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There is only one brand in the world associated so powerfully and undeniably with the feelings of warmth, joy, and magic: Disney. This almost-100-year-old organization has proven time and again that businesses can have intergenerational impact and influence.

The company’s trajectory has fluctuated throughout its long history, but at its highest points, it has left its mark in more than one way. The Walt Disney Company has earned multiple times the leading position in animation. Still, it has transformed into a global behemoth with a more than substantial presence in numerous industries, from theme parks and cruise lines to live-action film production to consumer products. Disney is an excellent example of a company that is more than the sum of its parts.

Very few organizations worldwide can boast numbers better or even close to those of Disney:

• Revenue of $82.7 billion in 2022
• Brand value of $60.5 billion in 2022
• Total assets of over $200 billion in 2022
• Number of employees: 220.000 as of 2022
•  Disney has 12 theme parks around the world, 9 Disney Resorts and 5 cruise ships (with 2 more enroute)
• The Disney+ streaming service reached 161.8 million subscribers in Q1 2023 

The Humble Beginnings of a Magical Imagination

Today his name is recognizable globally, and mentioning it awakens feelings of joy and wonder to adults and children alike. Walt Disney and his older brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio on October 16 of 1923, the entity that was destined to become the colossus known today as The Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, and developed an interest in art and drawing from a very young age. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to a farm outside of Marceline, a place where young Walt was exposed to nature, animals, and the small-town life that sparked his imagination and allowed it to expand and run wild.

Pursuing art and entrepreneurship

At just the age of seven, he sold his first drawings. Due to financial troubles, two years later, he started helping his father deliver newspapers. However, he continued honing his drawing skills and developing his art education.

At the age of 18, he had his first encounter with animation in Pesman Art Studio, where he met a fellow artist named Ub Iwerks. Disney and Iwerks soon had a failed attempt at creating their own commercial company, and later on, Disney founded another company, a film studio, where he employed Iwerks, among others, as an animator.

In 1923 Disney had to declare bankruptcy due to high costs, resulting in his second entrepreneurial attempt. Nevertheless, his work in the animation industry didn’t go unnoticed, earning him a contract that led to the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio’s first production, a series named “Alice comedies” which mixed live-action motion-picture photography with cartoon animation. One of the first such productions.

Disney worked on the series until 1927, with his friend and former partner Iwerks producing more than 50 films. His next creation, “Oswalt the Lucky Rabbit”, was produced for Universal Studios and was a hit. However, during negotiations, he realized that he had painted himself to a corner, signing away all of the rights for Oswalt when he accepted the contract and losing all of his animators, except for Iwerks, to Universal Studios.

Disney and Iwerks went on and created Mickey Mouse as an answer, retaining all the rights this time. Disney lent his voice to Mickey and Iwerks drew him. Together they created the first cartoon with synchronized sound, the short film “Steamboat Willie”, which was the first film with Mickey that had a distributor and was the start of the mouse’s exploding career. Actually, the film was so successful and significant as an innovation that in 1998 was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.

Demonstrating pioneering

Walt Disney’s vision and innovative spirit were demonstrated in 1937 when the first feature-length animated film premiered, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” The film took three years to complete and was nicknamed “Disney’s Folly” by industry insiders due to its revolutionary nature. The risk for the company, now called “Walt Disney Productions,” was great since it exceeded four times its initial budget and had more than 300 people working on it.

In complete contrast to all the naysayers, the novel experience that Walt Disney had created with this film, which elicited the full range of human emotions, was an absolute success. Its release was received with immense praise by critics, audiences, and magazines, granting its creator an honorary Oscar. Financially, not only did it cover its budget, but it also generated enough profit that Walt Disney built a new studio in Burbank, California, and an exemplary corporate culture. The company’s headquarters are still there to this day.

Flexing in the pursuit of the vision

Walt Disney had a vision. He wanted everyone to share the wonder and excitement he experienced when he was a little boy in Marceline. And with that in mind, in 1952, although his company was quite successful and profitable, Walt Disney put everything on the line selling his shares, liquidating his assets, selling off property, borrowing against his life insurance policy, going to great lengths to gather as many resources as he could the one thing that would advance his vision.

Disneyland, his greatest achievement, opened its doors in 1955, and it was a theme park like no other before it. Contrary to the theme parks of the time, Walt’s Disneyland was a safe place, clean and untouched by unlawfulness. It had a coherent story throughout the park, and it was an immersive experience for adults and children, a place where, with Walt Disney’s words, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

The park recorded revenues of more than $10 million and 3.6 million guests during its first year of operation. Its success holds today, as it is constantly expanding with new attractions being added regularly. Before his death in 1966, he started working on a second theme park, the Walt Disney World, but he didn’t manage to experience its opening.

Disney holds the record for most individual Oscar wins with a staggering 22 wins. In addition, he was presented with the George Washington Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Along with his brother Roy, they helped establish in 1961 the California Institute of the Arts.