The Walt Disney Company: milestones in the development
The Walt Disney Company is a global entertainment giant with a rich history. The conglomerate is one of the ten most expensive brands and provides the world’s population with a variety of content and products, from cartoons and TV series to theme parks and branded clothing.
The company’s founders are two Disney brothers, Walt and Roy. In 1923 they organized a small studio, where they worked on the creation of animation, at that time the animation sector was just developing, and the brothers chose a good time to open their own business. The first successful project was the animation “Alice in Wonderland,” and then there was an animated series “Oswald Rabbit” in 1927. The company was actively developing, and Margaret Winkler was the distributor of the products. However, by the second season of the cartoon, Winkler decided to do cartoons on their own, especially since the contract was on her side. It turned out that in the documents the rights to the characters belonged to the distributor, and in the end, Disney lost.
Having worked through the mistakes, Walt was careful to ensure that all animation rights belonged to the company. Many criticize the businessman for this, but as a company, such a move worked. The Walt Disney brand became more and more famous, in 1928 it gave the world Mickey Mouse, who is still one of the most recognizable characters. In 1932 this cartoon won an Oscar, which was the first of many awards for the company.
Walt Disney was not an outstanding artist, his persona is associated with many business and personal scandals, but his business qualities are unquestionable. He built an empire with a clear understanding of what the public needed, and he provided it. So, in 1955, the first Disneyland theme park appeared, where all the rides and decorations were made in the theme of the company’s different cartoon characters. The construction of this project cost 17 million dollars, and for its implementation, Disney signed a contract with ABC television channel, but after 5 years, the company bought out all the rights to the park, becoming the full owner of this unit.
In 1966, Walt Disney died, and the leadership passed into Roy’s hands. However, during their lifetime the brothers stipulated how the empire would function after their death. As a result, Walt left behind a huge number of ideas and projects, which the company implemented for another 20 years after his death. When Roy died in 1971, the executive positions were filled by the managers that the brothers had long prepared for that role.
A crisis hit the company in 2000 when a series of failed films were released. The situation improved after 2005 when Bob Iger took over as head of the empire. It was he who opened a new chapter in the development of the corporation, which allowed him to strengthen the position of Walt Disney, scale the business and generate new successful projects.
