The business landscape is changing and industry leaders from all over the world are adapting to that change by being the catalyst in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Providing new business goals and vision in mind, companies across the world are moving towards a sustainable business ecosystem.
Many companies have made it to the list from various sectors like finance, technology, real estate, consumer goods, etc. The only media company that has managed to make its mark in creating this ecosystem is The Walt Disney Co.
But, how does a media company find its way up here?
Well, the answer to this lies in their journey and how they have evolved from being a major media house to bringing their ideas to reality – to our lives and in our world.
Beyond Imagination – Beyond Entertainment
To know this, we have known the man, the incredible man behind the foundation of this company. Being an artistic person driven by passion, Walter Elias Disney knew what he was good at during his early days.
Working as a cartoonist for a newspaper while still in high school, Walt Disney developed a knack for storytelling. The introduction of newer media provided him with a platform that allowed him to venture into commercial art and animation.
With the humble beginning of Laugh-O-Gram Studios, animations really kicked in for the lovers of television, despite being home to many pioneers of animation. The studio making animated videos was a completely new venture of theaters and convincing them to premier or run a show was quite difficult. Moving ahead in the year 1922 things took a different turn and the distributors began to cheat Disney out of his money creating a gap in funding for new projects to make it for the public. A year later, Walt Disney declared bankruptcy, and finally, the dream of Laugh-O-Gram was brought down by reality.
The setback was real but the passion for art kept him working. After moving to Hollywood, Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. Now, here’s another twist in the tale. After starting the business, his first commercial success came in the form of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but again it was stolen from him. The distributors cheated him by writing the copywriters under his name and leaving Walt Disney out of the scenario.
But everything seems to give him even better ideas and teach him a few things about control, monitoring, and creativity. In 1928 Ub Iwerks, Roy, and Walt started to work on a character that was about to change the landscape of media, entertainment, and animation forever. And interestingly they named it Mickey Mouse!
This marked a major success in the chapter of The Walt Disney Company. After the relative success of two other films in the same year, Walt Disney made its way to Manhattan and even to The New York Times. Later in 1938 by introducing synchronizing sound to his animations, two feature-length animated films were released. The Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, the company had made its way to the silver screens and even at the Academy Awards.
During those days, this was an unimaginable feat that the Walt Disney Company had achieved, and that rolled the dice for moving towards something more than just animations and entertainment.
Many other films went into production, like Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, etc. started bringing success after success and the Walt Disney Co. became a well-known name in the entire world. Moving ahead with live-action films like ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Seal’ Walt Disney knew the world that we had created needed to make a reality for the world to see.
From Movies Reel to Real
The business landscape could not be just limited to TV screens and movie theaters, if people had to remember something it needed to be physically present for the people to experience. That opened completely new doors of business and started building an amusement park which many thought was a far-fetched dream.
Opening the doors to this in 1955, it quickly grabbed the attention of people all around the world. It was even nicknamed ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’. This was just the beginning and the start of something that is even prominent in the currently written history books.
To end this story, Walt Disney died before he could see his biggest project come alive in Orlando but during the opening ceremony, someone told Mrs. Disney ‘Isn’t it a shame that Walk didn’t live to see what he has created?’ to which she replies, ‘He did see it, that’s why it’s here.’
Moving ahead still on the principles laid down by Walt Disney, the Walt Disney Company is heading towards many business segments to create an entertainment business that is celebrated and used as a medium to spread happiness.
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