Walt Disney Vs Ray Kroc

Since the 1930’s, the Walt Disney Company is known for producing characters, images, as well as stories which have created happiness for audiences around the world. This corporation has grown from a small cartoon studio run by famous Walt and Roy Disney to a million dollar business. In Janet Wasko’s novel, “Understanding Disney”, Wasko explains Disney as corporation calling it “The Disney Empire”. Throughout her novel, Wasko argues that Disney is set up like a typical profit seeking corporation, as well as creates and manufactures fantasy, and lastly re-invents folk tales by “Americanising” them.

Imagine yourself as one person trying to totally reinvent the way that families are entertained. I will be talking to you about a farmer that became an animator. A farmer as a visionary leader, impressive. That is the story of Walt Disney. By all rights, Walt Disney was an excellent animator, but he had the self-awareness to know that he could not make his vision a reality on his own. I believe that Walt Disney is a visionary leader and I will show you how he used “Team Building”, “a group organized to work together”, (Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012)(p.2) skills, “Diversity”, “a composite of individuals characteristics, experiences, and abilities”, (Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012)(p.3) skills, and Full Range Leadership Development, “Contingent Reward”, “When the follower fulfills the leader’s expectation, a reward is provide to reinforce the demonstrated positive behavior.”,(Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012),(p.14) skills to inspire people to buy into his vision and motivate others to help him accomplish his vision. I informed you earlier that I believe Walt Disney is a visionary leader, but that doesn’t make him an ethical leader. Through Walt Disney’s violation of “Honest”, “the bottom line is we don’t lie”, (United States Air Force Core Values, 1997), (p.1), “Openness”, “the free flow of

Mickey Mouse may be an iconic figure. However, history has shown that Walt Disney may have actually been a rat. Building his empire of “The Wonderful World of Disney” does not qualify him to be a captain of industry. By definition, a captain of industry is one with positive integrity. Whereas, a robber baron is motivated by greed. As Disney began his ascent, he was like the Pharaoh in his Prince of Egypt production. Believing the end justified the means, Disney plowed over employees, considering their livelihood as part of collateral damage. Disney was a robber baron with a pernicious temper, who harshly controlled employees, and ruled his cast members by intimidation.

He was granted a licence to be a franchisee and opened his first store in Des Plaines near Chicago, Illinois in 1955. By 1959 he and the McDonald brothers had 100 restaurants running. In 1961 Kroc brought the rights of the McDonalds restaurants from the brothers for $2.7 million. 9 years later, he had over 1,000 restaurants in America, Canada and Puerto Rico. Kroc then made the decision to expand stores faster and further away, by 1972 he had opened an additional 1,000 restaurants worldwide.

Background: The history of Walt Disney, and the Disney Corporation, is one shrouded in admiration and accolades for the accomplishment of the American dream. Walt Disney himself is an icon for the American work ethic, i.e., hard work pays off. He is seen as a Horatio Alger, "rags to riches," success story. Beginning his work in animation in the 1920s, Walt Disney gained fame worldwide for his films and theme parks. But Walt Disney created more than films and theme parks. By infusing them with an ideological stance glorifying "the American way of life," his brand of democracy and conservatism, he created a cultural institution. The moralistic stance of his enterprise became common knowledge and it is said that his 1933 version of Three Little Pigs was the last of his cartoons in which the film’s moral messages were open to interpretation [3]

In this chapter, Schlosser talks about the relationship between Ray Kroc and Walt Disney as well as how both men became the men they are today. During the chapter, the many similarities between the two was described. Both Kroc and Disney were born in Illinois a year apart, they served together in World War I, they both dropped out of high school, they both moved to Southern California after the war and They also both became geniuses at marketing their products to children. Schlosser discusses Kroc’s various career choices before being sold the right to franchise McDonald’s. Once Kroc was sold the rights to franchise he sent a Disney a letter, inquiring if there might be room for his restaurant in Disney’s new park (Disneyland) but a deal never

With endless copyright laws and fine lines of right and wrong Eric Faden created a video using short clips from disney animation studios to test the limits of fair use. Walt disney studios is known for suing schools, churches , and public libraries for broadcasting their movies and animations without permission(which is never given). Once again disney has proved their reputation by by filing a lawsuit against eric faden whom abided by the copyright rules. I can only imagine Disney’s lawyers heads spinning off as they watched the “movie”.

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.

Not only with his work with the Ronald McDonald house, Kroc also had a foundation called the Kroc Foundation that supported the research and treatment of alcoholism, diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis (Cicarelli). Not only with this his foundation and Ronald McDonald house, he was a major donor to the Dartmouth Medical School. During his later years the Kroc family is also a major benefactor for many nonprofit organizations in the greater Chicago area which includes the Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Harvard Congregational Church in Oak Park (Cicarelli). In 1978, Kroc suffered a stroke and he had to be put on special medication, but since it could not be used with alcohol he had to enter rehab. On January 14, 1984, five years after his stroke, Kroc died of heart failure at a hospital in San Diego, California. At the time of his death, McDonald’s sales exceeded $8 billion. He was buried at the El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, San Diego (Pace). Also at the time of his death, Kroc’s personal fortune was estimated at around $500

The infamous pair Walt Disney and Ray Kroc may have had more things in common than you thought. They both are both founders of momentous companies that changed America, both hail from Illinois, both born early in the twentieth century, both germaphobes, both have museum to commemorate their life, both served in World War I, both dropped out of high school then founded their own colleges for employees at their establishments, both settled in southern California, both salesmen and lastly both had the same view of American Society. During his time as a salesman

Since Richard and Maurice McDonald founded in 1948, McDonald's has grown from a small restaurant in California into one of the most recognized brands in the world with a chain of outlets that spans the globe. For over 50 years, McDonald's defined the fast food industry while indelibly etching its golden arches logo on the face of both American and global culture through such icons as character Ronald McDonald and the Big Mac sandwich. Millions of people started their very first jobs at McDonalds while even more began to have their eating habits redefined by the chain. Concepts like the drive-thru window were introduced along with the Happy Meal for children in order to provide a fast, affordable, and enjoyable dining. Ray Kroc, saleman

McDonald’s began as a barbeque, and the brothers strictly offered burgers, fries, and pop. Ray Kroc heard about McDonald’s one day and went to visit the restaurant. Kroc was surprised by their efficiency and the quality of the food. Kroc liked the fact that the brothers could focus on the quality of food, due to the limited menu items. Subsequently Kroc realized their success could amount to much more and shared his vision. Kroc told the McDonald brothers that McDonald’s could be a national business serving people across the country. (At this point, Kroc did not even think about being international). Dick and Mac were thrilled with what they heard, so in 1955 Kroc founded the McDonald’s Corporation and opened the first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1960 Kroc had bought exclusive rights to McDonald’s. In 1961, Kroc developed Hamburger University where new employees were trained on how to run a successful McDonald's. Kroc wanted to develop the most efficient methods to store, cook, and sell food, so he had a laboratory built at Hamburger University where students' test different ways to make McDonald's more productive. Hamburger University is still in use today in the search for ways to better McDonald’s. McDonald’s had their first sit-down restaurant in 1962, and then in 1975, McDonald’s had opened their first drive-thru restaurant in Arizona. The first drive-thru restaurant was

Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milk shake maker called the Multimixer. Hearing about the McDonald's hamburger stand in California running eight Multimixers at a time, he packed up his car and headed West. It was 1954. He was 52 years old.

Walt Disney was not strictly in the market for selling ideas and products. A former employee of Disney’s once stated “Walt had the ability to inspire us by selling us on ourselves” (Pahl

A fast-food restaurant made sense from Eisner’s perspective since Disney’s theme parks had already mastered rapid, high-volume food preparation, and, despite somewhat undistinguished food and high prices (or perhaps because of), all its in-park restaurants were extremely profitable. From this inspiration, Mickey’s Kitchen was launched. The first two locations were