Part 4 of the Minnie Van Leadership Case Study Series
“It cannot lose money.”
That was the condition.
Walt Disney World leadership had decided to bring Minnie Van back.
Now the ideas our team had developed had to work in the real world.
Bringing the service back wasn’t enough.
We had to build a sustainable business.
Run It Like a Business
Minnie Van was different from nearly every other mode of transportation at Walt Disney World.
Guests paid for every ride.
That distinction mattered.
Unlike the other transportation modes, Minnie Van wasn’t simply a service we had to operate well.
It was a business we had to operate sustainably.
We wanted to recreate the exceptional experience our guests had enjoyed before COVID and reestablish the strong culture that had existed among our Cast Members.
But we couldn’t simply recreate the business that had existed before COVID.
So our standard became more demanding.
Could we recreate the exceptional guest experience?
Could we reestablish the strong culture within the team?
And could we make the changes necessary to do both within an operating model that didn’t lose money?
Financial performance couldn’t be something we measured only after making operational decisions. It had to be part of how we made those decisions.
That didn’t mean the cheapest option always won. Sometimes spending more was the right decision because it protected something fundamental to the experience or improved the business's performance.
But every decision ultimately had to support a sustainable operation.
We weren’t trying to make Minnie Van cheaper.
We were trying to build a sustainable business without losing what had made Minnie Van special.
Define the Business Before You Operate It
As we defined the relaunched business, we began thinking more precisely about what guests were actually buying.
It wasn’t just a ride.
It was time.
There are two currencies we all manage every day: time and money. And people are often willing to spend one to get more of the other.
Minnie Van gave guests that choice.
They could use the complimentary transportation available to them, or they could spend money for a direct ride and reclaim some of their vacation time.
That might mean staying longer in a theme park. Enjoying dinner without leaving early to allow for the trip back. Or simply spending less of a vacation they had invested significant time and money in waiting or transferring between modes of transportation.
We were giving guests the opportunity to buy back some of their vacation time.
Understanding that value helped us answer another important question:
Who exactly were we building this business for?
Before COVID, Minnie Van’s operating footprint had expanded beyond Disney Resort hotels to include select Good Neighbor hotels and destinations outside our core operating area.
When we returned, we deliberately made that operating envelope smaller.
Minnie Van would be exclusively for guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotels, providing transportation to destinations within Walt Disney World.
There was an exclusivity to that decision. Minnie Van became another differentiator for the Disney Resort experience.
There was also a business benefit.
Keeping the fleet concentrated within Walt Disney World reduced longer trips and repositioning time while keeping vehicles closer to their next potential fare.
We had established a clear productivity target:
At least two rides per revenue hour, with 2.5 as the goal.
That target influenced where we operated, who we served, how much capacity we deployed, and when we deployed it.
A trip could generate revenue and still hurt the business if it pulled a vehicle away from concentrated demand for too long.
Revenue wasn’t the objective. Productive revenue was.
Price the Experience for What It Was Worth
Pricing began with the economics.
What did a ride need to generate for the business to make sense?
Then we looked at the marketplace.
What would a guest pay for a comparable premium experience from Uber or Lyft?
But Minnie Van wasn’t simply a Disney-branded version of a premium rideshare service.
Disney owned and operated it, driven by Disney Cast Members who knew Walt Disney World and understood the expectations that came with a Disney vacation.
And it provided access outside rideshare companies couldn’t replicate, including Disney transportation locations such as the Magic Kingdom bus loops.
So there was a third question:
What premium was that exclusivity worth?
Our pricing had to reconcile all three: the economics of the business, the price of a comparable premium transportation experience, and the additional value of a Disney-owned and operated service.
We weren’t trying to determine the highest price we could convince a guest to pay.
We were trying to establish a price that reflected the value of the experience while allowing the business providing it to be sustainable.
Then we had to see whether guests agreed.
