Maggie Spivey

February 8, 2016
English 102-Paper 1
Is Disney considered the best run hospitality company?
Management is the key to a successful business regardless of the field of the business.
Companies like Disney have built their success on their management skills. Through this
research I discovered the particular practices that set Disney apart from other companies. I also
got to personally experience the hospitable and organized nature of Disneys amusement park.
From the research I have conducted and personal experience I have formed this research
question; Is Disney considered the best run hospitality company?
This particular topic is interesting to me because I am majoring in the hospitality industry
and Disney is constantly referenced as the pinnacle of hospitality. I have also been a huge fan of
everything Disney. This research will be interesting to determine how outside sources rank
Disney versus my own opinions. As a hospitality major, I have been taught that management is
the main backbone to a successful business, so I value the management style that Disney has
implemented. I have had recent experience with Disney World and I was blown away by the
attention to detail and overall organization of the experience. The amount of energy that goes
into keeping the authenticity and character of the theme park is overwhelming. It reassured my
beliefs that Disney is the most well-run tourist attraction. My major allows me to compare these
companies with a particular value in mind. The most important opinion about companies, such as
Disney, comes from the customers because the customers are the greatest indicator of the quality
of service. Hospitality is an industry based on service. As a customer, I can personally vouch for
the quality of service that Disney provides because all of the cast members were extremely

friendly and helpful and seemed to truly care about the customers needs. These factors qualify
me to be able to research and argue about this topic.
The first source I found in my research was an online article on the Forbes database. This
article summarizes all of the monetary and statistical evidence that supports that Walt Disney is
one of the most valuable brands. The main claim of this article is that Disney has built a valuable
brand. It uses specific evidence such as past rankings that have added up to Forbes current
ranking of Walt Disney including years and what the ranking is based on. The major interest at
stake in this article is what companies have built the best and most successful brands. This article
came from Forbes magazine which is an extremely well respected news outlet. It does not seem
to be a biased article because the ranking is based on statistic facts such as stock, net worth and
other awards. There was not a specific identity given to the author so there may not be a personal
bias however all pieces of writing will have some form of rhetoric so the overall rankings could
be biased.
The second source I found during my research came from the USC library database. This
sources main claim was that Disney has implemented at least 5 practices that can help perfect
the manufacturing process of a business. The article lists these 5 practices and gives a detailed
description of the practice and how it improves the business. The 5 practices the article discusses
are standard work is an in-control process, employees are called cast members because they
are always on, controlled processes require ongoing improvement for them to continue to
satisfy customers, attention to details should be a way of life, and committing to the message is
as important as the message itself. The main values in this article come from the detailed
descriptions of how these practices can improve the manufacturing process of a business. The
success of the manufacturing process is the object at stake in this source. This source came from

the school library database which attributes to the quality of the source. The second indicator of
the credibility of the source would be that the source came from the precision machines products
association which without previous knowledge on the association appears to be a credible source.
The articles author is Miles Free who is the director of industry research and business
intelligence and it is clear that Miles favors Disneys manufacturing skills however it is not clear
what his bias is influenced by.
The last source I found during my research was also from the library database. This
sources main claim was that Disney targets all niches of customers including those customers
that may come to Disney world to seek out the companys problems and failures. Disney has
created specific tours for these customers to reassure them that Disney is what it claims to be.
The values in this article are the efforts that Disney has made to assure customers that their
efforts and claims are genuine. The stake in this source would be whether their efforts have
convinced the doubters of their intentions. It is unclear what this article was written for and
therefore it is unclear whether the source is credible. The author does include a works cited to
give credit to the data included in his article which adds credibility to his conclusions. The author
is biased in favor of Disney. This source analyzes the effort Disney makes to please not only the
masses but the individual.
The main argument that can come from this topic is whether Disney should be considered
the most successful business based on both management and service. Among the sources, it is
agreed that Disney is extremely successful in what it claims to do the disagreement however
comes from whether Disney should be considered the best or not. This, of course, will not have a
conclusive answer because it the ranking will continue to change and peoples opinions will
never be the same. All three of my sources favored Disney so the sources reinforced my own bias

by learning more about the different components that make Disney such a successful business. In
the future I should look for sources that may challenge my opinion to form a more well rounded
argument. For now, I will continue to believe that Disney is the most successful business based
on the quality of management and service.

Works Cited
Source 3: BARTKOWIAK, MATHEW J. "Behind The Behind The Scenes Of Disney World:
Meeting The Need For Insider Knowledge." Journal Of Popular Culture 45.5 (2012): 943-959.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Source 1: Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web.
Source 2: Free, Miles. "Walt Disney World: A Model For Precision Manufacturing." Production
Machining 7.5 (2007): 17-19. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.