Walt Disney Should Be Person Of The Room

Walt Disney once said, “It’s not the magic that makes it work, it’s the work that makes the magic.” (Capodagli & Jackson, 2007). Walt Disney was truly a visionary and ethical leader that used his talents as a transformational leader and artist to dream up a world that has stood the test of time for nearly 90 years. In this paper I will explain why he was both a visionary and ethical leader. It will show that he used inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation to further his clear and easy to follow vision, inspire his personnel, and leverage their creativity. It will also show why I believe Walt Disney fit into the traits of an ethical leader by valuing his team members and creating an environment of mutual trust and respect. Then I will tell you how I have used the same transformational leadership behaviors to lead my people, have made sure not to fall into an ethical trap and take credit for the work others do. All leaders could learn something from Walt’s visionary leadership.

Transformational Leadership empowers or enables its followers. The leader engages with the follower in a way that both the leader and follower transcend to a higher level of motivation and morality (Nicholls, 1994).

On December 5, 1901, Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney gave birth to a man who would eventually change our world by the creation of a little mouse. Walter Elias Disney, who was also known as “Walt,” was born in a small town in Chicago, Illinois, by a father who was an Irish-Canadian descent, and his mother who was a German- English descent. Walt was one out of five children, four brothers and a sister. Their names were Herbert Arthur Disney, Raymond Arnold Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, and Ruth Flora Disney. Walt was the oldest one out of the five. While he attended school, he was introduced to Walter Pfeiffer, who decided to show Walt vaudeville and the art of making movies. Walt decided to drop out of high school, at the age of sixteen, to join the army. He was rejected to join because he was too young of age. He and a friend decided to join the Red Cross, where Walt was an ambulance driver during World War II. In 1919, Walt moved to Kansas City to begin a career in art, and worked for the newspaper, as a newspaper artist. He met Ubbe Iwerks, and he and Disney soon made their own commercial company called, “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.”

Walter Elias Disney was always seen as a very imaginative and outgoing person at any point in his life. Walt loved life and would make appearances at Disneyland all the time to make sure employees were being kind and courteous to the guests while managing to talk and ride rides with children that looked up to him. Never in his life would Walt give up on something, which made him very stubborn at times, but a good businessman with the guidance of his brother, Roy. All of these traits made Walt Disney into one of the greatest entrepreneurs the world has ever seen, and some say he even helped shape the 20th century.

The history of how The Walt Disney Company came to be started from a small individual who enjoyed drawing and used art as a way to escape reality, his name was Walt Disney. After the World War 1 ended, Disney went to Kansas City where he later created an animated company that went bankruptcy. Walt Disney moved to Hollywood where he met M.J Winkler a distributor, Disney become part of her production partner. (The Walt Disney Company) In 1927 Disney created a series where the distributor copyright the main character and Disney only made a few hundred dollars, therefore Disney decide to leave and created that same series with a different name which was Mickey Mouse. Disney decided to go with his brother Roy and created Mickey Mouse films. When Disney wanted to put out Steamboat Willie many film producers did not like the film’s idea until Pat Powers decided to release the film in theaters. The film gave Disney enough money to start on other projects which later those project turn out to be such as the amusement parks, merchandise, etc. In December 15, 1966 Walt Disney died from Lung Cancer, Disney’s brother Roy made sure that Disney’s believes and philosophy about the company would still be passed on by the company 's employee. (The Walt Disney Company) The company kept going which has become of the greatest companies that are socially responsible and sustainable.

77 years later and it is still as emotionally resonant, and artistically beautiful as ever. The feeling was so strange, marveling at the tone and storytelling of The Old Mill. I have never felt more driven than I had in animation. I wanted the Old Mill to stand tall when the storm stood still. The feeling was magical.

“It all started with a mouse.” Since the 1970’s, Mickey Mouse has become one of the most famous icons in the world. The Walt Disney Company started in 1923, and has since expanded into over a hundred different movies, merchandise, and theme parks around the world and a variety of countries and continents (Walt Disney Studio History). Walt Disney opened his first park, Disney Land in California, in 1955, but later built Walt Disney World in 1971 which is located in central Florida. This was a bold move, but it was Walt’s plan to make a bigger park with more space and more attractions and opportunities for the guests. Since then, Disney World has become one of the most admired tourist spots in the world, and has the most widespread theme park

Disney has the organization called ,“Disney VoluntEARS hours performed by our cast members to the local economies, we support through job creation, tax revenue and the use of local suppliers and contractors”("Community", n.d.). With their voluntEARS program they, “build playgrounds and community gardens to raising funds for disaster relief to volunteering in children hospitals” ("Community", n.d.). Disney has charity events where they give back locally, nation, and globally. They are designed to get people more involved in their community and more involved in global problems. Disney has the Disney Worldwide Conservation funds to help conserve wildlife all around the world. Disney is a big focus on the environment and getting people to volunteer.

Another control and coordination mechanism is The Walt Disney Company corporate team, who support services to the business units and affiliates of the Walt Disney Company. The individual responsibilities in this group can be strategic, tactical, diverse and specialized. It can span the whole organisation or focus more on the corporate division. This team work collectively to analyze potential opportunities, assess results and recommend future direction.

Walt Disney has set themselves a goal in their own words it states,” Disney’s mission is to always deliver, with integrity, the most exceptional entertainment experiences for people of all ages. We hold our citizenship efforts to the same high standard. Ultimately, our goal is to be the most admired company in the world. We believe we can achieve this goal by conducting our business and creating our products in an ethical manner, and by promoting the happiness and well-being of kids and families by inspiring them to join us in creating a brighter tomorrow.” This is of vital importance when referring to Disney and CSR the reason being a benchmark is required in order to assess the success of any campaign that gets run by Disney. It is easy to see that Disney has set themselves extremely high targets wanting their CSR projects to be of the same standard as their day to day business and want to be the best company in the world for CSR. Currently Disney is ranked number 1 in the world for CSR by Forbes in a four way tie along with Microsoft, BMW and Google. This means that they have already met one of their goals and even exceeded it by being rated more highly in terms of CSR rather than their actual business as their current rating on business success is 108th in the world. Even though part of their goal is already met doesn’t mean they can’t still aspire to achieve the same standards and in many ways it shows how invested Disney is donating more than ICBC

Biographical facts: placing emphasis on crucial experiences, episodes, pre-occupations and challenges that created turning points in advancing the subject’s leadership role.

Tokyo Disneyland was opened to the public on April 15, 1983. This amusement park was owned and operated by an unrelated Japanese corporation. The Walt Disney Company received royalties, paid in Yen, on certain revenues generated by Tokyo Disneyland. This new overseas business venture was bringing some concern about the foreign exchange risk to Disney. The management team at the Disney has been considering hedging future Yen inflows from Disney Tokyo since 1985. Mr. Anderson, the director of finance at The Walt Disney Company, focused his attention on a possible 15 billion ten-year term loan with an interest rate of 7.5% paid semiannually. On the other hand, Goldman Sachs, who had been working with

Collins, J.C. & Porras, J.I., 1995, ‘Building a visionary company’, California Management Review, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 80-100.

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”

As co-founder of this company, Walt Disney received numerous awards and recognitions for his work. He is mostly remembered as the creator of the lovable Mickey Mouse figure, but also as the creator of the Disneyland, considered the most popular theme park in the world (Leadership with You).