Monday, February 27, 2012

Bill Capodagli–Upcoming Guest on the television show: First Business

On March 21st, WGN's Bill Moller will be interviewing Bill Capodagli for the television show First Business which is carried by 100+ stations in North America and seen in 46 countries. The focus of Bill Capodagli's segment will be "the genius of Walt Disney." Stay tuned for air dates!

Bill Capodagli–Featured Keynoter for Manufacturing Innovation 2012

 

Bill Capodagli will be a featured keynote speaker at Manufacturing Innovation 2012 (MI2012) in Orlando on May 9th. This 4-day event is produced by Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and brings together over 700 manufacturers, industry experts, and MEP field staff to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies facing U.S. manufacturers. This event is designed to truly bring the “voice of manufacturing” and “voice of government” to an open, educational and sharing environment that makes a measurable impact on U.S. manufacturing.

Monday, February 13, 2012

LAST MINUTE SIGN UP FOR THE DISNEY WAY WEBINAR!

 

Feb. 15th from 2 – 3:30 PM EST

1. Register:

http://disneywaywebinar.eventbrite.com/?discount=FR2.15.12

2. We’ll send you an invite so you can connect to the webinar.

3. You’ll receive bonus materials and a date for the follow-up webinar for in-depth Q and A…FREE!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Tokyo Disneyland Promotes Self Discovery for Cast Members

Creating “magical” customer service – The Disney Way begins with creating a culture in which employees feel valued, trusted, and respected. The Tokyo Disneyland theme park is doing a great job of training their Cast Members in the “Disney Way.” First of all, like Pixar, Tokyo Disney Resort (where the theme park is located) claims to have “its roots in the dreams of Walt Disney.” The mission of their Cast Development Department includes: “communicate the Disney dream and philosophy…by training them in the ‘Disney Way.’”

In 2010, Toyko Disneyland created a Self Discovery Seminar series that affords cast members the opportunity to explore their dreams; discover and refine their talents; and understand what motivates them to learn, grow and succeed in their careers and lives. What a great morale builder!

You may have read in Innovate the Pixar Way that legendary Pixar director, Brad Bird said, “…If you have low morale, for every one dollar you spend, you get about twenty-five cents of value. If you have high morale, for every dollar you spend you get about three dollars of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.”

When people have high morale, they are able to express their creativity and achieve great things. Walt Disney believed that everyone is creative. We all may not be able to come up with the next iPad, Blackberry, or microchip, but almost everyone sees innovative opportunities in the way they conduct their jobs or serve their customers. When we encourage, trust, and reward employees to be innovative in how they do their jobs…the results are amazing!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Create a Pixar-Style Brain Trust!

Last week in the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos Switzerland, 2,500 world leaders rallied to further their tall order mission…”committed to improving the state of the world.” The theme was “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models.”

In their 100-page agenda, here is a list of the “hot” words along with the number of times each was mentioned:

Economic – 76
Innovation – 35
Political - 33
War – 24
Governance – 14

Wow, even in this media crazed political cycle, Innovation, won out. It takes more than political rhetoric…our world-leaders need to learn from Pixar-style innovation that can be applied in any organization, and is essential for any long-term transformation. One way you can revamp your culture is by forming a brain trust – a group of fellow “radical” free-thinking activists who are willing to dream big!