How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, after year, they’re more innovative than all their competition. And yet, … Read more
For its relaunch to succeed, Coca-Cola first has to reposition itself so that people stop feeling guilty when they drink it, or, ideally, come to see a Coke as a treat. That’s why Douglas is so intent on pushing Coca-Cola away from the supersize drinks and back to the older, smaller sizes. A few years … Read more
Onevery peculiar thing that we have noticed about most companies is that they want to be generalists so that they can sell everything to everyone. They call it covering all bases. Sounds good in theory but it does not always pan out in the real world because people tend to perceive specialists as having better … Read more
Worker resistance in the Disney theme parks can take several different forms which to a certain extent are affected by the kind of job under consideration. One response is to ‘switch off’. According to Van Maanen, when feeling too tired to smile but still having to, ride operators simply switch off. Various names are given … Read more
It was not quite like this at the beginning however. In Disneyland’s very early days, Walt was appalled by the behaviour of some of the park’s staff toward visitors. The staff, many of whom had been hired by lessees, lacked training and were gruff and unhelpful towards visitors. Such behaviour was unacceptable to Walt who … Read more
From the point of view of the consumer of the themed environment, theming offers the opportunity to be entertained and to enjoy novel experiences. It is sometimes suggested that we live in an entertainment economy in which the constant exposure to forms of entertainment – most notably through television, the movies, and computer games – … Read more
In a sense, Disneyization takes up where McDonaldization leaves off. McDonaldization is frequently accused of creating a world of homogeneity and sameness. One of the main foundations for Disneyization is that of increasing the appeal of goods and services and the settings in which they are purveyed in the increasingly homogenized environments that are the … Read more
Decision of some sort—and the quality that we value as instructors is a kind of “decisiveness” born of a willingness to ignore the complexity of the situation at hand. Understandably, this approach makes a lot of us nervous about the real messages that we are sending to students in case method classrooms. Yet, the potential … Read more
We use field studies in all our modules, but in a particular way: Participants visit the local operations of the companies represented in the class. These are not passive tours, but active investigations, on a subject related to the module, for example, a “cultural audit” at BT in the first module or probing into change … Read more
THE FORMATIVE YEARS Business education is usually traced back to the University of Pennsylvania, which set up a bachelors program in business in 1881, thanks to the efforts of businessman Joseph Wharton. In a paper on the origins of business education, J. C. Spender argues otherwise, tracing this effort back to the Prussian school of … Read more
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