Another company that should need no introduction - as arguably the most recognized company name in the world. Founded in 1923, the current studio and corporate office headquarters is located on the historical Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. The Burbank studios have been in continuous operation since 1939, about the same time that Douglas Aircraft opened their sprawling Long Beach plant. If you want to learn more - visit here or here.

My time with Disney was spent spearheading two of the Studio's large (North American) technology efforts over an 18 month period. First was the Cisco Voice over IP (or VoIP) deployment. This would replace the antiquated PBX phone system with a new, state-of-the art system that increased capabilities while cutting IT costs. The second large project was the replacement of all existing copiers, scanners, digital sender devices, printers and fax machines with a new fleet of HP's multi-function capable printers, or MFP's.  See the HP / Disney video here....

Working with the Corporate IT - Technical Relationship Management (TRM) group, my sponsor and primary customer was the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Mr. Jeff Mirich.  Disney is not unlike McDonnell Douglas, in that it is a huge company, with many diverse operating groups, who each has a different need and desired approach to technology change. The Studio's dozen division were especially so. Consider some of these names - Disney Motion Pictures, Hollywood Records, Pixar, Miramax, Touchstone, Disney Records, WD Home Entertainment (DVDs), etc. 

They each made a significant amount of profit for the company, and though only 1/10th the size of DisneyWorld's employee base  - the Studio was equally profitable to the 70,000 employees at the Florida mega-park. Hence the Studio division wielded considerable influence on their own destiny.

This diverse success made project management an (ahem) involved endeavor. Several meetings with executive leadership (including presidents, CFO's, EVP's, etc) for each of the impacted business units were required, covering the scope, costs and project timelines. In some cases, major motion picture releases required plans to be modified, such as the case for Pixar's Up and Disney's Race to Witch Mountain. If fact, the Rock himself heckled me when I interrupted his post-production, pre-release meeting with seemingly the entire Domestic Distribution team.  Dude - I'm sorry about that Dwayne - and thanks for "only" heckling me versus destroying me with a Rock Bottom move!

By August of 2009, the contract wrapped up with the HP project completed, and the Cisco project placed into slowed deployment schedule to the crippling 2008-2009 economic downturn. The people that I met and worked with were all salt of the earth types, with absolutely zero of the Hollywood attitude or antics you might have expected. Though virtually everyone suffered from heavy (some crushing) workloads and deadline pressure, everyone I met was happy to report to work and participate in making the Disney Magic a reality.