INDIAN WELLS, CA—It's rare when a motivational speaker touches on the specific needs of the audience he or she is addressing. A rare exception to that rule came here this morning, at SIOR's Spring World Conference. And it came at the hands of what might appear an unlikely source: A former Disney Co. executive.

(Much more to come from SIOR. "How to Hire Top Talent" tomorrow morning.)

But for years, Doug Lipp was an executive at Disney University, and he drew on that experience—and how the company in the 1980s pulled itself back from the brink of buyout to recapture its former stature—to provide nuts-and-bolts advice for the attendees.

There is no magic in the Magic Kingdom, he pointed out. In his industry, the company is focused on doing “ordinary things in an extraordinary fashion. Our success was not because of rides. It was because of flawless execution.”

But Disney became a victim of its own success, and the culture developed that whatever they did they did right simply because they were Disney. “We refused to look in the mirror for a frank assessment.”

Disney lost its balance of operational excellence and creative vision when Walt the visionary died, Lipp pointed out, and it took years to recover that balance, and COO (and operations guy) Roy couldn't handle both responsibilities. Also, there was no succession plan. Lipp's three-fold challenge to the assembled audience was: 1) Where do you fall in the line between dreamer and doer? 2) Who is your contrarian thinker? The executive who challenges your ideas? 3) What is your succession plan?

Those three points, he says, are “the formula for a sustainable company.” It's important, he noted, not to abandon the things you do well, but be cognizant of those areas of improvement. As Walt said: “Keep plussing your show.”

Do you let the old ways rule? Does your shop or your team believe that they are just so good that they become hamstrung by success? When something goes wrong, is it everyone else's fault? “Even monkeys fall out of trees,” he commented. “The fact is that when someone fails, it is not the fault of only that person,” but the entire team might well have a hand in that failure. Innovate, Lipp urged, “and challenge the status quo. But know the non-negotiable values that everyone—clients and employees—share.”

His final words were a clarion call to best practices: Be willing to change, or be willing to perish.”