Bill Capodagli is an internationally recognized business author, consultant and keynote speaker, coauthoring one of Fortune Magazine's "Best Business Books", The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company. With over thirty years of business experience, Bill has become one of the most in-demand experts on customer service and cultural transformations in organizations. For the past ten years, Bill has focused on keynoting and conducting seminars based on The Disney Way, now published in eight languages. His latest book, Innovate the Pixar Way is scheduled for release in November, 2009. He also coauthored The Disney Way Fieldbook and Leading at the Speed of Change.

With degrees in economics and mathematics from Illinois State University in the 1970's, Bill Capodagli launched his business career as a statistical actuary with The Kemper Insurance Corporation. After three years in the actuarial field, Bill was selected to join an elite project team to analyze and streamline the entire corporation within one year's time. After the successful completion of this project, Coopers & Lybrand recruited Bill into their profit improvement consulting practice. During Bill's five years at Coopers, he expanded his industry expertise to include healthcare and manufacturing. He acquired extensive knowledge helping clients develop and implement Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) systems.

Bill's manufacturing experience led him to one of the premier manufacturing consulting firms, A.T. Kearney. As a manager at Kearney, Bill spearheaded multiple large project teams consisting of client team members as well as Kearney consultants. During this time, much of Bill's work was with automotive suppliers. In the early 1980's, the Japanese were capturing a significant portion of the US market. One of Bill's clients asked him to research the key success factors behind the Japanese success. This resulted in Bill's first meeting with Dr. Deming, the man responsible for transforming the Japanese manufacturing culture. During the early 1980's, Bill studied the philosophies of Dr. Deming and the customer service values of Walt Disney. Bill began documenting the parallelism between Deming and Disney, realizing that both espoused cultural transformation over cost-cutting measures as a formula for success.

In 1984, Bill was invited to join the prestigious accounting and consulting firm of Ernst & Whinney to develop and lead their manufacturing consulting practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a Senior Manager, Bill and his staff generated over one million dollars in revenues. Shortly after joining the firm, Ernst & Whinney sponsored the Deming Institute for one year. Bill and his staff were trained by Dr. Deming and worked extensively with the Institute during this time.

During his tenure at Ernst, Bill began his first international consulting engagement. In 1984, Bill was selected to perform an operational audit of South Africa's government-owned utility materials management practices, paving the way for a major implementation that would last five years. In 1986, due to the political pressures regarding South Africa's apartheid practices, Ernst made a decision to discontinue providing consulting support to South Africa. This decision was a turning point in Bill's career. He firmly believed that providing assistance to South Africa was not supporting apartheid, but rather helping to abolish apartheid practices by providing training and new positions to black employees who were otherwise suppressed from advancement. He also knew that South Africa also relied heavily upon him for his expertise and guidance. Hence, Bill and a few key Ernst team members resigned from the firm to continue their commitment to the South Africa client and launched a new consulting firm, C&N consulting.

After three years of growing C&N, Bill sold his interest in the firm to his partner and subsequently spent several years as an independent consultant. In 1991, Bill was asked to lead the newly erected Center for Quality Management at The University of Southern Indiana (USI).

From 1991 to 1993, Bill and his coauthor, Lynn Jackson, built the Center for Quality Management into a very profitable practice, securing contracts from manufacturing to healthcare. During his tenure at the University, Bill also taught numerous TQM-related courses including SPC, Six Sigma, JIT, and customized management sessions. With the local success of the Center, organizations such as Whirlpool and Bristol-Myers Squibb began requesting that Bill and Lynn assist them in their international operations. This was not, however, the University's mission.

In 1993, Bill and his partner launched Capodagli Jackson Consulting to provide international consulting services, working closely with USI during a year of transition. (Bill continues to be a featured guest speaker in the Business School at USI.)

For over fifteen years, Bill Capodagli has developed Capodagli Jackson Consulting into a successful firm whose mission is to serve organizations striving to transform their corporate cultures, develop great leaders, improve customer service and increase market share. Bill is currently the most requested speaker on the success principles of both Disney and Pixar, enlightening attendees to infuse their organizations with the spirit, creativity and leadership required to be successful in business today.

Innovate the Pixar Way

Behind the scenes look at how Pixar creates stories that live - in the words of Buzz Lightyear - "for infinity and beyond." It's all about creating a culture where imagination is cherished and rewarded. Bill will share how Pixar can inspire any business to 'toon in to what makes its employees great'.

Leading At The Speed of Change:

In this powerful presentation, Bill Capodagli shares a highly entertaining step-by-step look into the development of AT&T's Solutions. This represents a roadmap through today's exciting e-business revolution. Solutions maverick leader, Rick Roscitt, and his team applied the dream, Believe, Dare, Do model to create a $5 billion dollar enterprise in only five years.

Challenging and compelling, this presentation provides a template for old line companies on how to rethink, redesign, and reengineer their design process, factory floors, supply chains, and distribution channels - and meet the challenging demands and opportunities of the new economy.

Leading A Service Culture - The Disney Way:

In an age when consumers continually bemoan the state of customer service, the Walt Disney Company is repeatedly hailed as a superior service provider, perhaps the best in the world. Know your guests or customers, treat them honestly and with respect, and they will keep coming: that sums up the Disney credo. Walt Disney led by example, through dreaming up new ways of doing business that had never been accomplished in the past, believing in sound values, daring to take risks, and putting plans together to turn his dreams into reality.

For over twenty years, Bill Capodagli has led organizations to benchmark and learn from the Disney organization. In this presentation, Bill leads his audience to discover the truth that customer service is more than merely taking care of the customers. He challenges leaders to create an environment that encourages every employee to listen to customer problems and attempt "impossible" solutions.

Bill explains the Disney Way model in terms of turning the customer into a "guest" and constantly raising the bar of excellence. During this enlightening session, Bill provides solid techniques for adapting the Disney Way model in non-entertainment environments.