The #1 Reason Disney Is Failing
The #1 reason Disney has been failing as of late is because they have a buyer’s mentality rather than a builder’s mentality.
I issue you a challenge.
Buy Walt Disney’s biography & read it.
Once you’re done, buy Bob Iger’s autobiography and read it.
What is the #1 difference you noticed between these 2?
‘Hm… I can’t quite put it into words.’
I’ll summarize the difference:
- Walt led with the builder’s mentality while Bob led with the acquirer’s mentality.
Rise of Walt Disney
The founder of a company has a relationship with the company that others cannot fathom.
The founder loves the company.
By love, I mean they are willing to go through the ups and downs of the company.
Creativity is born from necessity and desperation.
When you are starting a company, you’ll be failing a lot.
Walt Disney understood this.
He initially drew still images for newspaper ads.
Then he began making cartoons.
Since he was so ahead of his time, no one wanted his cartoons.
He had to struggle for years before he found a distributor.
It took years longer until he created the iconic Mickey Mouse.
After Mickey Mouse, Walt wanted to create the first-ever full-length animation film.
This had never been done.
Cartoons were seen as a gag before.
Would an audience really sit through an entire movie??
YES.
Walt Disney pioneered cartoon films.
More time went on, and Walt created a world where others could meet his creations.
Disneyworld was the name.
Whenever Walt’s back was against the wall, he had a simple philosophy:
- Innovate your way out of it.
Bob Iger’s Rise to the Top
Calling Bob Iger a spoiled rich kid would be a mistake.
The man paid his dues.
He spent 30 years grinding his way to becoming Disney’s CEO.
But rather than being known for innovation, Bob Iger’s bread and butter was deal-making.
He acquired Pixar from Steve Jobs.
He went on to acquire Marvel Studios.
Eventually, he acquired the Star Wars franchise.
These 3 acquisitions made Bob Iger the Golden Boy CEO.
He was a master of soft skills and making others feel heard.
Bob saw that Netflix was succeeding in streaming and thought that the future of Disney was in streaming.
So, he changed the direction of the Disney company and made them invest in building a streaming platform.
I would say building a personalized streaming platform for Disney was the closest Bob got to innovating.
Other than that, he bought other people’s innovations.
The Politicization of Disney
Here’s the problem with Disney nowadays:
- They don’t create anything new!
They keep remaking movies from the past.
Live-action Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Snow White.
They tinker with the classics by adding a political twist to it.
“Let’s make Snow White Spanish rather than white! Latinas are underrepresented in the film industry.”
If Walt Disney was still alive, he would say:
‘Rather than make a white girl, Spanish…How about we innovate a Latina main character for a film?’
Innovators want to build, while acquirers want others to build.
The danger of having others build for you is that you need to embrace their political ideologies.
If you don’t, then they will not build for you.
Disney needs to return back to its roots.
Create cartoons that will stand the test of time by focusing on evergreen narratives.
Not narratives concocted by CNN, MSNBC, and FOX.
Will Disney Survive?
I’m still bullish on Disney.
I believe they will survive.
Whenever a company has history, that means they have already gone through the ups and downs.
Around the 80s, Disney was failing before Michael Eisner came in and turned the company around.
Apple too…
By the end of the 90s, many thought Apple was going to be dead in a few years.
And here we are in 2023, and Apple is the world’s most valuable company.
Disney can rise again.
I believe it.
But what they need to do is focus on the stories.
Quit trying to recreate the classics in a modern way.
Keep the classics the classics.
Disney needs to be more desperate.
The problem with them is they have the mentality of:
‘Why innovate when we can go back to our library?’
Stop going back to your library!
Envision that the library isn’t there.
Y’all never created Snow White, Lion King, Mulan, etc.
NOTHING.
Now what?
What are your moves?
Paint yourself in a corner.
Be desperate.
In that desperation, fascinating ideas will emerge.
Lesson for All Content Creators
I believe Disney’s recent stumble should teach all content creators the following lesson:
- Do not outsource your ideas.
When you outsource your ideas, your countdown to doom begins.
I recently coined the phrase, ‘Ghostwriting Epidemic.’
This is what I call the bubonic plague of the internet.
Where content creators are partnering up with ghostwriters to have their content written for them.
They outsource the content creation to focus on the “bigger things.”
My question is.
- What exactly are the bigger things you’re focusing on?
That’s a mistake.
You never outsource the content.
You can outsource proofreading, audio cleanup, thumbnail design, etc.
But never outsource the idea generation.
When you put the future of your brand in the hands of ghostwriters, you never know when the ghostwriters will turn woke.
One day, you read your blog and see a piece published by “you” that you vehemently disagree with.
‘What the heck, something doesn’t seem right.’
Then you scroll back to the prior blog.
The one before that..
And the one before that…
All crap that you vehemently disagree with!!
What has the ghostwriter done?
Nowadays, you don’t even agree with your own company!!
The brand has been polluted.
This pollution is what Disney is going though.
They tried to buy so much talent that now they are desperately trying to cultivate some talent.
Disney can still make a comeback.
Hopefully, their recent downfall hammers home the following point:
- Never outsource idea generation!!
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