Walt disney PDF

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First assignment on company of your choice from the options. This one is on Walt Disney and company...

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Management & Leadership (MGMT 704)

Walt Disney – The Walt Disney company Walt Disney was a successful entrepreneur, animator, cartoonist producer and director. He is known for his creativity and got very famous in the 20th century. Walt Disney is a person that has the highest number of awards and nominations. He holds a total of 22 Academy awards from 59 nominations. He founded The Walt Disney Company along with his brother the company had an annual turnover of 36 billion in 2010. Apart from being an excellent innovator and entrepreneur Walt Disney was also known as an exceptional leader. The qualities that he possesses as a leader are having a good vision, communication skills, boldness. Personality wise he was known to be very humble. His friends referred to him as a perfectionist, inspirational and fearless person. The following were the five qualities that made Walt Disney a good leader:  Having a vision He was a strong believer of having dreams. Walt Disney made sure that his dreams aligned with values, beliefs and integrity. By having a dream and vision he was constantly able to achieve more and grow.  Becoming a leader in the world of animation He worked towards being the best in his line of work. He created memorable animated movies. He used to have his entire team in the studio and act out the scene so that he is able to project what he envisions accurately.

 Salesmanship Having a dream is something everyone can do, but Walt Disney was able to sell his dream and make it come true. One of the incidents were when Walt Disney needed sponsorship for his Autopia attraction, he was able to convince the board of the company with just one meeting as they were drawn towards his passion and enthusiasm. The characteristics that made him a good salesman are honesty, enthusiasm, confidence, courage and persistence.  Building Partnerships The Walt Disney was run by Walt Disney himself and his brother Roy. They made a good duo, as he was creative and artistic where as his brother was a financial advisor. They were able to complement each other and hence made a good team to run a successful business. Walt Disney also had great people skills and believed in working in teams.  Serve others Walt Disney treated his employees as family. He not only respected them but served and was there for them in times of need. This is what separated him from regular employers and made him a leader. He once pushed his disabled friend’s wheelchair around the one of his parks, so that his friend doesn’t miss out on any of the fun others were having. In another instance he became a father figure to his secretary and walked her down the aisle, he also paid for the entire reception. (Pahl, J.,2015)

Qualities of a good leader A leader’s qualities and skill vary from person to person depending on various attributes such as experience, values, culture and perspective. However, these qualities and skills can be worked on. The following are factors that contribute to make a good leader (Gleeson, B., 2016).  Making the hard choice A business owner is required to make a lot of sacrifices, the decisions of a business owner do not only affect his/her personal life but also the life of his/her employees. A good leader would make the right choices while being considerate and keeping the mind the best interest of his//her employees.  Earning the teams respect A good leader is one who is respected by the employees. In order to gain respect a leader must respect his/her employees. A leader must be empathetic and easy to approach.  Motivating A good leader should be able to push his/her employees so that they can bring out their best. True potential of an individual can be brought out leading to improved productivity.  Articulate a Clear Vision A business owner or manager must have clear goals and objectives, once they have a clear vision, they will be able to lead their team towards success.

 Not leading by force A leader shouldn’t force his/her employees to follow him/her. They should try building and maintaining good relationships with their employees, by listening to their problems, being empathetic, motivating them and providing solutions.

Success story of Walt Disney Walt Disney, co-founder of Walt Disney productions and Disneyland was an influential leader of his time. The success he achieved in his lifetime was based on one big thing i.e ‘insight’. He has an amazing flair for drawing, cartoons and animation. He had an insight into what customers wanted. This contributed to his success because he could connect to the mind of his audience. He had all the leadership traits in him. Amongst many characteristics of level five leaders, one thing that made him standout was his ability to go on. Despite of many troubles he faced in the initial stages, he never stopped. Starting from 1920, when he created Mickey Mouse, he never stopped. He never stopped dreaming and went on to pursue his dreams; all this led by his insight. Innovation was another quality of a good leader that Walt Disney possessed. Complacency was not his trait but, yet he continued to work and innovate. There were no boundaries to his imagination. One thing that was unique about Walt Disney was his ability of storytelling [ CITATION The18 \l 1033 ]. A good leader is a good story teller. He was very clear about his ideas and so he could give practical shape to his ideas. His skill of storytelling could be seen in team meetings with executives where he could illustrate his vision. It was also his charm and his ability to create family like environment that made him a good leader. His team could trust him and he displayed a sense of care and belongingness while working. His quote “A man should never neglect his

family for business” [ CITATION Mic16 \l 1033 ] reflects this leadership style of his. He was visionary and ambitious but at the same time he was very compassionate which is what made him a good leader. Walt Disney’s leadership skills explain his success in the industry. His business was successful because of his vision and leadership and as it kept on innovating. Starting from the Mickey Mouse character and to creation of world-famous Disneyland, Walt Disney Company never failed to meet their customer standards. They always believed in creating a magic and they have been doing it successfully. All thanks to the vision they have set; that is to dream and dream big. Walt Disney lay the foundations of this very spectacular company which did extremely well under his leadership. The credit goes to his vision and his dream to entertain people. The business now is under the command of Rober A. Iger. The company is doing great over the years the profits have surged. It is very difficult to maintain the top spot. Walt Disney led the company to its heights. Its current leadership has a huge task to maintain heights and standards set by Walt Disney. But they have been doing extremely well. The company now owns Disney Channel, ABC, Free Form and ESPN as a part of its media network and Disneyland resorts across the World. It also homes Marvel studios and Disney Animation Studios as a part of its business. All its success can be credited to consistently delivering upon their brand promise that is to entertain. Disney provides the content in keeps innovating, they never forget from where they started. The secret to their success is to dream big and achieve big. Under able leadership the company has done it so far with tremendous success and in the near future it is expected that they will continue to rise and shine.

How he changed the industry and world on the whole Walt Disney was the pioneer to start charging a fee to enter a park. He had out of the box idea to create a park that families could go to for entertainment. Nobody had attempted at establishing a huge park with a movie set that was filled with stories, adventures and shows. He taught the world the value of family, dream and failure. Even after having his loan offers rejected several times, he still decided to pursue his vision fearlessly. Walt Disney set the standards for the animation industry and reshaped the future of family entertainment. He tried to keep the stories as realistic as possible to expose the children to music, love, sadness, happiness, villainy, good, evil, death etc. at a very early age in their life. He was also the one to plant the seed of continual staff training and the importance of incorporating the feeling of belongingness among the staff. He also bought in technologies to use that weren’t popular in his days. Disney films have changed the society and culture in America and also around the world.

REFERENCES Gleeson, B. (2016, November 9). 10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2016/11/09/10-unique-perspectiveson-what-makes-a-great-leader/#7c8f0dc55dd1

Michael. (2016, August 10). Leadership Geeks. Retrieved from www.leadershipgeeks.com: http://www.leadershipgeeks.com/walt-disney-leadership/

Pahl, J. (2015, October 15). 5 Leadership Qualities We Learned From Walt Disney. Retrieved from https://blog.cetrain.isu.edu/blog/5-leadership-qualities-we-learned-from-walt-disney

The Walt Disney Company. (2018). Retrieved from www.thewaltdisneycompany.com: https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/#our-businesses

Walt Disney Success Stories. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://successstory.com/people/walter-eliasdisney...