WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.643 Of all the characters in all the Disney films 00:00:03.667 --> 00:00:06.958 the one I love the most is Jiminy Cricket from "Pinocchio." 00:00:07.708 --> 00:00:09.768 My favorite scene in the movie 00:00:09.792 --> 00:00:12.809 is when the blue fairy is saying to Pinocchio, 00:00:12.833 --> 00:00:15.476 "Always let your conscience be your guide." 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:17.851 Pinocchio asks, "What are conscience?" 00:00:17.875 --> 00:00:20.476 and Jiminy Cricket is scandalized by the question. 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:21.809 "What are conscience! 00:00:21.833 --> 00:00:23.309 What are conscience! 00:00:23.333 --> 00:00:27.309 Conscience is that still, small voice that people won't listen to. 00:00:27.333 --> 00:00:29.875 That's just the trouble with the world today." 00:00:30.708 --> 00:00:34.143 I love the way Jiminy Cricket is always there 00:00:34.167 --> 00:00:37.226 with a nerdy, ethical thing 00:00:37.250 --> 00:00:41.184 just as Pinocchio's coming up with some kind of good plan. 00:00:41.208 --> 00:00:44.143 I think of him as speaking truth to puppet. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:44.167 --> 00:00:46.643 I always wondered what it was about Jiminy Cricket 00:00:46.667 --> 00:00:48.101 that made me love him so much 00:00:48.125 --> 00:00:49.393 and one day it hit me. 00:00:49.417 --> 00:00:51.583 It was because he sounds like my grandfather. 00:00:52.667 --> 00:00:55.809 My grandfather was a very sweet and cuddly man, 00:00:55.833 --> 00:00:58.292 and I loved him to the moon and back. 00:00:59.417 --> 00:01:02.143 But I shared him with a big, wide world. 00:01:02.167 --> 00:01:03.893 His name was Roy O. Disney, 00:01:03.917 --> 00:01:06.518 and together with his younger brother Walt Disney, 00:01:06.542 --> 00:01:10.393 he came from a very humble upbringing in Kansas 00:01:10.417 --> 00:01:14.792 and started and ran one of the most iconic businesses in the world. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:15.833 --> 00:01:18.726 Two things I remember the best about going to Disneyland 00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:20.101 with my grandfather. 00:01:20.125 --> 00:01:23.559 The first thing was he always gave me a stern warning 00:01:23.583 --> 00:01:26.268 that if I ever sassed anybody who worked there, 00:01:26.292 --> 00:01:28.667 I was in deep doo-doo when we got home. 00:01:30.250 --> 00:01:32.351 He said, "these people work really hard -- 00:01:32.375 --> 00:01:33.768 harder than you can imagine, 00:01:33.792 --> 00:01:35.792 and they deserve your respect." 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:40.809 The other is that he never walked by a piece of garbage, 00:01:40.833 --> 00:01:42.976 inside of Disneyland or anywhere else, 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.309 where he didn't bend over to pick it up. 00:01:45.333 --> 00:01:48.708 He said, "no one's too good to pick up a piece of garbage." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:50.083 --> 00:01:51.434 In Grandpa's day, 00:01:51.458 --> 00:01:53.958 a job at Disneyland was not a gig. 00:01:54.917 --> 00:01:57.184 A person could expect to own a home, 00:01:57.208 --> 00:01:58.809 raise a family, 00:01:58.833 --> 00:02:01.434 access decent health care, 00:02:01.458 --> 00:02:05.184 retire in some security without worrying 00:02:05.208 --> 00:02:08.184 on just what he earned there at the park. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:08.208 --> 00:02:10.559 Mind you, Grandpa fought the unions, 00:02:10.583 --> 00:02:11.958 and he fought them hard. 00:02:12.583 --> 00:02:14.559 He said he didn't like to be forced 00:02:14.583 --> 00:02:17.143 to do something he wanted to do voluntarily. 00:02:17.167 --> 00:02:21.518 That was rank paternalism of course and maybe even a tiny bit of BS. 00:02:21.542 --> 00:02:23.125 He wasn't an angel, 00:02:23.917 --> 00:02:27.059 and everyone wasn't well and fairly treated across the company, 00:02:27.083 --> 00:02:28.542 something that's well-known. 00:02:30.208 --> 00:02:35.101 But I think in his core he had a very deep commitment 00:02:35.125 --> 00:02:39.542 to the idea that he had a moral obligation to every human being that worked for him. 00:02:40.417 --> 00:02:44.667 That actually wasn't such an uncommon attitude for CEOs of the day. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:45.542 --> 00:02:49.059 But when my grandfather died in 1971, 00:02:49.083 --> 00:02:51.518 a new mindset was beginning to take hold 00:02:51.542 --> 00:02:55.125 of the American and eventually the global imagination. 00:02:55.875 --> 00:02:59.934 Jiminy Cricket got shown the door by economist Milton Friedman, 00:02:59.958 --> 00:03:01.226 among others, 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:04.250 who popularized the idea of shareholder primacy. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:05.167 --> 00:03:10.333 Now, shareholder primacy is a pretty reasonable idea when you think about it. 00:03:11.125 --> 00:03:12.934 Shareholders own the company, 00:03:12.958 --> 00:03:17.226 shareholders want profits and growth, 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:20.559 so therefore you prioritize profits and growth. 00:03:20.583 --> 00:03:22.434 Very sensible. 00:03:22.458 --> 00:03:26.976 But unfortunately, shareholder primacy was an idea that became a mindset 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.559 and then that mindset jumped the rails, 00:03:29.583 --> 00:03:32.684 and it came to fundamentally alter everything 00:03:32.708 --> 00:03:35.184 about the way companies and even governments 00:03:35.208 --> 00:03:37.167 were led and managed. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:38.333 --> 00:03:41.726 Milton Friedman's pivotal op-ed in the "New York Times" 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:47.559 was followed by decades of concerted organizing and lobbying 00:03:47.583 --> 00:03:49.518 by business-focused activists 00:03:49.542 --> 00:03:54.434 along with a sustained assault on every law and regulation 00:03:54.458 --> 00:03:59.083 that had once held businesses' worst impulses in check. 00:03:59.917 --> 00:04:01.226 And soon enough, 00:04:01.250 --> 00:04:04.518 this new mindset had taken hold across every business school 00:04:04.542 --> 00:04:06.042 and across every sector. 00:04:06.917 --> 00:04:10.893 Profits were to be pursued by any means necessary, 00:04:10.917 --> 00:04:13.184 unions were kneecapped, 00:04:13.208 --> 00:04:14.518 taxes were slashed, 00:04:14.542 --> 00:04:15.851 and with the same machete, 00:04:15.875 --> 00:04:17.976 so was the safety net. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.268 I don't need to tell you about the inequality 00:04:20.292 --> 00:04:22.375 that's been the result of these shifts. 00:04:23.042 --> 00:04:25.018 We all know the story well. 00:04:25.042 --> 00:04:28.976 The bottom line is that everything that turns a gig into a livelihood 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.018 was stripped away from an American worker. 00:04:32.042 --> 00:04:33.351 Job security, 00:04:33.375 --> 00:04:34.684 paid sick days, 00:04:34.708 --> 00:04:36.018 vacation time -- 00:04:36.042 --> 00:04:37.309 all of that went away 00:04:37.333 --> 00:04:42.518 even as the wealthy saw their net worths bloat to unprecedented, 00:04:42.542 --> 00:04:45.393 and yes, unusable levels. 00:04:45.417 --> 00:04:48.851 Although if you're Scrooge McDuck you could change it all into gold coins 00:04:48.875 --> 00:04:50.167 and backstroke through it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:51.125 --> 00:04:53.625 So let me just address the Dumbo in the room. 00:04:54.667 --> 00:04:58.458 Yes, I am criticizing the company that bears my family's name. 00:04:59.542 --> 00:05:01.708 Yes, I think Disney can do better. 00:05:02.375 --> 00:05:06.559 And I believe that many of the thousands of magnificent people 00:05:06.583 --> 00:05:08.809 who work at the Walt Disney Company 00:05:08.833 --> 00:05:11.958 wish that it would do better just as much as I do. 00:05:12.833 --> 00:05:14.684 For almost a century, 00:05:14.708 --> 00:05:16.809 Disney has turned a pretty profit 00:05:16.833 --> 00:05:20.601 on the idea that families are a kind of magic, 00:05:20.625 --> 00:05:22.851 that love is important, 00:05:22.875 --> 00:05:24.667 that imaginations matter. 00:05:25.208 --> 00:05:27.393 That's why it turns your stomach a little bit 00:05:27.417 --> 00:05:30.934 when I tell you that Cinderella might be sleeping in her car. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:30.958 --> 00:05:33.875 But let's be very clear: this is not just about Disney. 00:05:35.167 --> 00:05:38.268 This is structural and this is systemic. 00:05:38.292 --> 00:05:41.851 No single CEO on his own is culpable 00:05:41.875 --> 00:05:45.434 and no single company has the wherewithal to buck this. 00:05:45.458 --> 00:05:46.976 The analysts, the pundits, 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.309 the politicians, 00:05:48.333 --> 00:05:51.143 the business school curricula and the social norms 00:05:51.167 --> 00:05:54.476 drive the shape of the contemporary economy. 00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:57.059 Disney is just doing what everybody else does, 00:05:57.083 --> 00:05:59.018 and they're not even the worst offender. 00:05:59.042 --> 00:06:03.601 If I told you how bad it was for workers at Amazon or McDonald's or Walmart, 00:06:03.625 --> 00:06:07.143 or any one of a thousand other places you've never heard of, 00:06:07.167 --> 00:06:11.726 it's not going to hit you as viscerally as if I tell you that 73 percent, 00:06:11.750 --> 00:06:15.393 or three out of four of the people who smile when you walk in, 00:06:15.417 --> 00:06:18.059 who help you comfort that crying baby, 00:06:18.083 --> 00:06:21.684 who maybe help you have the best vacation you ever have, 00:06:21.708 --> 00:06:24.167 can't consistently put food on the table. 00:06:25.167 --> 00:06:27.458 It's supposed to be the happiest place on earth. 00:06:28.583 --> 00:06:31.851 And the people who work there take incredible pride 00:06:31.875 --> 00:06:34.559 that they pursue a higher purpose. 00:06:34.583 --> 00:06:35.851 It's a higher purpose 00:06:35.875 --> 00:06:39.851 that both my grandfather and great-uncle very intentionally built 00:06:39.875 --> 00:06:44.333 when they made it a place that honors an interaction over a transaction. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:45.625 --> 00:06:48.601 Now, I know that a word like magic makes you wonder 00:06:48.625 --> 00:06:50.500 if I've taken leave of my senses. 00:06:51.417 --> 00:06:55.268 I know it's hard to imagine that something as ephemeral as love 00:06:55.292 --> 00:06:58.351 can support a brand as big as Disney, 00:06:58.375 --> 00:07:00.184 and I know that it's hard to imagine 00:07:00.208 --> 00:07:04.851 that things as unquantifiable as moral obligations 00:07:04.875 --> 00:07:06.518 should have any call on us 00:07:06.542 --> 00:07:09.917 when we seek to deliver value to our investors. 00:07:10.958 --> 00:07:14.875 But accounting and finance don't run the world. 00:07:15.750 --> 00:07:17.226 Beliefs, 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:18.601 mindsets -- 00:07:18.625 --> 00:07:21.143 those are what drive business ethics. 00:07:21.167 --> 00:07:24.559 And if we're going to change those mindsets and belief systems, 00:07:24.583 --> 00:07:27.768 we're going to have to use the most Disney superpower out there. 00:07:27.792 --> 00:07:30.476 We're going to have to use our imaginations. 00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:33.750 You're going to have to invite Jiminy Cricket back to the party. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:35.125 --> 00:07:38.375 Now, Jiminy Cricket might start with some low-hanging fruit, 00:07:39.333 --> 00:07:41.601 like, greed is not good, 00:07:41.625 --> 00:07:45.601 like the world is not divided into makers and takers, 00:07:45.625 --> 00:07:47.226 and that nobody ever, 00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:48.518 without any help, 00:07:48.542 --> 00:07:50.809 pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps -- 00:07:50.833 --> 00:07:53.958 if you know anything about physics you'll understand why that is. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:55.208 --> 00:07:59.018 Jiminy might remind us that every single person who works for us, 00:07:59.042 --> 00:08:00.851 without exception, 00:08:00.875 --> 00:08:02.851 whether they fill out the spreadsheets 00:08:02.875 --> 00:08:04.601 or change the bedsheets, 00:08:04.625 --> 00:08:08.601 deserves the respect and dignity of living wage. 00:08:08.625 --> 00:08:10.458 It's as simple as that. 00:08:10.917 --> 00:08:14.559 And Jiminy might wonder how managers and employees 00:08:14.583 --> 00:08:19.184 could possibly have any kind of empathy for each other 00:08:19.208 --> 00:08:22.851 when their workplaces have become so segregated 00:08:22.875 --> 00:08:25.143 that it seems normal and natural 00:08:25.167 --> 00:08:28.809 that an executive needs an especially swanky place to park 00:08:28.833 --> 00:08:30.893 or eat or go to the bathroom 00:08:30.917 --> 00:08:35.059 or that an executive is too good to pick up a piece of garbage. 00:08:35.083 --> 00:08:40.250 We are, after all, just the one species living together on just the one planet. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:41.292 --> 00:08:45.684 Jiminy might ask us to question some of our dogma. 00:08:45.708 --> 00:08:50.518 Does a CEO really need to be paid as much or more than every other CEO 00:08:50.542 --> 00:08:52.976 or is that just creating a competitive dynamic 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.250 that's driving numbers into the stratosphere? 00:08:56.208 --> 00:09:00.351 He might wonder if boards really do know all that they really need to know 00:09:00.375 --> 00:09:03.542 when they don't have frontline workers ever at their meetings. 00:09:04.708 --> 00:09:07.833 He might ask if there's such a thing as too much money. 00:09:08.750 --> 00:09:12.226 Or he might wonder if maybe we can make common cause 00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:14.268 with consumers, with workers, 00:09:14.292 --> 00:09:16.184 with companies, with communities, 00:09:16.208 --> 00:09:18.018 for all of us to come together 00:09:18.042 --> 00:09:21.893 to redefine this incredibly narrow idea 00:09:21.917 --> 00:09:24.958 of what the purpose of a company really is. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:26.458 --> 00:09:31.351 Jiminy would want us to remember that nobody works in a vacuum, 00:09:31.375 --> 00:09:33.768 that the men and women who run companies 00:09:33.792 --> 00:09:38.184 actively cocreate the reality we all have to share. 00:09:38.208 --> 00:09:40.393 And just like with global warming, 00:09:40.417 --> 00:09:44.393 we are, each of us, responsible for the collective consequences 00:09:44.417 --> 00:09:47.125 of our individual decisions and actions. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:48.417 --> 00:09:51.768 I believe that the most profitable business ecosystem 00:09:51.792 --> 00:09:53.143 in the history of the world 00:09:53.167 --> 00:09:54.434 can do better. 00:09:54.458 --> 00:09:58.226 I believe we can take just a little bit off of the upside, 00:09:58.250 --> 00:10:02.601 take a tiny bit of pressure off the speed at which things are happening. 00:10:02.625 --> 00:10:05.518 I believe that everything we lose in the short-term 00:10:05.542 --> 00:10:07.351 will more than make up for itself 00:10:07.375 --> 00:10:13.000 in an expanded landscape of moral, spiritual and financial prosperity. 00:10:13.875 --> 00:10:16.143 I know what the cynics say, and it's true: 00:10:16.167 --> 00:10:18.184 you can't eat your principles. 00:10:18.208 --> 00:10:20.726 But you can't breathe a basis point either, 00:10:20.750 --> 00:10:22.208 and neither can your children. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:23.125 --> 00:10:26.726 I know I idolized my grandfather probably too much. 00:10:26.750 --> 00:10:28.934 He worked in very different times 00:10:28.958 --> 00:10:31.309 and those are times none of us want to go back to 00:10:31.333 --> 00:10:33.684 for all kinds of good reasons. 00:10:33.708 --> 00:10:36.934 I know there are a lot of CEOs today who are just as well-meaning 00:10:36.958 --> 00:10:39.726 and just as decent as my grandfather was, 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:42.893 but they're working at a time with very different expectations 00:10:42.917 --> 00:10:45.250 and much more cutthroat context. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:45.958 --> 00:10:47.643 But here's the good news. 00:10:47.667 --> 00:10:51.309 Expectations and contexts are made 00:10:51.333 --> 00:10:53.559 and they can be unmade, too. 00:10:53.583 --> 00:10:56.559 There is so much to learn from the simple integrity 00:10:56.583 --> 00:10:59.792 of how my grandfather understood his job as CEO. 00:11:00.625 --> 00:11:03.976 Behind every theme park and every stuffed animal, 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.958 a handful of principles governed everything. 00:11:07.750 --> 00:11:11.917 Every single person deserves respect and dignity. 00:11:13.042 --> 00:11:16.768 No one is too good to pick up a piece of garbage, 00:11:16.792 --> 00:11:19.958 and always let conscience be your guide. 00:11:20.792 --> 00:11:24.518 We could all do worse than listen to Jiminy Cricket. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:24.542 --> 00:11:25.792 Thank you.