Duncan Wardle, former Disney innovation chief, believes that companies need to ask ‘what if?’ to unlock innovation.
One definition of insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. While doubt has been cast on the suggestion that Albert Einstein is the source of this famous quote, the lesson behind it rings true.
Is your business stuck in a rut? Breaking the mould and looking at doing things differently can spark a change that propels it not just into the new year but into a new dimension. If this appeals, then this Masterclass from Duncan Wardle – former head of innovation and creativity at The Walt Disney Company – is for you.
Wardle grew up in the Scottish Highlands. His master of discipline at school was an old Spitfire pilot for whom the definition of a winter sport was changing the colour of the rugby ball so you could see it in the snow. But one job ad with Mickey Mouse on it changed his life.
He found work as a barman in the Rose & Crown Pub in Disney’s Epcot theme park in Florida in 1986. After a year in the role, he returned to London but couldn’t shake his love affair with Disney. The company had just 30 people on the ground in the capital at the time but he wanted to be part of the team and the journey.
“I phoned the office at 10.30am every day for 27 days straight,” Wardle says. “Julie, the receptionist, got so fed up with me calling that she got me a job as the coffee boy. I used to get my boss six cappuccinos a day from Bar Italia on Frith Street, which is still there.”
He was told after three weeks that he would be character co-ordinator at the royal première of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. All he had to do was wait at the bottom of the stairs for Roger to meet Diana, Princess of Wales.
“That’s the day I learnt what a contingency plan was because I didn’t have one,” he says. Large costume feet and a flight of small stairs aren’t the dream combination, and what resulted was Roger hurtling downstairs towards a member of the Royal Family and getting flattened by her protection officers.
The next day, he received a call from Disney’s chief marketing officer in Burbank, Los Angeles, saying: “That’s great publicity!” It kicked off a 20-year stint in PR that would see him send his son’s Buzz Lightyear toy to spend 18 months on the International Space Station, build an Olympic-size swimming pool for Michael Phelps to swim in down Main Street in Disney World, develop the idea for Disney+ and much more.
“Then I got this call from our CEO,” says Wardle. “He said, ‘You’re the guy with all the big and mad ideas and you seem to get them done, you’re going be in charge of innovation and creativity.’ My response was, ‘What the hell is that?’ He said that he wanted to embed a culture of innovation and creativity into everybody’s DNA.”
To discover what Duncan did next, read the entire article over on Business Leader.
