Foreword by Michael D. Eisner. All organisations drive towards the same goal - how best to serve their customers. Walt Disney World has always enjoyed a reputation as a company that set the benchmark for outstanding business practices. Now, for the first time, one critical element of the method behind the magic is revealed: that of quality service. Here, their proven principles and processes are fully outlined, to help your organisation focus its vision and assemble its infrastructure to deliver exceptional customer service.

Adopting a geographic lens to examine the employment of guestworkers in the United States, Be Our Guest offers readers the most comprehensive analysis of guestwork in tourism that has been produced to date. In weaving together the constellation of political and economic factors that exist across multiple scales, the case is made for how and why so many tourism-dependent areas of the United States have developed a dependency on temporary foreign workforces. Taking a holistic approach, special emphasis is placed on the economic histories of these areas and shifting patterns of employment, seasonality, gentrification, and related housing shortages. Throughout, the voices of stakeholders involved in every aspect of guestwork are included: human resources managers battling labor shortages, town planners mitigating workforce housing shortages, and attorneys and advocates helping to directly assist migrant workers and affect policy changes. These perspectives are coupled with detailed analysis of state policies regarding guestworker visa programs and labor market stress to illustrate a vivid picture of the precarious lives of the migrant laborers who arrive in the United States. Be Our Guest serves to specifically address a lacuna in critical tourism studies and the growing concern among practitioners over workforce quality and supply. Nevertheless, it will benefit everyone with an interest in issues of labor migration, precarity, housing policy, and immigration reform.

Exceeding expectations rather than simply satisfying them is the cornerstone of the Disney approach to customer service. Be Our Guest specializes in helping professionals see new possibilities through concepts not found in the typical workplace, revealing even more of the business behind the magic of quality service.

“It’s not the magic that makes it work; it’s the way we work that makes it magic.” The secret for creating “magic” in our careers, our organizations, and our lives is simple: outstanding leadership—the kind that inspires employees, delights customers, and achieves extraordinary business results. No one knows more about this kind of leadership than Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Walt Disney World® Resort operations for over a decade. And in Creating Magic, he shares the leadership principles that not only guided his own journey from a poor farm boy in Oklahoma to the head of operations for a multibillion dollar enterprise, but that also soon came to form the cultural bedrock of the world’s number one vacation destination. But as Lee demonstrates, great leadership isn’t about mastering impossibly complex management theories. We can all become outstanding leaders by following the ten practical, common sense strategies outlined in this remarkable book. As straightforward as they are profound, these leadership lessons include: Everyone is important. Make your people your brand. Burn the free fuel: appreciation, recognition, and encouragement. Give people a purpose, not just a job. Combining surprising business wisdom with insightful and entertaining stories from Lee’s four decades on the front lines of some of the world’s best-run companies, Creating Magic shows all of us – from small business owners to managers at every level – how to become better leaders by infusing quality, character, courage, enthusiasm, and integrity into our workplace and into our lives.

Outlines ten practical principles for increasing the effectiveness of any business organization, based on the author's years at Disney World.