posted on June 19, 2001 10:16:33 AM
Years ago I visited Disney World, the park in Fla.,with my sons. We had a seperate time each day, in the late afternoon, when we could each go and do our own thing.
I headed to the bar for a few beers and small talk with adults.
Over the days I got to know an employee that had worked with Walt for over 25 years and he enjoyed telling stories.
He spoke of how much Walt cared about the experience that customers had when they visited his parks, how he tried to hold down costs and examples of his drive to provide the best that could be offered.
He told of several times when Walt was touring a site with world leaders and would still stop to pick-up a small item of trash and throw it away. He believed that the attitude of serving started at the top, he cared and nothing was more important than continued efforts to serve his customers.
Many a top management person with Disney was later on the carpet when he had not stopped to deal with a small bit of trash and Walt had walked in front of him and picked it up himself.
True or not, I enjoyed the stories.
And he told one more that I believe has value to us.
Walt was losing control of the company as more money was needed for expansion. Stockholders wanted profits and conflicts were developing. He knew that when he died that new management might take the company in a direction away from his vision and toward being a money machine.
He could not maintain sufficient ownership in his estate to guarantee family control of the parks.
So he did something I consider brilliant. He seperated the monorail into a different corporation from the remainder of the park. It was of minor value compared to the worth of the entire facility but it tied everything together.
He could pass the ownership of the monorail on to his heirs along with instructions that if the new management that took over after his death ever strayed too far from his vision his heirs should turn the monorail off, take the key and leave until a suitable compromise could be reached.
True or not true? Unimportant.
If we as sellers can create a gateway/pathway that connects all the selling opportunities on the net and own it as a non-profit that functions for the benefit of sellers then we can have some say in how things are done while working with all the for profit companies that offer services and opportunities for marketing.
Yes but.....I know there are a hundred problems and answers needed but this might be a road map toward a solution that is both possible and meets our needs
posted on June 19, 2001 11:34:35 AM
There is a small way- database all of your customer information. It will be a valuable tool in the not too distant future.
