0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

212 ● 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
More than 60,000 people a year attend these classes, which offer a
behind-the-scenes look at the Disney management philosophy. In recent
years, small business owners with fewer than 50 employees represented 44
percent of attendees, say Disney officials.
“Walt Disney was probably one of the premier entrepreneurs of all
time,” said Valerie Oberle, former vice president of Disney University
Professional Development Programs. In fact, Disney started the company
in a garage, with next to no cash.
Oberle, who now runs her own firm, the Oberle Group, said Disney
began sharing its management philosophy after the company was profiled in
Tom Peters’s best-selling book, In Search of Excellence (Warner Books, 1988).
From that point on, she said, business owners and managers were eager to
find out how Disney managed the 40,000 people in its Florida parks alone.
The courses on leadership, management, orientation, and quality service
feature Disney characters. Lamar Berry, chairman of New Orleans–
based International Marketing Systems, said he’s sent hundreds of clients
a year to Disney University. “There is a tremendous benefit to going to an
icon and seeing how that culture is maintained,” said Berry.
To learn more about the Disney Institute, visit their web site: www
.disneyinstitute.com.
Other entrepreneurial management programs to consider:
• Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program.
This nine-week full-time residential program consists of 3 three-week
segments. Participants take one session a year for three years. For information,
contact the Harvard Business School at 800-HBS-5577 or visit
www.exed.hbs.edu/.
• New York University, Stern School of Business: Executive Development
Programs. Web site: www.stern.nyu.edu/Executive/index.htm.
• University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, Executive
Development. For information, check out www.marshall.usc.edu/
execdev.
• University of California, Los Angeles. For more information about
the Executive MBA (EMBA) Program at UCLA Anderson School of
Management, visit www.anderson.ucla.edu/x24273.xml.