In talking about the Florida Project, Walt Disney said, “Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland...the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine.” Walt was, of course, talking about acreage. But there is another way size helped the Walt Disney Company and CEOs Michael Eisner and Bob Iger deserve credit for it.

Walt Disney died in 1967. His brother Roy died three months after Walt Disney World’s 1971 grand opening. Without Walt and Roy at the helm, their company became stagnant. Walt Disney World and Disneyland still made money but elsewhere, especially in film production, the company was failing. Too busy trying to repeat past successes and asking themselves what Walt would do, Disney leaders did very little. BY the 1980s, Walt Disney Productions was vulnerable to a takeover. Corporate raiders, seizing the opportunity, swooped in for the kill and almost succeeded.

Part of the fallout from that battle was the replacement of prior management with Michael Eisner in 1984. Once hired, Eisner, with an assist from his number two Frank Wells, embarked on an aggressive company growth plan. Recognizing that theme prices had stagnated, they launched substantial price increases. They built out Walt Disney World, adding 20+ Hotels, 2 theme parks, 2 water parks and 2 night time districts. They also built additional Disney resorts in Paris and China and launched the Disney Cruise Line. Film production was greatly, and successfully, expanded. The purchase of Capital Cities gave the company control of ABC TV, ESPN and a stake in several other networks. All this activity, and much more—including the purchase of the Muppets and integrating Arvida Development into the company—greatly expanded the company’s reach, offerings, size and profits.

Bob Iger succeeded Eisner as CEO in 2005. He aggressively continued and accelerated the expansionist trend by buying Pixar, Marvel, Lucas Films (home of Star Wars and Indiana Jones) and the 20th Century Fox film division. In a visionary move, he expanded into the digital space with Disney+. 

The result of this aggressive 35 year push from both Eisner and Iger is an entertainment giant with so much content it could launch Disney+ and immediately become a serious competitor to Netflix. But the key benefit of this expansion, and a major reason for it, is that it makes it extremely difficult for a corporate raider to take over the company. It’s almost too big to swallow.

That matters because in the era of COVID-19, Disney’s financial picture has drastically deteriorated, and the company continues to lose billions of dollars each quarter. In normal times, the company would be ripe for takeover. That has not happened and the Eisner/Iger strategy of aggressive expansion should be thanked for it.

Some questions we might, based on this case study, ask ourselves include:

• Do I, and my business, think years ahead?
• Do I know what my, and my organizations, potential weaknesses are?
• Am I addressing those long term issues?
• Am I, in essence, planning for a rainy day?

The time to purchase an umbrella is before you need it.