Inventing a better mousetrap

Smart Business Los Angeles, May 2008 by Cottrill, Mike

Anne Sweeney likes to think about how taking a risk on a cartoon mouse can turn into a $35.5 billion entertainment juggernaut.

That keeps Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group, from getting a big head about how Disney and ABC programs like "Hannah Montana" and "Grey's Anatomy" have taken over the television world. Instead, she focuses on how The Walt Disney Co. was created by a man with the ingenuity to borrow $500 to start a company in his uncle's garage with nothing but a few drawings.

"That's really how the company started was with great risk and seizing opportunity, being experimental," Sweeney says. "You have to look back at Walt Disney and think, why did he believe that theme parks for families would work, why did he believe that these little animated films that starred a mouse would captivate people? Everyone that signs up to work for Disney has signed up to be an innovator and has signed up to explore new tasks."

So Sweeney, who is responsible for the entirety of Disney's global entertainment and news television properties - which includes, among other things, the ABC Television Network family - has pushed the envelope by growing through innovation. Disney has stayed ahead of the consumer curve, creating outlets for its programming through high-tech toys, like iTunes and its own Web content, while also expanding franchising capabilities.

"I decided a long time ago that not only is change good, but I'm not afraid to change," she says. "I think the greater danger for companies and human beings is not making the changes and maintaining the status quo."

Refusing the status quo has kept Disney surging forward. Since Sweeney took her role in 2004, her group has exploded, growing from $11.2 billion in '04 to more than $15 billion in '07, equaling roughly 42 percent of Disney's overall revenue.

Keeping the momentum behind that much growth isn't easy, so Sweeney is constantly pushing new angles for fresh ideas on what consumers want next. Here are a few strategies Sweeney uses to keep that mentality.

Make employees tinker with toys

Don't feel intimidated by the fact that Sweeney is on Forbes' and Fortune's short lists for the most powerful women in business, you still want to work for her - especially if you want to play with the world's latest toys.

That's because Sweeney keeps employees thinking fresh by sending them home with the latest technology and asking them to apply it to their business.

"It really has been a great thing for our team to make sure that they have technology in their hands and are using it as it comes out," she says. "This dates back to when TiVo and (ReplayTV) came out, I distributed them to my [executive] team and said, 'Take them home, play with them, understand what the technology is and does, and think about it in the context of your business,' and since then, they've taken home PSP [PlayStation Portable] players, and I think they were the first kids on the block with both the video iPod and the iPhone."

The result from giving employees the latest business technology creates an interesting cycle.

"The initial reaction is, 'Wow this is great,'" Sweeney says. "Then they takethem home and, by the next weekly staff meeting, the ideas are absolutely flowing and it's, 'OK, can we do this,' or, 'What if we did that.'"

When Sweeney passed iPhones out to her top people before they became a national sensation they instantly came back with ideas on how to get Disney in on the innovation.

"Now, you can get the ABC News widgets on your iPhone, and that really came out of people taking the phone, falling in love with it, using it and thinking about their business," she says.

Not every business can use technology as fun as an iPhone, but Sweeney's point remains: Putting the industry's latest technology in the hands of your decision-makers and asking them how it can fit your business creates an advantage in your evolution.

"It's an absolute game changer," she says. "To finally hold it and tinker with it is the thing that really gets people thinking. I look back on the countless meetings and conversations I had about the digital future of television as recently as three years ago, and all we ever did was talk about it, and suddenly, iTunes happened to us, and we were the first company in there with 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives.' It really changed the culture of our company, and we were living that change. We weren't just talking about it; we were figuring it out.

"I see how excited people are by the opportunity that new technologies have given us as outlets, and the great lesson and the thing people talk about the most is, what's going on with our viewers. That's the greatest opportunity for everybody here."

Update your grassroots communications

Sweeney has another interesting take on technology: It can be added to old-fashioned forms of communication to spark growth. She likes brainstorming sessions with small groups of people and personal connections, but therein lies the rub: When every group under her charge is in production, she has roughly 15,000 employees. So she has to pepper in improving communication outlets in her goals.