Category: Walt Disney

Introduction

Walt Disney company which founded by brothers Walt and Roy Disney on 16 th October 1923, is the world largest entertainment company. Beginning as a cartoon studio in 1923, Walt Disney continues today its legacy of creating world-class stories for all the people of the world.

Backround of Walt Disney

The Walt Disney Company, the greatest media and diversion on the planet was established on October 16, 1923 in Los Angeles. Walt Disney extended its activities and began to deliver different stimulations, for example, theater, radio, distributing, and online media. The Walt Disney consistently made the amusement for the clients. Walt Disney had made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and so on until in 1954

These days, The Walt Disney Company works as four essential divisions; The Walt Disney Studios or Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Disney Consumer Products and Media Networks.

Vision

‘Disney Consumer Products (DCP) is the business section of The Walt Disney Company and its partners that conveys inventive and connecting with item encounters across a large number of classes from toys and attire to books and compelling artwork”

Literature Review

On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his sibling Roy found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California. The studio, presently known as the Walt Disney Company, has affected media outlets and is currently probably the biggest medium organizations on the planet. A gifted craftsman since early on, Walt Disney drew kid’s shows for different productions and got inspired by cel liveliness while working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. After his Laugh-O-Gram Studio failed in 1923, Walt moved to Los Angeles, where Roy was recuperating from tuberculosis.

Methodologies of Walt Disney

The Disney Methodologies, created by Robert Dilts in 1994, is a perplexing inventiveness methodology where a gathering utilizes four explicit intuition styles thus. It includes equal deduction to dissect an issue, produce thoughts, assess thoughts, develop and investigate a strategy. The four reasoning styles are – outcasts, visionaries, realizers and pundits.

In the main reasoning style, the gathering think as outcasts to increase a systematic, outside perspective on the test.

They at that point go about as visionaries to conceptualize perfect arrangements. They utilize disparate speculation to imagine innovative and radical thoughts.

In the following mode the gathering embraces a realizer perspective. They go about as down to earth pragmatists and utilize joined intuition to audit the thoughts left by the visionaries. They select the best thought and build an arrangement for it.

Research Methodology of Walt Disney

Strengths

1. Elevated level of brand mindfulness and positive brand notoriety
2. Centered arrangement of brands

Weaknesses

1. Overdependence on North America home market
2. Declining money related execution of ESPN mixed media diversion branch

Opportunities

1. Development of media outlet in creating nations
2. Considering culturally diverse contrasts among worldwide shoppers to a more noteworthy degree in the advancement procedure of amusement items and administrations

Threats

1. Developing notoriety of online diversion such us computer generated reality games, web-based social networking and so on.
2. Further harm to incomes because of expanding fame of illicit spilling of video from the web

Methodlogie’s results of Walt Disney

Disney (DIS) posted superior to anticipated outcomes in the primary quarter — the organization’s first report since the dispatch of its eponymous gushing help.

Here were the fundamental figures from Disney’s first-quarter 2020 income report, contrasted with agreement gauges incorporated by Bloomberg:

• Income: $20.86 billion versus $20.81 billion expected and $15.3 billion Y/Y
• Balanced income per share: $1.53 versus $1.46 expected and $1.84 Y/Y
• Disney+ 1Q endorsers: 26.5 million, versus 20.8 million anticipated

Disney’s accomplishment in pulling in and holding supporters was a key point of convergence for financial specialists heading into Tuesday’s outcomes. The spilling administration, propelled in November, included 10 million clients in its first day.

Conclusion

Walt Disney Company and its prime supporter, Walter Elias Disney, is critical to us today since this organization has formed the manner in which individuals thoroughly consider time. Everybody has seen at any rate one Disney film and has taken in an exercise from it or two. Disney films have messages which help kids at an early age handle a portion of the key ethics of life. Albeit many trusts it does the inverse and rather sets them up for a dream life that is not even close to being genuine, the significance of viewing the hero settle on a decision to help other people over her accompanies more significance. The Disney Company’ s heritage survives its motion pictures and amusement parks.

Recommendation

I trust The Walt Disney Company is incredible organization to help and to work for also. Disney has remained consistent with Walt Disney’s vision these years and is proceeding to do as such through development in a wide range of domains. The way that Disney has enhanced over such a large number of various sorts of organizations is unbelievable.Disney stock is a decent one to claim and current examiners have the cost remaining generally stable for the not so distant future, anyway to contribute with an organization with such a solid history ought to end up being a strong venture even with some faltering of stock cost.

I additionally feel Disney would be a decent organization to work for, in truth it has consistently been a fantasy of dig to work for The Walt Disney Company. A feeling of network and duty is felt by most of workers and residency can be long a result of this.

References

1. ‘Disney, Walt | Definition of Disney, Walt by Lexico’. Lexica Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
2. ‘Walt Disney Company, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 14, 2017’. secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 12, 2018
3. ‘Walt Disney Goes to War’. Life. August 31, 1942. p. 61. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
4. ‘The Walt Disney Studios – History’. studioservices.go.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
5. The Disney Touch: How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire, by Ron Grover (Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1991), ISBN 1-55623-385-X
6. The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, Richard Schickel, 1968, revised 1997.
7. Walt Disney: An American Original, Bob Thomas, 1976, revised 1994, ISBN 0-671-22332-1
8. https://youtu.be/kzYfRLMtP9c
9. https://youtu.be/1aOnFOTBrWo
10. https://youtu.be/B4QfFM4U348

Walt Disney changed the animation industry forever. He created a magical world for people to get lost in. On December 15th, 1966 he passed away in the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Centre from complications due to his lung cancer a month after undergoing surgery. He hadn’t had his cancer for long, but he was optimistic the whole time.

Walt Disney was born on the 5th of December 1901 in Hermosa, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America into a very loving family with his 3 brothers and 1 sister. His mother, Flora Disney, was a teacher and his father, Elias Disney, was a carpenter and businessperson which explains why Walt Disney was so successful in his empire.

Disney developed a love for art at a really young age and would paint pictures to sell to family friends and neighbours surrounding. When his family moved to Kansas City in 1911, he took a real interest into the engineering of trains. His uncle, Mike Martin was an engineer for trains and so Disney would sell snacks to travellers as a summertime job at the railway.

Walt Disney attended McKinley High School in Chicago and took many photography and drawing classes. He then became a constant contributing cartoonist for his school’s newspaper. He also took night courses at the Art Institute of Chicago.

At age 16 he dropped out of school in attempt to join army but was unsuccessful in doing so because of being underage. He then decided to join the Red Cross and went to France for a year driving an ambulance and then came back to the U.S. in 1919.

When Walt Disney came back from France, he moved back to Kansas City to pursue a job as a newspaper artist and later scored a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art studio. From there he worked at a Kansas City Film Ad Company and made commercials based on animation. Disney used to screen his homemade animations at a local theatre which he called ‘Laugh-O-Grams’. They became popular and then he was able to create his own animation studio. He then started to hire employees and he started to create 7-minute fairy tales. Unfortunately, in 1923 they went bust because of stacks of debt. Despite the upset over the ending of his business Walt had something special soon to come. He married his beautiful wife Liliana Disney and the had two children, Diane and Sharon.

Walt and one of his brothers Roy moved to Hollywood and that’s where the Disney empire started. His first big success started off with Disney’s star character Mickey mouse in 1928 and that’s where everything took off Although it wasn’t until July 17, 1955, Walt opened Disneyland in California. He wanted a place world could come together and share the magic with the characters he created overtime.

Walt Disney then passed tragically but is survived through his wife Liliana Disney and his two children Diane and Sharon and his memory will never fade. This man was truly incredible and has created a world that will last forever.

A Business man, a carpenter, a farmer, a contractor, a paperboy, an army ambulance driver, an artist, a husband and a father who changed the way we imagine and brought a new face to the entertainment industry, Walter Elias Disney.

A mysterious leader, respected by many but feared by them as well and his leadership approach took many shapes and turns throughout his career which was filled with ups and downs.

Born in the year 1901 in Illinois Chicago, Walt quickly fell in love with drawing and sketching. Growing up on a farm is where his dream started, while his father plowed the field Walter used to draw. He sold his first drawing when he was seven years old to one of their neighbors. He went to high school in the morning and Academy of fine arts in the night. Sold candies and newspaper with his father. While in his teenage, he grew fond of joining the army but was rejected and joined the red cross as an ambulance driver, In Germany when all the army vehicles were covered in camouflage, Walt’s ambulance was covered in sketches and doodles.

From a young age Walt showed the characteristics of a leader, he continuously worked towards his passion even if his situations weren’t favorable. He was quick on his feet, took risks, believed in himself and never stopped hustling.

After Walt came back from the War, he immediately joined the Pesemen-Rubin Art Studio where he met Ubbe Iwwerks, a fellow artist. In 1920 they opened their own company called “Iwwerks-Disney” , but the company eventually failed and they started working at the Kansas City Film Ad.

Disney had an issue working under authority, working on someone else’s idea wasn’t something that he thought he could do, So in 1922 he again formed a new agency known as the Laugh-O-Gram Films, where he composed short cartoons. Due to his poor finance management skills his agency collapsed and not be able to pay his debts he moved to Hollywood with $40 in his pocket to his brother’s place. With no luck finding a decent job he convinced his brother to finance and partner a new company with him. Hence “Disney Brothers” was formed and from 1925 they started hiring more people.

This early years were the time when Walt began to grow transformational aspects of his leadership style.

In 1928, Walt faced a huge loss because of the Oswald character rights but then he created Mickey Mouse, becoming a huge success he recovered from all the loss and won an Academy Award.

Walter had always been a visionary, a hard worker and showed devotion in everything that he did. After all the draw-backs and struggles it his enthusiasm and ambition that made a leader that everyone loved and still follows his vision.

He could be described as a risk taker and a hands-on leader, he believed being creative was the main element for running a successful business so he started evening classes for his employees to train and develop talents that were useful for that industry.

Disney cared a lot about the people that worked with him, he knew every employee by their name and insisted in calling him “Walter” or “Walt”. He was very relationship oriented, he liked to see everyone happy and helped his employees in every way he could.

He always had a clear vision of his goals and achievements, he also had excellent communication skills that built up the drive and determination to achieve those goals.

To bring out the best is everyone they meet is one of the trait of a successful transformational leader. Walter used to engage and exploit his employees to achieve their full potential. His artists were very loyal to him as he gave them exciting new projects to work and produce together. Respect and trust were the foundation of his leadership, he kept his staff motivated and encouraged them to be creative and innovative.

These traits are characterized as some of the most important features in a transformational leader by Bass & Riggo in Transformational Leadership (2006)

In 1929 Walt hired 28 artist and animators through vigorous interviews and tests, he wanted nothing but excellence from them. At this point his leadership style was even more developed as a transformational leader as his employees would go above and beyond to reach Walt’s expectations.

‘Walter had an ability to make his employees feel that what he wanted done was a terribly important thing to get done.” (Gabler, 2008).

Even during the great depression, Disney’s employees were well paid and the animators were very optimistic and ambitious to work on projects like “Snow White”. All the staff of Disney showed great team work, they often collaborated and develop ideas together and combining their individual talents, as if it was their own company. Walter had earned the approval and the trust of his staff, he exhibited idealized influence. He was able to convey and make people understand his vision for the Disney company and also motivate them to work creatively towards it with him. He even concentrated on each staff individually and made them realize the importance of input that they provided for his company. (Bass & Riggio, 2006)

Soon after the success of Snow White, the company started taking in more projects and more employees. Now there were teams working on different projects like Bambi and Pinocchio and that led to competition and rivalry with destroyed the collaborative environment of the company. Walter didn’t engage and became distant from his employees which led to a strike that lasted 3 months. Walter had to downsize the staff and became cruel and revengeful to his employees.

The Disney film studio soon lost its fame and as Walt started to finalize his plans for Disneyland, “He had become even more terrifying and even more distant” (Gabler, 2008). Walt Completely shifted his focus from Disney studio to Disneyland and even started staying in an hidden apartment inside the Disneyland where he would share rides with customers and even refill the juice centers with oranges at four in the morning.

A leadership makes a huge impact on people’s lives, Walt Disney showed that people are inspired and influenced by leaders. In the end, Walt was not loved by everyone but he sure was respected by them all. His values and leadership is keeping people at Disney committed even after his death. He had made mistakes but he is still the most transformational and charismatic leader the world has ever seen.

Walt Disney was founded on October 16th, 1923, The Walt Disney Company is the world’s second-largest entertainment and media conglomerate after Comcast. Disney was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon studios by two brothers, Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney. The very first short film created by Walt Disney was “Alice in Wonderland”. (Chepkemoi, 2017)

Walt Disney’s mission is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company”. (Disney, n.d.)

The company primarily operates in the United States of America and Canada. The headquarters of the company is located in Burbank, California, and has employed 166,000 people nationwide. (MarketLine, 2013). According to the company’s report, they have an annual revenue of $55,137 billion in 2017 and it increased by 11.86% by June 30, 2019. (MacroTrends, n.d.)

Walt Disney acquired Fox’s FX and National Geographic cable channels. Together both companies [ Fox and Disney] generated $16.3 billion in revenue in 2017. (Munsif Vengattil, 2017)

John Lund, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management at Walt Disney describes the supply chain as “the flow of material, information, and currency between suppliers and guests”. Disney has multiple supply chains which support different aspects of the business from nightmare spectators to fireworks at Magic Kingdom. The company’s largest and most complex supply chain is retail, food, and beverages.

The primary area of focus of Supply Chain Management is Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney has about hundreds of shops and restaurants around the large resorts,

Orlando, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris and Anaheim. Disney-specific initiatives include:

1. Optimal Item assortments
2. Optimal product flow
3. Improved risk assessment tools. (Lund, 2019)

Visiting Disney parks does not end with just rides and attractions, the most important thing, is Disney merchandise. Disney has many warehouses but the largest has over 400,00 square feet. 500 cast members working throughout the year to deliver all merchandise. In the largest warehouse, they handle 20,000 unique items and they are constantly trying to innovate and bring new products to the theme parks and other Disney outlet stores.

Every cast member in the warehouse has a radio frequency device that tells them what products need to be re-ordered which needs to be stocked across 300 stores.

How does the cast member know which stores to replenish?

Each product in the Disney stores has a barcode, when scanned by the cast member, it shows how many of these products are left in that particular store which makes it easy for them to analyze their sales and when to send in the next batch of products. After the products are placed in totes that need to go to locations that need more products, it is put on the conveyer belt that takes them to quality assurance, where the products are checked by the vendor and also the quality assurance team runs a Disney-specific high-quality test. There are 120 tractor-trailers that Disney owns which take the products to their specific locations. Disney does not hire a third-party logistics company. They have about twenty to twenty-five trucks of merchandise that leave the warehouse every day to serve the whole Walt Disney World theme parks and the cruise lines. The team drives about 800,000 miles a year delivering merchandise.

Since data is 3-5 years old, now the distribution centers are bigger and more advanced.

According to the director of Disney’s Distribution Service warehouse, the biggest component in making sure that the operations run smoothly is having “wayfinders.”

Wayfinders are different solid-colored lines that run along and through the warehouse as a path to get around the warehouse safely. (Armor, 2015)

Multiple ERP, WMS, TMS, and APS systems were deployed but one of the main ERP systems is SAP.

Systems Applications and Products aka SAP is a software that contains a number of modules that covers every aspect of business management. It is the #1 Enterprise Resource Planning software in the market. SAP has over 140,000 installations worldwide.

Advantages of implementing SAP technology: (Poonam, 2019)

• a. Flexibility: This system of ERP allows the organization to customize their protocols inside the SAP structure.
• b. Productivity: With the use of SAP there is no requirement of repetitive data entry inside various software programs.
• c. Cost Reduction: SAP majorly helps in cost reduction by using only one software system to manage an organization’s information and produce reports.
• d. Cloud: SAP has 20+ applications on the cloud including Business ByDesign, Travel OnDemand, etc.

Disadvantages of implementing SAP technology:

• a. Complexity: To build SAP is a complicated software to build.
• b. Expensive: To implement the software, the company will incur a high cost as they need to hire a programmer or two, and buy business consultants, which can be cost-effective
• c. Issue with Flexibility: As I mentioned earlier, SAP is flexible but that depends on what is being customized.
• d. Time: Since the SAP system is so extensive, it takes a lengthy implementation time.

Disney is committed to establishing and seeking a positive environment for future generations. The company aims at conserving water, energy and ecosystems.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to minimize waste, and support a sustainable environment. Disney is engaged in reporting regularly the progress of implementing the policies and achieving targets set.

Some specific green initiatives taken by Walt Disney include Wall-E inspired program that experienced an 18% increase in employees over a year, 80& reuse of wood from different movie sets, and releasing Disneynature- a documentary movie label. (Cruger, 2009)

Disney is eliminating plastic straws and other plastic items, as this help reduce the environmental footprint.

From my own experience at the parks, I have seen that throughout all the parks i.e., Epcot, Hollywood studios, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom, they had placed three big bins for food waste, tissues, bottles, and plastic cups, plates respectively with clear instructions about recycling and why recycling is good for the environment. Although now they have stopped using plastic altogether, they are contributing to conserving the environment. (Walt Disney, 26)

Lean Management Approach by Walt Disney.

1. Visual Management: Walt Disney invented storyboarding where it’s a visual approach to movie-making.
2. Continuous Improvement: Disney’s process of continuous improvement is based on the famous Lean Management method of Plan-Do-Check-Act by Edward Deming. This process is applied in all parks in Disney World. Walt Disney believed continuous improvement is the key to sustaining in business.
3. Attention to detail: Walt Disney said: “Whatever you do, do it well”. The company should always be aware of where the project is going and what the challenges are that the teams could face. (Marmol, n.d.)

Supply Chain metrics are defined by establishing specific parameters which can be used in analyzing the company’s supply chain performance.

1. Cash-to-Cash time cycle: One of several parameters in analyzing supply chain performance. Disney’s Cash to cash Time cycle is 82.55 as of Sept 2019
2. Freight Bill Accuracy: While moving merchandise from their main warehouses any issue or error can occur.
3. Perfect Order Rate: It measures the success of the ability to deliver the orders without any accidents, damages, delay and losses.
4. Day Sales Outstanding [DSO]: Walt Disney’s DSO is at 73.96 as of September 2019
5. Inventory Turnover: This helps a business understand the number of times its entire inventory has been replenished. Walt Disney’s inventory turnover is at 10.63 as of sept 2019.
6. Gross Margin Return on Investment: This metric offers a fair representation of the gross profit gained on the average inventory. The gross margin return on investment for Disney is 11.96%
7. On-time shipping: This is an indicator of the lead time of the products that is being sent to the Walt Disney Parks or the official merchandise stores.
8. Return Reason: A lot of products are returned to the sellers due to various reasons. At Walt Disney, most items are returnable but some of the products that are seasonal, one-time launch products cannot be returned to the stores.
9. Inventory Velocity: Helps optimize inventory levels by giving a high change of meeting consumer demand.
10. Inventory Days of Supply: This metric gives the company a clear number of the days It would take for the product to sell out if it’s not replenished. (Durcevic, 2018)

[ Rates taken from: (Gurufocus, n.d.)]

Walt Disney is a worldwide entertainment company. The Company’s Strategic sourcing and procurement work with all our businesses and suppliers around the globe to bring the best value for Disney Company. Strategic sourcing, it provides many opportunities for partners who are major suppliers to partner with the company to provide their services. It is done by seeking out contracts with companies whether it is local or global. The Walt Disney Company focuses on Technology and continues to invest in technology which brings efficiency to procurement and other processes of the business. (Walt Disney Company)

The company believes that diversifying the suppliers will bring the company great opportunities that help develop, be innovative and cost-effective solutions. The supplier management team from Walt Disney:

1. Facilitates a healthy dialogue between Disney and other external groups
2. Empowers different providers to compete for sourcing openings.

They manage their suppliers through

1. Identification: Disney does not discriminate. They identify LGBTQ, Women, veterans, minorities, etc.
2. Qualification: The company is pertinent to different business criteria, for example, abilities, topographical extension, and limit.
3. Due Diligence: Walt Disney validates diver certifications like NGLCC and the Department of Veterans. (Walt Disney )

To summarize, Walt Disney has always been a company that manages its operations in a very unique way. The Disney Company’s legacy lived on and Walt Disney’s dream finally came true. Throughout time The Walt Disney Company has discovered itself to fit with society to keep a franchise, it will constantly be equal to the agency that was created with nothing but a dream and a few dollars.

A brief chronology of key life events:

Walt Disney was born on 5 December 1901, in Chicago to his parents Elias and Flora. Walt died on the 15 of December 1966 because of lung cancer, this cancer was because of him smoking constantly. Walt Disney’s full name is Walt Elias Disney. On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney founded the worldwide creation, Disney. Disney started in the rear of a small office. When WWII began, the US Army overtook some of its studios to house troops, but Disney was still able to create Bambi in the back of one of the studios. Walt Disney’s family moved to a farm when Walt was young.

During this time he spent a lot of his time drawing and imagining, but when Walt’s father became very ill they had to sell the farm and move to a different part of the country, Kansas City, Mo.

While living in Missouri, Walt got a paper route so that he and his family could fix their financial situation. It is because of his first company that Walt Disney found his love and passion for movies and film. Walt Disney’s brother helped him and gave him a place at his first job.

I knew that the famous Walt Disney created the world phenomenon Disney on 16 October 1923.

I was surprised that Walt Disney was able to create Bambi with half a theatre.

Walt Disney found his passion and love for movies at school before he went. When he was young before he moved to his farm, he used to draw for the school newspaper. He loved to do this. I believe that this was his first step into his passion for cartoons.

Nature Vs Nurture:

Nature is when you have been handed down something from your parents. Nurture is when you have learned how to do something or you have been influenced by someone so that you follow them.

Walt Disney’s father was terribly strict at disciplining his children. He would give Walt and his brother a beating in their daily routine. This caused Walt to go to their barn and draw cartoons. Because of this, he found his love for cartoons and movies. Walt Disney was always trying to find a way to escape his father’s brutality. This brutality had a small effect on Walt Disney when he was at Disney. He had a dress code for his parks, anyone with long hair or facial hair had to leave. This showed discrimination possibly because of his father’s creulty. He then changed this later on. Walt Disney’s father owned a paper route company. During his childhood, Walt Disney also had to deliver papers. Walt hated this. Especially when he had to deliver in 3-meter-high snow and blizzards. If Walt Disney’s father had never abused him then the worldwide phenomenon would never have been created.

5 Minds for The Future:

1st Mind:

I believe that Walt Disney had a Creating Mind.

The Creating Mind:

Is a mind that can expand and think in a different way. They are able to go ahead of existing knowledge, create a strong question, create new ideas, and Help build of old creations to make them better. Creativity can be spread across many subjects. Walt Disney shows creativity when he was young and old.

Youth Creativity:

When Walt Disney was young he was abused by his father which caused him to go to their barn and draw cartoon drawings. His creativity of drawing was immaculate. He created drawings and got ideas from the barn animals. The barn that he drew in was the only place where he could escape from his dad. Walt Disney then went on to get a job as a Newspaper artist on his road to glory.

Adult Creativity:

When Walt Disney was older he still had ideas and used that for his company and put them into movies.

2nd Mind:

I believe that Walt Disney had an Ethical Mind as well.

The Ethical Mind:

The ethical mind is a mind that is able to merge tasks together and strive towards his goals and good work and to be a good citizen. Walt Disney created an attraction to people of all ages. Walt Disney was able to make some of his movies during the war. This shows that he was able to multi-task and work with two tasks acting like they are one. He never stopped trying to reach his goals and when he did reach one goal he was ready to finish the next.

Walt Disney’s Legacy:

The impact Walt Disney gave to the world was colossal. Walt changed the life of imagination and showed children where your imagination can take us and what you achieve with it.

Walt Disney contributed to the society of world by showing people what you can do with your imagination and dreams. Walt Disney encouraged me to use my imagination more before then I was playing video games and not expressing what I have to offer. Walt Disney made sure that he would do things the best way he could and he never gave up. When Walt had finished one topic or challenge he would not give up right there and then. He would make sure that his company had the best appliances. Walt Disney wanted to encourage children to use their imagination and curiosity, instead of them sitting in classrooms and being told to write things down. He encouraged everyone to follow and pursue their dreams. I believe that Walt Disney really inspired people to follow their dreams even if the whole world seems to be against them because that is what happened to him. His father abused him, yet he found his happy space. When the war came and the soldiers used his studios Walt Disney still made movies such as Bambi.

Introduction

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational company that operates in four primary business units better known as business segments. The four segments of operation consist of theme parks and resorts, media networking, The Walt Disney Studios, and Disney consumer products. Each segment plays a huge role in keeping The Walt Disney Company connected with its customers across the globe. This entertainment industry holds great potential for both growth and development. The evolving corporation has emerged to become one of the most successful globalized businesses in the world. The Walt Disney Company has been comprised of their international business units, as well as various consumer-directed streaming systems, global content sales, and international aligning technology. This has formed the company to be a single business segment that has created and delivered personalized entertainment and experiences to people of all ages; all around the world.

Company Background

Small, unique, and humbled, Disney first originated in the early 1920s as The Disney Brothers Cartoon studio. Proudly continuing its legacy, The Walt Disney Company began in 1923 after Walt and Roy Disney signed a contract with cartoon collaborator, MJ Winkler. This multinational company is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families across the globe. Theme parks, television series, and many magical animated pictures have made The Walt Disney Company the second largest media and amusement park corporation in the world, right behind Time Warner.

Walt Disney began drawing cartoons at a young age but when craving success, he wanted to bring them to life and to the company. After getting approval from UB Iwerks, an American animator, the Disney brothers joined his team for the production of The Alice Comedies, a series based on a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The two brothers gained positive feedback of the series and began writing and drawing more cartoons for film productions. After the release of Steamboat Willie in 1929, the world was then introduced to the world’s most popular cartoon character, Mickey Mouse. The recognition of this character convinced the Disney brothers that they should produce a short film, on their own. They worked hard and diligently until the film was complete and ready to be aired in 1934. This project went over 400% in budget and required over 300 artists, animators, and assistants to produce. Sadly, this was not a very successful project for Walt and Roy Disney. The downfall forced the brothers to work smarter and harder and they did not give up on their dreams. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuted in 1937 being the biggest hit for the company. Since then, The Walt Disney Company has produced more than a dozen award-winning films. The company has evolved into a holding company for media and entertainment. They began opening theme parks across the nation in 1955 and acquired many companies such as ABC, Pixar, and Marvel Studios to sign with the company.

Seeing the such success, The Walt Disney Company decided to go global with all products, television series, and theme parks in 1983, opening their first international amusement park in Tokyo, Japan. The Walt Disney Company now operates in 30 countries, shows Disney television series in 133 countries, and has theme parks and resorts in 6 countries. “The focus for this globalized company is to create exceptional entertainment experiences for its fans to build local affinity and trust for the company, its brands, and characters” (Home. 2019, November 5. http://www.thewaltdisneycompany.eu/). The company carries out the global strategy for creativity, innovation, and international growth to seek and deliver the best entertainment to their fans and consumers where, when, and how they want it. The mission and legacy that Walt Disney has left for dreamers across the world is to be entertained, informed, and inspired through the power of unparalleled storytelling, to see the reflection of iconic brands, to let their creative minds wonder, and for innovative technology to make the world entertaining and magical.

Business Activities

The business activities for The Walt Disney Company include multinational business ventures and some key issues that the company has faced. Whether they were able to overcome the risks faced in certain markets or the specialized legalities of those markets, Disney does a great job at staying on top of multinational businesses around the world. To have and maintain a successful business, these aspects need to be addressed and overcome if challenges arise. With more than ninety years in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company continues to grow its market shares in various international markets and maintains its status as the leading entertainment provider across the world.

The issues that The Walt Disney Company has and will continue to face are the competitors that will always exist. Universal Studios, Wild Adventures, and Six Flags are just some examples of which Disney must compete with. Walt Disney is the only adventure park that is based on Disney characters and movies. Although Universal Studios is in the same area and is based off movies and television shows as well. Universal Studios is their biggest competitor. These are the two biggest parks in Florida and are not far apart in distance. Some could argue that Walt Disney is more for children and Universal Studios are more for adolescents and older generations, but despite the differences within the parks, it will always be competition for the two parks. On the amount of revenue made and the increase of growth done to the parks in order to remain “the top park,” Disney is still at this time number one. Smaller localized parks, such as Wild Adventures continue to compete with multibillion-dollar firms. This is due to lower ticket prices at smaller parks as well as those parks marketing to a centralized group of prospective customers.

Wild Adventures is a smaller competitor that targets audience residences in a 300-mile radius of The Walt Disney theme parks. This allows them to focus marketing on a key group of consumers, reducing marketing costs, and therefore lower ticket prices follow. The other challenge that Walt Disney faces is the need to keep customers interested in their park. This is can be done by consistently updating different features or aspects of the park. It can also be accomplished by taking out rides or activities that are not as popular by the public and adding activities that are more appealing to the park. One thing they could add would be more tours of Cinderella’s Castle, having more than one person dressing up as Cinderella so the lines won’t be as long to meet her. Children especially young girls want to meet Cinderella and tour all the Castle. This could be accomplished by having seven or eight people dressed as Cinderella to reduce wait times. If wait times were reduced, the population of the park could potentially increase.

The risks that are faced in certain markets are expanding to new global locations. This is a huge risk for not only Walt Disney but also the CEO of the company. For example, if the new theme park location in Japan does not do as well as projected, it is money lost to the corporation, which can put a strain on the other Walt Disney locations. That means less money for renovations, new rides and activities, and new staff and existing staff. This also means less money for their college programs. This can cause a decrease in the staff if pay cuts are issued because of a fall in revenue. Projecting to add a Walt Disney theme park in another country is a risk, but adding several parks in several countries is an even higher risk that is at stake for the corporation. An example of a new market risk that is faced by Disney is its Hong Kong Disney location. After a strong opening in 2005, a recession hit in the United States just a few years later. This caused more income productivity to be needed from the Hong Kong Disney park. In 2010 when China’s economy took a plunge, Disney was forced to reduce operating hours at it’s park to equalize its profitability. In this case, The Walt Disney Company was able to bounce back as the economy took and upward turn and consumer spending in the entertainment industry increased. But as seen here, when businesses expand to new markets so do the risks associated with them.

When faced with political, legal, and ethical issues The Walt Disney Company stays neutral in an ever-changing environment. Despite what changes the world throws its way, Walt Disney stays consistent for what they stand for. They are never seen in the news for having debates with employees about the new social issues that the world is facing. They are not seen having lawsuits because the employees want to dress as to who they identify as. What is seen is their continuous to be accepting of everyone. The Walt Disney Company does not discriminate on who their customers are, who their supporters are, or who their employees are. They do not push their beliefs on to anyone, instead, they love on their customers and accept them, and that is what makes them want to continue to come back. Their personal beliefs may differ but as for the corporation, they remain neutral. This has helped Walt Disney’s theme park globalization, as they are not having to deal with controversial beliefs that may not line up with a new market location. An example of this is in Paris, back in 1982, when they opened one of their first global theme park locations, a harsh political election was taking place and many multibillion-dollar firms were choosing sides to protect their interests, but as always Walt Disney did not choose sides and as a result, did not face tariffs, as many competitors did that landed on the wrong side of the election. This behavior shows how Walt Disney’s politically neutral policy has helped their international business standings. “It is also a way for the Disney Company to form their leaders in accordance to the value base that is required… the Disney Company is constantly working with the behaviors of their leaders in combination with business results (Ingelsson, Eriksson, & Lilja 2012).”

The Walt Disney Company is the largest multi-national company practicing corporate social responsibility. They have been very successful with this business model plan especially with Walt Disney being an international business. Walt Disney is socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and to the public. In lame terms, it is a way for The Walt Disney Company to help society. This helps society donate large sums or small sums of money to different non-profit organizations. The organization donated 2 million dollars in relief efforts to southern Florida counties after Hurricane Harvey left 44,000 people displaced without homes. “The Disney theme park in Hong Kong was viewed as one of the most important government projects undertaken to boost the regional economy after the Asian financial crisis (Tsai & Liu 2011).”Corporate Social Responsibility also allows Walt Disney to implement policies in the workplace such as new policies on helping the environment and new workplace rules to better a company or corporation. One-way Walt Disney maintains environmental responsibility within its parks is by conducting stage three recycling in all their theme parks. Something that none of the company’s competitors has done is been environmentally friendly. Being this way has helped Disney gain more praise and respect than their competitors. The main purpose of corporate social responsibility is to conduct The Walt Disney Company in an ethical way and to help other businesses conduct themselves in an ethical way. The Walt Disney Company sets high standards for global social responsibility time and time again.

Capital

Disney is invested globally in its theme parks and consumer products, and with their international business model comes a net worth of 200 billion. Included in this net worth is many operational, industrial, and human capital. Disney strives to be the best in the entertainment industry and to be number one constant capital investments are a must. From cutting-edge technology to quarterly bonus potential for employees Disney’s constant capital investments push it to be the leader in global entertainment.

With an ever-competitive business model such as Disney’s, there is a constant need for capital investments. One of the corporation’s hallmark achievements over the years is updating its theme parks yearly to incorporate new promotions and shows into the theme park world. This extremely expensive capital investment keeps patrons coming back year after year to see Disney’s latest creation in the parks. And increasing revenue year after year as seen above. Equally as important as Disney’s park investments are its human capital. With over 300,000 employees worldwide, Disney has one of the largest pools of human capital, and to keep a low turnover rate among them they offer competitive rates and bonuses. Not only do they hire regular employees, they have a program called the Disney College Program, which is a paid internship for college students. In this program, which lasts anywhere from five to seven weeks, interns have the opportunity to gain on-the-job experience as well as network with other Disney employees and interns, take development classes, and build teamwork and communication skills. With Disney’s ever-constant capital investments it’s no surprise they remain the number one global entertainer.

Summary

The name Walt Disney brings so much joy and happiness to millions of people by a number of ways. Walt Disney started as a small company and has now grown to have multiple theme parks, acquired several other media and entertainment firms, as well as employ over 300,000 people. Even though the Walt Disney Company has faced its fair share of threats, competitors, and issues, the growth of the company has not been stalled. In the world we live in, very few companies can manage to not step on toes or offend anyone as Walt Disney has. Walt Disney has shown that time and time again corporate social responsibility, ethical business practices, and investment in capital, both human and financial, will keep you on top.

Reference Page

1. Tsai, T., & Liu, S. P. (2011). Disneyland in Hong Kong – green challenge (A). Asian Case Research Journal, 15(2), 177–200. doi:10.1142/S0218927511001538
2. Ingelsson, P., Eriksson, M., & Lilja, J. (2012). Can select the right values to help TQM implementation? A case study about organizational homogeneity at the Walt Disney Company. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(1), 1–11. doi:10.1080/14783363.2011.637801
3. Disney College Program: Careers at Disney. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jobs.disneycareers.com/disney-college-program.

Early Childhood

Walt Disney was one of the best movie producers and film makers ever. He was born in a small town named Hermosa, on December 1st, 1901. This was near Chicago, in Illinois. He had 4 brothers and a sister. Walt was closest with his brother Roy. He always loved drawing and creating since he was little. Walt Disney also had many summer jobs working as much as he could. He was raised by Elias and Flora Call Disney. He went to high school at McKinley high school. Art was always Walt’s passion. He was so invested he took art classes at night, after going to school all day. Throughout Walt Disney’s whole life, he always worked hard for what he got.

Early Adulthood

When Walt Disney was 16, he didn’t want to do school anymore, so he dropped out. He wanted to join the army. He was not allowed to join though, because of his age. Instead he headed to join Red Cross to be an EMT. In 1919, he went back to the US and went to work for a newspaper. He started working around with cameras. Disney and his partner Fred Harman created Laugh-o-grams, this cartoon took off and became his first success. Then, his cartoons got stolen, he declared bankruptcy shortly after. Walt and Roy Disney then moved to Hollywood, where they founded Disney Brother Studios.

Inspiration

The people around Walt Disney really inspired him. Many of his characters had components of real people he knew in their personalities. One person he was inspired by was his wife, Lillian. Because of her, Mickey Mouse is called Mickey Mouse. Disney wanted to name him Mortimer Mouse, but his wife gave him the name Mickey, and the most famous cartoon began. His partner Irwin drew the character and Walt voiced Mickey Mouse. By these characters, he was inspired to create parks. He created Disneyland for 17 million dollars, in 1955. Opening day was June 17th. Disney World opened in 1971, after Walt Disney had died.

Building Upon Success

Walt Disney started in a small section of Chicago, writing and drawing whenever he could. Disney never gave up and followed his dreams until they became reality. He went through a lot to achieve what he did. With his cartoons being stolen and him declaring bankruptcy, he hasn’t had it easy. He had more goals then just trying to get rich. Disney wanted to bring joy to people, especially in the time of the Great Depression. Walt Disney always worked hard and brought joy to thousands while he was alive. Disney is now worth 130 billion dollars.

Philanthropic Deeds

Walt Disney did many things for many people. Walt Disney brought positivity all around the US. He took a risk and was able to start his own company. He had no idea how big that would get. Whether it was families sitting in front of the TV at night to watch Mickey Mouse on TV, or visiting one of the Disney parks, Walt Disney changed television and movies forever. He put many people into jobs and provided them with everything they needed. Walt Disney gave back to the community when his success started.

Walt Disney created a fun family experience location known as Disneyland and Disneyworld and changed the entertainment industry. He was a pioneer in animation through innovation and impacted people that allowed them to pursue their dreams. He had many achievements such as multiple academy honor awards and created the famous character Mickey Mouse. Walt was a very imaginative person that created many ideas while developing the Disney Company.

Walt Disney Was born on the 5th of December in 1901. According to Whitney Stewart (2009), “He was born in an upstairs bedroom of a two-story cottage on North Tripp Avenue in Chicago, Illinois” (p. 1). Walt’s parents were both very hardworking individuals that cared a lot about their five children. Walt’s Mother was a teacher but soon gave up her profession to raise her children. Walt’s father, Elias Disney, was in the carpentry business and built their two-story cottage house in Chicago during 1892. 13 years later, The Disney family decided that it would be safer and more suitable for them to move to a farm in Marceline, Missouri because the neighborhood began to get rough and not an ideal safe area for their family to grow up in. Walt was excited about the new change and looked forward to the experience. He ended up loving the farmhouse and walked down to main street to see all the stores quite frequently. Walt Loved all the animals and the environment that was on the farm. By the time he was 7 years old, he began school in his small town and started the same time as his 5-year-old sister and wasn’t too happy about that. Walt Always loved entertaining people and acted in many school plays including the peter pan play. Little did he know that peter pan would be one of the most significant and most popular Disney characters of all time.

Walt Developed many new interests and hobbies that he spent many hours a day doing so. When he picked up a pencil or pen, he drew for hours and was clearly very talented at it. One of his neighbor’s, Doc Sherwood, thought he was so good that he asked Walt if he could draw him a picture of his horse. Doc and his wife ended up loving the picture and they praised it. This made Walt feel very proud and boosted his self-confidence substantially which ended up being a good thing. But then, Walt’s Father became sick and could no longer take care of the farm and his mother could not take over cause she did not know how to manage their farm. The only option that they were left with was to sell the house. Walt Was very sad about this choice and the family moved back to Chicago and started his freshman year at Mckinley High School. He took photography, drawing, and art classes that he enjoyed and was very creative in. Not only was he doing school during the day, but he also took night classes and became the cartoonist for his school paper. The night classes he took were at the Chicago Art Institute and they taught him everything he needed to know about art and drawing. When he was 16 years old, he slowly began to lose interest in school and dropped out and tried to join the army but was rejected for being too young. At this point in Walt’s Life, he joined the red cross where he drove an ambulance in France for about a year and then moved back to the united states in 1919. Walt met with another cartoonist know as Ub Iwerks and they created a commercial art company but got into animation later on. They both created cartoons that soon became extremely popular and allowed them to open a studio to produce their work.

Walt became a very successful entrepreneur as Disney developed to be more popular and he gained many achievements throughout his whole career. He really changed and revolutionized the animation and entertainment industry by providing cartoons and films that were revolutionary and very fascinating to watch. He created many unique characters that the people loved such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Cinderella, and Pluto. Some of these characters were also included in the very first films in animation. Walt was a very successful entrepreneur because Hailey (2017) found that “Walt Disney took risks and introduced a completely different way of entertainment”(p.1).

Walt was so successful overall because of his work ethic and ability to overcome any obstacle in his path. He faced many challenges throughout his life and within his business such as going bankrupt , being a high school dropout, and suffering from multiple business disasters but was still able to overcome his challenges by following his dream and believing in his creativity and imagination that would later create joy for all people. One of his major achievements within the animation industry was that the first film published by Disney, Known as, “Snow White and the seven dwarfs”, was the most successful film of 1939 and generated more than eight million dollars for the Disney Company. Disney ended up being given many academy awards for that film. In 1964, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was very honored that he had the opportunity to have this award. Walt Challenged himself every day to innovate and make the world a better place through the eye of animation and storytelling. Walt would tell the people who worked for him a specific story in a way that allowed them to visualize it better and make the story come to life. This allowed them to have a better perspective with what they needed and wanted to do for this job. Walt was a true leader within the community and the people he worked with and he was a great storyteller. Walt not only gave people the opportunity to work for him and have a great time doing so, but also inspired them to take action and pursue their own dreams. He influenced others and according to Hailey (2017), “During Walt Disney’s life, he taught others the importance of their imagination and how if you set your mind to something, you can achieve it. Disney believed not only in himself, but everyone who had the potential of achieving great things”(p.1) He was beyond question, one of the most impactful people within the animation industry and workforce overall which leads to the next point.

Walt had a huge lasting impact that is very important within our history today. He continues to influence modern animated films while setting the standards for animated films and theme parks all around the world because of his creation of Disneyland and Disneyworld. These parks deliver happiness to those who are at these locations and are very popular attractions that people all around the world come to see. He created jobs for thousands of people and was constantly trying to improve everything that happened within the Disney company. For example, According to Brown (2014), “Disney’s many innovations included such features as synchronizing sound with animated images and using storyboards, multiplane cameras, and optical printers” (p.1). These features were something that had never been created and were developed and innovated by Disney itself which shows us that he wanted to advance the animation industry as much as possible. He also wanted to help others as much as possible and have people who wanted to do the same thing that he did, have an opportunity to learn how to do so. According to Brian Dakss (2006), “Walt Disney founded the California Institute for the Arts, intended as a school to train artists for motion pictures.” (p.1). This allowed many children to be able to go to school to study this subject more in-depth. He made animation and entertainment more popular and showed people that we are in a world where we have the freedom to do what we want in terms of who we want to become and what we want to do in life which was something that was very inspirational to most people and is another reason why so many people looked up to him.

Some other lessons that he taught the world were to take what you want to do seriously if you are really compassionate at it because that is the only way you will reach success. Walt was in it not for the money, but to do it for others and create an experience that was nonexistent. This really showed when he started opening schools for other people to learn animation and motion pictures so that they would one day be doing animation like Walt. Walt Disney was one of the most influential people in history by changing the animation and entertainment industry to a higher standard that made people all around the world happy during tough times of war and depression.

References

1. Brown Blogs, S. (2014). HOW WALT DISNEY ANIMATION REVOLUTIONIZED THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY (Video and animation production ed., p. 1). Retrieved from https://www.sanfordbrown.edu/Student-Life/blog/December-2014/How-Walt-Disney-Animation-Revolutionized-the-Animation-Industry
2. Brown, J. (2012). The 5 Great Lessons Walt Disney Taught Us (pp. 1-2). N.p.: 7 years agoon. Retrieved from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-5-great-lessons-walt-disney-taught-us/
3. Crowley, C. (2011). The Man, the Mission: (p. 1). WordPress. Retrieved from https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/disneysvisionforamerica/walt-disney-innovater-public-figure/
4. Gillis, A. M. (2015). Walt Disney: In the End, He Wanted to Change How We Live (HUMANITIES ed., Vol. 36, p. 1). Maria Beirnik. Retrieved from https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/septemberoctober/iq/walt-disney-in-the-end-he-wanted-change
5. Selden, B. (2005). The Story of Walt Disney.New York, NY: Disney Editions
6. Stewart, W. (2009). Who Was Walt Disney? New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap
7. Walt Disney (2017). San Diego, CA: Hailey Retrieved from https://myhero.com/W_Disney2_dnhs_rh_US_2017_ul