5. What was your role – presenter or audience? How did you

feel? How do you think those in the opposite role felt?

6. What are the differences between the two scenes? What

parts of the scene on the left could be used to change the

scene on the right?

7. What do you think are the results of the scene on the left?

Will customers remember the product and its launch?

8. What do you think are the results of the scene on the right?

Will customers remember the strategy and its launch?

9. Pretend this is your company’s strategy launch. What would

you eliminate? What would you add?

10. How can you fi nd out how your employees would like to

be introduced to a new strategy? How could this change

the execution speed and buy-in of your employees?

MarketingYour Strategy


Try this with your team! How is strategy launched at your company? Does it resemble this sketch? Gather your team around this illustration and discuss these questions.


for the fi rst time in

history,

companies are experiencing four generations of people

working side by side, where the age difference may be

50 years or more. You might fi nd an employee who

played a direct part in World War II on a team with one

who knows nothing about the signifi cance of the Berlin

Wall to his teammate.

Just as customer markets are segmented, employee

generations must be segmented if we are to truly

understand their needs, wants, and motivations. For

starters, we need to understand how all four generations

– World War II, Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials –

access, receive, and interpret information. We simply

can’t approach them all in the same way.

Employees as Markets of OneMass marketers know that mass communication misses

its mark because it’s aimed at a target that no longer

exists. The same is true for mass communication to

employees. However, the best marketers believe in

the “segment of one,” where each customer receives

products that they believe are designed specifi cally

for them. This thinking is needed more than ever in

organizations trying to tap into the discretionary talent

of their people – especially in a down economy where

fear and doubt abound.

Consider how you interest customers: You fi nd out

what’s meaningful to them. This is your responsibility

because relevance is always defi ned by the customer, not

the provider. The only way to assure relevance is to see

the business from the view of the “customer” and use

that view to continually engage them. Relevance is at the

heart of seeing employees as customers to maximize

their engagement and ensure that strategy is translated

into a meaningful language.

Leader as TranslatorThe fi rst step in establishing relevance is communicating

in a way people can understand. “People who work at a

company should want to do a good job because they’re

getting paid” is fl awed thinking. Think of a leader as a

translator of the strategic stories of the business.

In working with hundreds of companies, the two most

frequent lines we’ve heard at the manager and front-

line levels are “I don’t understand what I should do

differently” and “I don’t know what I need to do to

contribute.” In cases like these, a leader has failed to

translate the strategy into appropriate future actions.

No employees can execute a strategy that they don’t

understand and that has no connection to them.

Bringing Relevance to Engagement I once asked a teacher about her curriculum. “How do

you decide what to teach?” I asked. After avoiding a

straight answer, she admitted, “I teach what I like.” My

follow-up questions were, “What if what you like isn’t

what your students like? If you teach what you like,

whose role is it to bring the relevance of learning to the

students?” The teacher was unfazed by my belief that it

was her role to uncover relevance rather than to expect

the students to bring it. In the same way, the leader

needs to focus on what is meaningful to employees.

From the CEO’s Desk

Employees as Customers:Discovering What’s Relevant

Jim HaudanChief Executive Offi cerRoot Learning, Inc.


So I put this to the test the next day with my son Blake,

then in fi fth grade.

“What did you learn in school today?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he replied. “The teacher showed us a movie.”

“So, Blake,” I said, “what are you curious about?”

He thought a moment and then said, “How does Caller

ID know who’s calling?”

I said, “I’ll get back to you on that. What else?”

“Well, where does the color come from in bubble bath?”

“I don’t know. What else are you curious about?”

His next question blew me away. He said, “Well, Dad,

as you go higher, there’s less oxygen, right? And when

you make a fi re, you need oxygen for the fi re to burn.

So if the sun is so high and there’s no oxygen up there,

how come it burns so brightly?”

As I pondered this question, I couldn’t imagine a more

engaging and enticing way to design a curriculum for

any age than by starting with what students are curious

about.

What does a story about a fi fth-grader have to do with

employees as customers? We need to ask people what

they’re curious about, and what strategic questions they

want answered. When leaders can capture people’s

imagination, they engage employees in an entirely new,

exciting way. But when leaders don’t uncover what

people want to know, a huge opportunity to help them

“get it” is lost – just as the opportunity is missed when

what we create for our customers isn’t relevant to their

needs and their questions.

Jim Haudan’s The Art of Engagement:

Bridging the Gap Between People and

Possibilities, is on USA Today’s Money

Bookshelf bestseller list. It’s now available

at www.rootsofengagement.com

This year, Dimensions participants read actual scripts

under consideration at the studios, then shared their

thoughts about which one they would “greenlight.”

While at the Walt Disney Internet Group, participants

test-drove games and gave feedback to the actual

game designers. While at Disney Consumer Products,

they participated in a fashion show of Disney’s newest

clothing lines. Up at Pixar, they listened to story pitches.

And at ABC, they literally danced with the stars from

ABC’s hit reality show. Later, across the country, at

ESPN’s Connecticut headquarters, they produced their

own “on-air” SportsCenter segments.

While at Walt Disney World, executives zipped

themselves into costume and worked side-by-side with

our front-line “cast members” – trading pins, cooking

hot dogs, sweeping the streets, or any number of other

guest-facing roles. Then, to cap it all off, participants

trained as a Disney character, donned a character

costume, and interacted with guests in the park.

I had the opportunity to participate in Dimensions, and it

was one of the best things I’ve ever done professionally.

I can attest to the fact that nothing brings the magic

of Disney to life like seeing a young guest smile at you,

hug you, touch your character’s nose, and ask for your

autograph!

At Disney, we create magical experiences and products

for our guests and consumers. Keeping our employees

and executives close to this product helps us ensure

that we continue to do so because, for the more than

130,000 employees across our theme parks, studios,

media, and consumer products divisions, it’s more than a

job… it’s a passion.

Steve Milovich has worldwide responsibility for learning,

leadership development, organization development,

succession planning, diversity, employee communications,

talent acquisition, and The Disney University.

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5470 Main StreetSylvania, OH 43560

Want a FREE copy of Jim Haudan’s book, The Art of Engagement? Go to watercoolernewsletter.com to fi nd out how.

The Conference Board: The Marketing Excellence Conference:

Driving Growth through Excellence in Marketing Execution,

November 13 – November 14, 2008 InterContinental The

Barclay, NYC, www.conference-board.org/conferences

American Management Association’s Fundamentals of Marketing:

Your Action Plan for Success, December 1-3, AMA Chicago Center,

Chicago, www.american-management-association.org/seminars

American Marketing Association’s M•Planet 2009, January 26-28,

Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, Orlando, www.mplanet2009.com. You can buy a person’s hands,but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm,

his loyalty is.

– Stephen R. Covey

In the Summer edition of the

newsletter, we posed the

question, “Do you view this

economic downturn as an

opportunity or a threat?”

Here is how readers

responded:

eve

nts

& n

ew

s

83%Opportunity

13%Threat

4%Both

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