Don’t just take our word for it. Disney Institute has chronicled a range of case studies - true stories about groups like yours.
After recognizing organizational deficits, each applied the knowledge and experience gleaned at Disney Institute to make a major impact on their business. Select a story that intrigues you most, enter your contact information, and we’ll provide you the complete case study.
When one of the nation’s largest multi-family community management companies noticed a growing number of residents were dissatisfied with their homes and service, Joe Berry made a call. He called Disney Institute. Since working with Disney, AIMCO’s vice-president of learning and development reflects, "We’ve always been focused on our residents, but our approach really wasn’t formalized until we teamed up with Disney Institute. The relationship helped us springboard a theme that will now be woven throughout everything we do and embraced by every team member at AIMCO."
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
"Excellence in Healthcare Leadership" helps them become an Employer of Choice
In 2001, Arkansas Children’s Hospital was struggling with the recruitment of critical staff including nurses, respiratory therapists and patient information assistants, and the team was also dealing with high staff turnover rates. How did short-term fixes give way to a complete culture change?
It started with an outreach to Disney Institute. "Now that we have a Culture by Design," says Scott Gordon, COO of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, "we find that all of our efforts - fundraising, retention of team members, patient satisfaction and work with our physician partners - are more successful because we are more consistent and focused. We could not, in our wildest imagination, have predicted how powerful a change agent the Disney Institute training would be for our organization."
Duncan Regional Hospital
Fostering an enduring service culture in a rural hospital setting
Facing significant competition from larger, big-city hospitals, Duncan Regional Hospital faced considerable challenges in achieving — and sustaining — operational and financial success. They began to overcome those challenges when they committed to making a change with the help of Disney Institute. After adapting Disney standards to their organization, market share has increased and patient satisfaction scores catapulted from a low 75th to a high 99th percentile rating. It’s a healthy prognosis for a once-ailing hospital.
Humana Inc.
Humana Reaches "Perfect Service" Goals
Humana’s self-diagnosis revealed that claims were being reworked in reaction to higher error rates. Customers complained service was unacceptable, and retention rates were reaching their lowest levels. With each revelation, Humana associates became more discouraged, complacent, and some
even left the company.
The prescription was Disney Institute. Arriving with a commitment of being more "consumer-centric," Humana began the first step in what would ultimately be a successful transformation. "Given the fact we were driving toward a consumer-centric approach," asked Humana’s senior vice-president and chief service and information officer Bruce Goodman, "what better company to look at than Disney?"
With 35,000 employees accommodating 32 million passengers annually, how did Miami International Airport manage to get a diverse mix of airline personnel, vendors, county employees, and federal employees on the same page? They began by taking a trip to meet with the Disney Institute team. "That’s one of the reasons why we turned to Disney," explains MIA’s director José Abreau. "I think that going to the best gives you the best results."
Previous attempts to address the value and performance of their organization had lost momentum. That’s when NRH turned to Disney Institute. In less than four days, senior management to see their future. Inspired by the multi-day program which showed how building a loyal customer base would drive repeat business and financial success, they made changes. At NHR, those changes reduced turnover, increased patient satisfaction, and told employees that they mattered.
Old Mutual Group
Adapting Disney’s Quality Service Culture
What does a 170-year-old South African financial services company have in common with Disney? It was a passion for providing service. The Old Mutual Group’s decision to create a culture of service excellence led them to Disney Institute, where the lessons they gathered were soon put in place.
Hannah Thomas, the drive’s campaign manager, observes "There are many companies that are excellent at service. What makes Disney Institute unique is the powerful combination of theory and experience. Individuals go back home asking, ‘What can I do for my clients, based on what I just learned and saw firsthand?’"
Pick ’n Pay
"Vuselela" Means "Rebirth" for South Africa’s Largest Retailer
A super-sized collection of superstores in South Africa, Pick n’ Pay had 123 corporate stores, and 30,000 employees, and one secret weapon: direction from Disney Institute. After more than 600 Pick ‘n Pay employees traveled to the Walt Disney World® Resort to attend a customized Disney Institute program, they returned home with an understanding of "Disney’s Approach" to quality service, leadership, and management. To this day, their adaptation of Disney best practices continues to improve their own best practices back home.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Building loyalty through an intern program that caused intern acceptance rates to soar
How can you improve the chances that a university’s best and brightest will be coming to work for you? PriceWaterhouseCoopers did it by enrolling itself in Disney Institute programs. College interns who had made it into PwC’s much-heralded program had a chance to travel to the Walt Disney World® Resort to see how Disney best practices were also being practiced by their potential employer. So, in the end, PwC’s investment on their interns training paid off with a higher recruitment rate and new employees who already knew the company.
Siemens Medical
Focusing on the external customer relationship at an annual national meeting
As long as your employees are at Disney for a corporate retreat, why not give them an extra boost by introducing them to proven Disney business philosophies? Although Siemens focus is on the development and manufacturing of technologically advanced medical equipment, they were also smart enough to realize that Disney Institute could share with them lessons in quality service and leadership that could increase levels of external customer satisfaction. The results are in. They did.
Start Holding
Multinational temporary employment agency cascades organization-wide leadership initiative
Although it is well-known as the second-largest temporary agency in the Netherlands, Start Holding faced competition from the one company ahead of it - and every company that followed. How would they differentiate their people and products and services?
They would visit with Disney Institute to find a new path that followed the classic Disney model, the "Chain of Excellence" whose concentration on leadership excellence, employee excellence, candidate satisfaction, customer satisfaction, financial results, and customer value would guide the company’s future. And it has, seen today in improved customer and employee satisfaction scores and in an awareness of where the company is headed: to the top.
UCH wanted to create a new vision that would help build a culture where employee pride and loyalty could flourish, and where its workforce could prepare the future. This vision would require breaking away from one-time training events with a limited focus on compliance to introduce continuous learning within the organization. It was Disney Institute which helped introduce to UCH the changes they desired.
"It’s always a challenge to keep the learning fresh," says Judy Schueler, Executive Director of the UCH Academy. "That’s one reason why our partnership with Disney Institute is so important. By sending our star team leaders and team members there, we recognize them for their current contributions and we invest in them for their future with UCH."
After a labor dispute caused a rift between union and management staff, it was time to bring the two factions together and to return the focus where it should be: the care of patients and their families. It would be a long journey, but it would be made easier with the help of Disney Institute.
Following long-term attendance in a variety of programs, the Disney approaches to quality service, people management, and leadership were adapted. The result? Customer satisfaction scores that once hovered near the 60th percentile reached the high 90s, employee turnover rates fell, and the hospital that has served Rhode Island since 1874 was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s best.