You don't have to set a record to be successful.

You might be surprised to learn that Disneyland and Walt Disney World don’t set many records. You will not ride the fastest roller coaster in the world in a Disney park. You will not find the highest roller coaster in a Disney park, nor will you see the longest roller coaster in a Disney park. Even for all its many rides, shows, and attractions, Disneyland (or any Disney park) rarely sets records for anything in any category, except one.

The one record Disney holds is the only one that counts: attendance. As explained in the Disney Institute book Be Our Guest, by 1996 an estimated 1.2 billion people had visited a Disney park. In that year, Disney’s largest property, Walt Disney World, boasted 27 hotels with more than 25,000 rooms, as well as 300 restaurants and eateries.

People don’t come to Disney parks to ride the fastest, tallest, or scariest of anything. There are plenty of other places for those chills and thrills. Disney’s lands provide an overall experience, and give guests something more: a story. Consider that when Disneyland opened in 1955 it had no thrill rides at all. It was only with the addition of the Matterhorn in 1959 that Disney added a roller coaster to its stable of attractions.

While the Matterhorn did not set speed or height records, it did set one important Disney-type record. It was the first roller coaster in the world to be made of steel tubing and it was the first to have “blocks” or sections so multiple trains could safely be on the track at the same time. Records for being the first at something can never be broken. Disney rarely sets out to be the most of something. “Most” things can always be overcome with more. Firsts, however, are firsts forever. It takes more effort, dedication, and courage to be the first at anything, but as Disney shows, the rewards are often worth it.

Set the Right Records

Think about the records you want to set. The theme of far too many board meetings and subsequent staff meetings is “how can we be the most” of something? There is always a struggle, if not a competition, to serve more people, build more buildings, or expand into new areas.

Sometime around 1990, and lasting for ten or so years, theme parks in the United States and around the world found themselves in what industry insiders called a “roller-coaster arms race.” During that time, one theme park would build a roller coaster that included some exciting new feature. It might be the most loops, the highest drop, or the fastest speed.

Each summer season brought the unveiling of a new type of roller coaster. Some innovations and openings came so quickly that a theme park that began the summer with the fastest coaster would find itself in second place by Labor Day.

There were stand-up coasters, then really tall coasters called megacoasters or hypercoasters. Later, even taller coasters demanded a new name: gigacoaster. When enough gigacoasters started appearing everywhere a new category emerged: stratacoaster. No one could design, build, or test the maximum limits of thrills without being topped by another soon after.

One could say the roller-coaster arms race ended only when theme park operators discovered there were limits to what the human body could withstand. One theme park near London was forced to redesign a ride after a particularly revealing pre-opening test run. As told in a Los Angeles Times article, “Thrill Ride Designers Compete to Push the Limits,” by Hugo Martín, several mannequins used to test the new attraction lost limbs as they rode the rails.

During the 1990s, as other theme parks raced to outdo each other, Disney watched. Even as then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner declared the 90s to be the Disney Decade, Disney’s theme parks clearly did not participate in the coaster wars. During that so-called Disney Decade, the company built only three coasters in the United States: Gadget’s Go Coaster in Disneyland (top speed 21.7 mph), Goofy’s Barnstormer in the Magic Kingdom (top speed 25 mph), and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando (top speed 57 mph). Disney’s investment in thrills was negligible compared to its competition, if you considered the competition to be other theme and amusement parks.

Like any other arms race, there were winners and losers. Some theme parks could not keep up. Some went out of business. Some filed bankruptcy. The same is true for the companies that designed and built roller coasters. Disney remained strong, choosing to compete where others weren’t: in story telling, cleanliness, and dedication to customer service.

Where do we compete? Just because others are doing the same thing does not mean we should. Disney survived and thrived because it had something no one else had. Disney had wonder. Disney had enchantment. Disney had magic.

While Disney cares as much about the bottom line as any corporation (profit or nonprofit), it is extraordinarily careful when setting benchmarks for itself. It rarely boasts the biggest, longest, or fastest of anything. When it does advertise in superlatives, it is almost always in terms of the giving the best guest experience possible. Racing to be the record holder in anything leads only to disappointment. Set a record and someone will immediately try to beat it.

Continued in "The Disney Difference"!

Do you really know what business you're in?

Consider the United States Postal Service. While many of us don’t use the mail as much as our parents did, the U.S. Postal Service is a minor miracle. Pretend for a moment that no one ever came up with the idea of mail. If someone were to approach you and say he or she would come to your house six days a week and pick up your letters and deliver them anywhere in the country in a couple of days for just a couple of quarters, you would rightfully call that person crazy. Logistically, it is a near-impossible feat to move so much mail so quickly, so efficiently. The miracle is even greater when the same person tells you that you will also receive mail from other people six days a week.

Yet, the U.S. Postal Service often fails to realize its true purpose. It fails to recognize its strengths and instead exposes its weaknesses to a point where it is almost self-defeating. Case in point is a moment just after the turn of this century when the post office decided it was time for a change.

As reported in the Chicago Tribune on March 5, 2007, “Time Stands Still When You Are Waiting in Line at the Post Office,” the U.S. Postal Service started “phasing out” clocks in its 37,000 post offices around the country. The postal service said it was removing clocks from all its lobbies as part of a “retail standardization program” to give their lobbies a more uniform appearance.

The post service denied the move was in response to complaints from customers that they were waiting too long in line. Rather, it said, “Clocks are probably not appropriate in the retail environment.” It emphasized that it was not forcing the removal, only asking local offices to take away the clocks, because it wanted people to focus on postal service and not the clock. Customers did not quite agree with the removal of the clocks from post office lobbies: 90.6% of respondents to a Chicago Tribune survey indicated that removing the clocks from waiting areas was a “bad move.”

When you think of “postal service,” are the images positive? While the postal service insists the move was for the consumer’s benefit, the consumer knew better, and newspaper cartoons and columnists chimed in. The suspected reason was service was horrible and the clocks reminded all of us how long we had to wait for the privilege of enduring it.

If you were playing a word association with someone and you were asked to react to the word “post office,” most people would not respond with “service” or “customer service.” While several books have been written on the innovations and advances at both UPS and Federal Express, no known books exist on the same subject highlighting the logistical miracle that is the post office, which handles more volume than either of its relatively new competitors. Rather, the one extra-curricular product the post office has given us is a new phrase, “going postal.” Its meaning is anything but flattering.

The irony is clear. The post office does wonders. Yet, people hate the post office. Ask anyone about the post office and you are likely to get a negative reaction. Ask them about their letter carrier, and you are likely to get a far different response. People generally love the loyal, friendly person who delivers the mail each day.

To see what the post office gets right, and where it could be better, read The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. You will want to have a letter carrier like the one who delivers mail to Sanborn. Fred is the letter carrier that not only delivers Sanborn his mail, but generally makes life better for the author. If only Fred ran the whole post office, people would be making up reasons to mail things, just so they could deal with people like him.

Perhaps, if the post office thought more about its reason for being, it would concentrate on the people it serves and focus less on whether there is a clock in the lobby. For example, why doesn’t the post office have a drive-through? There appears to be only a couple post offices in the United States that offer customers the convenience of a drive-through.

Other countries such as Bahrain embrace the idea of giving their customers a drive-through post office. Although Americans can pick up meals, do their bank transactions, and drop off dry cleaning from the comfort and convenience of their cars, buying stamps or dropping off a package is not in the system, at least for now.

One of the great things about Walt Disney is he did not insist his customers do things his way. He was quick to change his approach to match his guests’ desires. Once, chief Disneyland landscaper Bill Evans approached Walt and told him of a problem he was having at the park. He told the boss his beautiful flower bed was being trampled and ruined by the guests. As John Hench recounts in his book Designing Disney, Evans asked Walt to put up a fence to keep the guests out.

While he was a horticultural expert, and known for his beautiful landscaping, Evans lost focus. He thought his job was to create elegant landscaping. In reality, his job was to give guests a visual treat; to offer them something beautiful to behold as they walked through the Magic Kingdom. The flowers were there for the guests. Walt told Evans they would not build a fence; instead, they would pave the pathway.

In an amusing story on how Walt cherished entertaining his guests, he had to handle another problem coming from the landscaping department. Just before opening day at Disneyland, there were not enough plants and flowers in the park. Disney landscapers had already purchased and cleaned out all the plant nurseries in Orange County and in many of the neighboring communities. They could not grow plants fast enough and there were none they could buy locally.

Disney, in typical Walt fashion, had Evans go to the Disneyland parking lot and gather some weeds. He then had them planted throughout the park and had Evans put Latin name tags on them. Problem solved. Walt’s job (and Disneyland’s) was to entertain. And as guests walked by plants that were clearly weeds, but with ostentatious-sounding scientific names, it was worth a chuckle or laugh until real plants could arrive.

Walt Disney knew his business: create an environment that guests will enjoy and appreciate. The mistake the post office makes is an underlying belief they are in the business of moving letters and packages. While that is what they do, it is not why they do it. They move parcels and notes to help people. They do it to make life better. Disney got it. Fred gets it. Why don’t Fred’s superiors?

Continued in "The Disney Difference"!