Dream Bigger, Disney Exploring the Walt Disney Company’s Future Role in Planetary Politics

Abstract

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most powerful, innovative and influential companies in the whole world. A pioneer in many respects, the Walt Disney Company has led the way in the entertainment industry for decades. This paper begins by analyzing the origins of the Walt Disney Company, with a particular focus in Walt Disney’s creative vision that led to incredibly innovative developments in the entertainment industry. It also explores the gradual decline of creative risks taken by the company after Walt Disney’s death, which may have helped the company navigate through tough financial times but also made it lose its revolutionary role and influence as a creative pioneer. Leading into the present, the paper explores CEO Bob Iger’s techniques and leadership trajectory including international park expansion and numerous company acquisitions that have helped Disney regain its financial, influential and dominant footing in the entertainment space. Its primary hypothesis centres on the crossroads that the Walt Disney Company has currently reached between its present and future role. It also demonstrates another hypothesis that the company now has the influence and financial capacity to revive its role as a creative visionary in entertainment, and establish its role in global governance by focusing its new position in corporate climate action. The paper follows these goals and hypotheses and draws conclusions that follow this trajectory from extensive research. What is most interesting about this piece is that it explores the climate crisis and the ramifications of planetary politics in global governance through the lens of one company.