Project Management Case Studies, 7th Edition

Part 20INDUSTRY SPECIFIC: DISNEY THEME PARKS

Every company has some unique characteristics that it wishes its employees to possess to be successful. For Disney theme parks, the skill is in Imagineering project management. But even some of the best‐managed companies in the world, such as Disney, still succumb to risks, mainly from enterprise environmental factors that can influence decisions made on projects. Although we all want to believe that we have some understanding of these enterprise environmental factors, the impacts can be severe when a variety of international cultures are involved.

Disney (A): Imagineering Project Management

INTRODUCTION

Not all project managers are happy with their jobs, and they often believe that changing industries might help. Some want to manage “the world's greatest construction projects” while others want to design the next‐generation cell phone or mobile device. However, the project managers who probably are the happiest are the Imagineering project managers who work for the Walt Disney Company, even though they probably could earn higher salaries elsewhere on projects that have profit and loss statements. Three Imagineering project managers—John Hench, Claude Coats, and Martin Sklar—retired with a combined 172 years of Imagineering project management work experience with the Walt Disney Company. But how many project managers in other industries truly understand what skills are needed to be successful as an Imagineering project manager? ...