Disney History of the Disney Corporation: The Early Years

Walter Elias Disney started his career as an animator and then an art director and story manager. Walt Disney lost the rights to "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit," a character he created, and he thereby set out to manage and control his own brand. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit became Mickey Mouse and the Disney empire began. By 1937, the Disney company had produced its first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At this early stage in the company's evolution, Disney was a flat, nonhierarchical, and democratically run company with an emphasis on fun and creativity.

An astute businessman as much as a creative, Walt Disney developed and diversified throughout the middle of the 20th century. In the 1960s, Disney delved into live action films and television. The Mickey Mouse Club became a hallmark of the brand. In the mid-1950s, Disney opened its first theme park Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The theme park was run effectively, as Disney outsourced merchandising and food to cut costs.

Before Walk Disney's death in 1966, he had purchased land in Florida for the development of a second theme park. The ambitious project would not come to fruition until 1971, but it proved to be a roaring success. After his father's death, Roy Disney took over the company in 1967 and helped propel the company and diversify its interests further. Resort hotels,...

In 1976, Tokyo Disneyland opened. Reacting to a decline in its animated film viewership, Disney also expanded into the realm of live action movies with the start of Touchstone productions.
The Eisner Years: Total Turnaround and Triumph

The 1980s were touch times for Disney. Hostile takeovers were immanent. Enter Eisner in 1984. Eisner transformed Disney from a flailing entertainment company to a global mega-corporation. Eisner as CEO, Wells as the President and COO of the company, and Roy Disney as the Vice President ushered in a new era for Disney. Brand building, and the creation of a new corporate culture were on the agenda. Profitability became the keywords for the company as Eisner sought to maximize shareholder wealth and meet annual targets for revenue growth and returns on stockholder equity. To solidify the new corporate culture, Eisner developed a corporate university at which employees had to dress up as Disney characters for a day.

Eisner diversified the company further and revitalized its failing film division. Touchstone made its first R-rated movie. Katzenberg led the film production division, and started to produce films on relatively low budgets that could reap the maximum profit possible. As a result, Disney was releasing 15-18 new films per year by 1988 up from two new films per year in…