The biannual Supply Chain Forum, hosted by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business’ Global Supply Chain Institute (GSCI), always features enriching sessions with industry leaders. For the Fall 2024 Supply Chain Forum, held November 12-14, one of the most popular sessions was “Beyond Supply Chain,” a question-and-answer session hosted by supply chain management department head John Bell. Bell held a lively conversation Eugene Naughton, president of The Dollywood Company and one of the Southeast’s most visible leaders. Naughton and Bell discussed the vision, mindset and approach required to succeed when operating an organization as large as Dollywood.
Bell: What is it like running an organization that bears Dolly Parton’s name?
Naughton: After 40 years in this business, what drew me was an opportunity to say that Dolly Parton’s my boss — everything that she represents as a human, how welcoming she is to everyone. As the president of the profit side of the company, I also get the pleasure of serving as treasurer of our 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It’s fun that the more I make on the profit side of the business, the more good I can do around the world on the nonprofit side of the business.
Much of what happens in our Dollywood Foundation is the Imagination Library. The most important thing that she’s proud of is fighting for literacy around the world. Her father couldn’t read and write. She started the Imagination Library to honor her father and to help make literacy important. We’re the largest book distributor in the world. We send more than 3 million books a month all over the world. We have a small but mighty team at our Imagination Library, 41 people who work to deliver that.
Bell: Talk about Dollywood’s response to Hurricane Helene.
Naughton: When I called to ask Dolly for support to help the eight counties in Tennessee that were impacted by Hurricane Helene, it was personal to me. We have 350 people on our team who live in Cocke County. That’s the next county over from where we operate our business. And it’s like World War III happened there. The infrastructure is gone.
When I called Dolly, she was heading to a meeting with the CEO of Walmart, and she said, ‘What help can I give you?’ I said, ‘Maybe you can ask the Walmart CEO to help us with the relief efforts?’ Because the Sam Walton Foundation has bigger coffers than Dollywood Parks and Resorts. That’s when she announced that she was personally giving $1 million to our hurricane relief effort. Then I matched that with $1 million from our coffers. When that meeting with the CEO of Walmart started, it was $4 million. A day later, it was up to $10 million.
Bell: How do you manage the group of people under you?
Naughton: Leadership is a verb. You have to provide clear insight into your long-term objectives. Before, we were thinking more short-term. When I took over, we had a long-range vision. Our long-term strategic objective is to be the number one family destination in the U.S.
The other thing is, you have to be a visible leader. You have to be on the property. I average about 18,000 steps a day on property, and I enjoy interacting with the guests, because all the answers to what we need in our organization are found in the park as you’re talking to guests.
Bell: You’re a graduate of the Haslam College of Business’s executive MBA program in strategic leadership. Has it had an impact on how you approach running that team?
Naughton: I learned a tremendous amount about myself. One of the biggest takeaways I got was the leadership development; you start to understand your personality and why you make decisions, and you start to understand other people better. And you have to push yourself to be a lifelong learner. It’s a lesson I took away from my MBA program.
Ten years ago, our campus made about $32 million in profit for the year. When I took over in 2019, it made about $80 million a year. One of our classes was about creating big, audacious goals. I told people I wanted to double our profit in three years. And we did it.
Bell: Dollywood is one of the country’s top theme park destinations, according to TripAdvisor. What’s the secret sauce?
Naughton: The people are what make it go. If your folks don’t feel well cared for, they won’t be focused on caring for the guests. We’ve done a lot to help that along. We have a retention bonus to say ‘thank you’ to all the people that work for us. Those who work for us on a seasonal basis can earn up to $1,500.
We used to celebrate our big attendance days — the next day, we would buy everyone lunch. That was the number one ‘thank you’ I got. So, I decided to have a free lunch every day. We feed everyone who works for us. If they need a biscuit, they can go to the host cafeteria and get it. If they need a meal to take home, they can do it. We’re spending about $3.5 million to feed 4,100 people.
Bell: Can you share with us your biggest accomplishment as a leader?
Naughton: The Dolly Parton Experience, which we opened in May this year, is a long-term legacy play. The thing that I’m proud of is that when I walked Dolly through the completed experience … she got a chance to see all of her life’s work in one place. And I know I hit the mark when I saw her tear up.
CONTACT:
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Scott McNutt, business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu
