Walt Disney

"“I’m not sure if going into live-action film gives us any advantages,” I said. “In animation we put all our eggs in one basket, and we watch it very closely. In live action we spread out the eggs over many baskets, hoping a few of them will hatch. Both businesses are risky. I’m not sure one balances or helps the other.” “It might even be the opposite,” Steve said. “If we have to release a slate of live-action films, what’s to stop the ones that flop from damaging our reputation in animation?” “That’s true,” I agreed. “Walt Disney only went into live-action film after he was established in animation.” “I hate the idea of Pixar releasing products that might not be great,” Steve added emphatically."

"Carrying costs are the costs of paying employees when they are not working on films. When animation finished on Toy Story, for example, Pixar still had to pay its animators even if it had nothing for them to do. I was learning that carrying costs could drain a little company like Pixar of all profitability. It was a problem that had dated all the way back to the time of Walt Disney, and one of the reasons it was so difficult to go into animation. This problem did not exist in live-action film because the crew making the film, from the producer and director to the film’s stars, to the cameramen, extras, and everyone else, comes together for the sole purpose of making the film. They are paid only during the time they are involved. As soon as that ends, they all disperse and there is no further obligation to pay them."

"The solution was to find a way to diminish the risk that a small disappointment might cause the stock to plummet. There were two ways to do this. One was to use Pixar’s highly valued stock to purchase other companies. The effect of purchasing other companies would be to diversify from animation so that if animation experienced a downturn, it would not have as devastating an impact on the company. Diversification had been Walt Disney’s strategy all those many years earlier. The other way to diminish the risk was to seek a buyer for Pixar. If a large corporate conglomerate were to buy Pixar, Pixar’s stockholders would exchange their Pixar stock at its present soaring value for the stock of the larger corporation where they would enjoy much greater diversification. Over the years, Steve and I had speculated occasionally on how Pixar might ultimately end up being purchased by Disney, but we had never taken this on as a serious possibility."

"To me, it is the epitome of what America is all about. It is that thing that Walt Disney was doing with his characters. It is that thing that makes us look back on Shirley Temple nostalgically. Forgive me if I talk that way about it. But it’s sort of like a love affair with Gulf-[-Western and with America. Yes, you can call that sentimental, but that’s what made America."

"∆OQ = 0. This means that W anticipates that their entry into N will cause no additional volumes losses in their base business O. Then δ = 0. This would result in SLM = 0 so there is no CP. What is going on, of course, is that there is simply no collateral damage. Thus a commonly observed behavior is that Counter-Positioned incumbents will seek customer segments in which they induce no additional loss of O customers by offering N. For example, a Financial Times article of Oct. 24, 2015: Walt Disney’s most beloved characters and stories are going digital in a new streaming service that launches in the UK next month. DisneyLife bundles books and music with its animated and live action films, making Disney the biggest media company yet to stream its content directly to consumers online. Disney will expand the service across Europe next year, with the goal of launching in France, Spain, Italy and Germany, and would add content as it becomes…"

"Undeterred by the rejection, Godtfred continued working on the idea and only made it even bigger. If Walt Disney could captivate people to visit Disneyland, which was a huge success, why shouldn’t LEGO be able to do the same with the great interest there was? It was also one of the last times he asked a bank for assistance."

"Here are examples of pool vehicles the players used. For Bill Bain, it was the theories of business strategy that had been originated by the Boston Consulting Group. BCG put its ideas such as the Boston Box out into the public domain to build reputation and sell business. When Bill Bain started Bain & Company, he was able to use all BCG’s concepts. They were high-octane stuff, fuelling a whole new industry. Jeff Bezos also used the BCG ideas to develop his philosophy for Amazon, especially dominant market share, and lowest costs and prices. Bezos also benefitted from two other pool vehicles – internet retailing and ‘Californian Venture Capital Syndrome’, which values growth above short-term profits, supporting Amazon’s losses for long years, allowing a focus on customer experience and low prices. Otto von Bismarck rode the rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century. This was his pool vehicle to turn Germany from a fragmented cluster of dozens of independent states into a unified superpower dominating central Europe. The popularity he gained by his unification of Germany pleased the liberal politicians and William, the Prussian King, and kept Bismarck in power for a generation. Winston Churchill’s pool vehicle was the rise of German National Socialism, Hitler’s murderous anti-Semitism, and his own opposition to them. An environmental factor does not have to be appeased or promoted; it can also be a pool vehicle when it is opposed first or most vigorously. Marie Curie’s pool vehicle was the new field of x-rays and radiation. The two pool vehicles which Walt Disney exploited so well were the rise of animated cartoons and, later, the rise of amusement parks. Disneyland was in many ways the opposite of traditional amusement parks, which Walt disdained as ‘nasty, dirty places run by hard-faced men’. Without their existence he would probably not have had the idea for a pristine and uplifting park idealising the best of American small-town values. Leonardo da Vinci would not have been Leonardo if he had not been born where and when he was. Renaissance Florence was his pool vehicle. Bob Dylan’s pool vehicle was the early 1960s folk movement in New York City, with its liberal-protest values, and self-importance, epitomised by his relationship with Joan Baez. He rode them until he became famous, then dumped them sharpish. Albert Einstein benefited from the…"

"But my man Goldenson was clearly intrigued, and he patiently waited for all the noise to quiet down. After a moment of slow contemplation, he said softly, “Yes, I can see the risks, but it’s at least a fresh idea. Maybe we should explore this and I could help by going out to California and see if we can get some of the major studios to finance and produce them and thereby lay off some of the risk.” That was a shock to the prosaic system: the chairman was going to engage directly in programming—something he hadn’t done since Walt Disney came to visit him in 1954 to discuss his idea for Disneyland (ABC took an early stake in the park and put Disney’s first series on the air)."

"By the time I started, it was clear I wasn’t going to bring Michael Eisner with me, and because Disney was so alluring, Michael was able to get most of the Paramount executives over with him. I wasted weeks trying to convince them that Fox would be better for them, but by then Michael was able to show them that Disney had these extraordinary hidden assets that hadn’t been tapped since Walt Disney died."