Disney Business Lessons

I recently spent a week in Disney World with my family. We had a great time taking in the sites and visiting all four theme parks. During my visit I had several thoughts about what makes Disney so successful to apply to my business.

• Disney throws an incredible number of people at things ... It felt like Mexico at times ... Like labor was "free"... tons more then most other places I have been in the US. The key take-away I had was reminding me that cost doesn't matter value does. In fact it felt like Disney is probably 10x the cost per ride but gets 20x the visitors. 
• Quality ... the little details mater a lot and distinguish the best from the rest. This is very similar to Apple. The last 2% takes a lot of effort but when done consistently delivers. For example, any ride under construction had huge painted canopies over it that from a distance made it look like a building ... you didn't see construction. Another is how they did line management on the rides ... I haven't been to a lot of amusement parks, but Disney seemed 10x better here and the hard thing to believe is that this is easy to copy. I don't get why others don't ... It is that last two percent that makes the difference.
• Business lines play off each other ... This also reminded me a lot of Apple. Everything was about Disney ... Shows, characters, rides all pushed Disney movies, TV, etc. My wife and I found ourselves saying "Oh we should watch ___ Disney movie" multiple times. When business lines are synergistic that is when real value happens. As a side it took Disney many years to get there (as it is with Apple) so this isn't something done overnight, but there should be a vision for making this happen.
• What you call things matters ... Disney called the same spinning kid ride Aladdin's magic carpet, dinosaur spin and Dumbo's flying elephant (the only difference in the rides seemed to be what you where sitting in). Yet somehow this seemed like three magical rides that people lined up for and my kids loved. Further the local park has a very similar ride that is just called spinning something (I cannot remember the name) and has plain carts and no line. Again Apple does this really really well ... Think iPad 2 launch "we reinvented the iPad just one year latter". If you say it strongly enough and believe it, it becomes "true". 

These were my musings while at Disney. Yes I am an entrepreneur...even on vacation I try to figure out how business are successful.