Walt Disney Parks & Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., also known informally as Walt Disney Parks and Resorts or Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's four major business segments and a subsidiary.

Originally known as Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division then Walt Disney Attractions, it is responsible for the conception, building, and managing of the company's theme parks and vacation resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises. It was founded in 1971, after the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, joining the original Disneyland in California, which opened in 1955.

In 2014, the company's theme parks hosted approximately 134 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company, ahead of the second-most visited rival Merlin Entertainments. It is by far the largest Disney business segment by employee headcount, with about 130,000 of Disney's total number of 180,000 employees as of 2015.

Based in Japan, I headed up the sales and marketing group for the theme parks and resorts division. Charged with the responsibilities of increasing the number of Japanese visitors to the theme parks in the US, I provided leadership to our team as we ensured maximum efficiency of distribution channels. Working closely with the consumer marketing group, we built awareness of Japanese visitor needs and services at the theme parks and resorts.

LESSONS LEARNED

Working at Disney was like being at business school and a terrific experience in protecting the brand, sharing project management and strategic planning. It was also my first experience to lead and manage a large group of employees and stakeholders. We worked hard, travelled extensively and worked under significant pressure. But often, at the end of the day in the US parks, we could relax and enjoy the magic of the Disney Parks. I especially enjoyed seeing the faces of children (young and old) let themselves go for the moment and be happy.

BEST EXPERIENCES

I was able to hire almost all of my staff. I learned the importance of selecting the right people and surrounding yourself with talented people. During interviews I could almost instantly recognize talent, passion and commitment. To the end they were committed to the team and me to them.
When I visited Disneyland in Anaheim (the original park that Walt opened himself) I would often go to the park before it opened in the morning. At the time the park opened at 7:30 AM for Disney hotel guests. With a cup of coffee I would seat myself at the end of Main Street around 7:20 and then just wait. Promptly at 7:30 I could hear the crowds flood into the park and run for their favorite attractions. This had been going on every day for the past 46 years.
Our teams' jobs were to market the Disney theme parks in the US. The biggest challenge was the exsitence of Tokyo Disneyland. Why fly to the US when the Disney experience was just a short train ride away? A visit to the Disney offices in London gave me an "a-ha" moment when I realized we needed to lean on the US experience for the guests. Arriving back in Japan I created the Disney USA branding program to give us a distinction from the Japan park without any negative impact on our local theme park.

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