When Disneyland in Los Angeles opened in 1955, it was, in many ways, a disaster, writes The Wall Street Journal (Jan,6-7, 2024). There were rides out of service, restaurants that ran out of food, soft asphalt that consumed the heels of women’s shoes—all of it broadcast on national TV. Little wonder, then, that there was trepidation as the Walt Disney company approached the 1971 opening of the far more ambitious Walt Disney World, here in Orlando, especially as the word spread that it might not open in time. So, when Dick Nunis, the head of park operations, took control of the project, he was given carte blanche to do whatever it took to open the gates on Oct. 1st.
“There wasn’t anybody on that property who thought we were going to open on time,” said Dick Evans, one of the park’s managers on opening day. “And opening on time was critical to the company. We were at that point in debt up to our eyeballs. We’d borrowed close to $400 million to build phase one of Walt Disney World. And within a week of the time that he came on the property, the entire perspective changed. The energy level changed. He came in there like a tornado.”
Nunis, who recently died at the age of 91, fired contractors who got in the way, held meetings at 5 a.m. and put signs up all over the property that said the park would open on Oct. 1st. He made sure construction workers knew that their families were invited to the park a week before opening. He flew palm trees in on helicopters the night before the gates opened.
Not only did he understand the logistics of what it would take to hire thousands of employees, motivate construction workers and oversee the myriad details of opening a resort, he had worked closely with Walt Disney for a decade and knew how the company’s founder would have wanted it done.
Chapter 3 in our text deals with project management and the critical role of the project manager, Nunis, in this case. What does Disney World look like 62 years later? With 77,000 employees (called “cast members”) and six parks (Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Hollywood Studios, and Blizzard Beach), we see that the stakes in project management are high.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What are the responsibilities of a project manager?
- What are the 3 phases of the management of projects? (Hint: see page 62 in your text).
