...Accountability and Rhetoric during a Crisis: Walt Disney’s 1940 Letter to Stockholders Joel H. Amcrnic UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO and Russell J. Craig AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY ACCOUNTABILITY AND RHETORIC DURING A CRISIS: WALT DISNEY’S 1940 LETTER TO STOCKHOLDERS Abstract: In 1940, Walt Disney was faced with crafting a message of corporate accountability under duress. His company, the product of his creative genius, had been forced to submit to public accountability. It had a pressing need to raise preferred equity finance for a major expansion during a period of market uncertainty, war, and reported losses. This paper conducts a “close reading” of the “Letter to Stockholders” in Walt Disney Productions’ 1940 annual report, the first such letter signed by Walt Disney. The letter’s rhetorical features, including metaphor and ideology, are examined in the context of the times. What is revealed is an accountability document skillfully crafted with the exigencies faced by Disney’s company firmly in mind. The letter offers suggestive insight to the world as Disney made sense of it. The paper contributes to understanding the use of rhetoric by top management in activities related to aspects of financial accountability and reporting. It also helps to understand better a significant public persona of the 20th century, Walt Disnev. Acknowledgment The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewers. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES Analysis of annual reports, including letters...
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...Disney and the American Princess: The Americanization of European Fairy Tales [pic] Marina Alexandrova Student number 3021874 MA Thesis, American Studies Program Utrecht University Course code 200401064 23943 words 12 August 2009 Contents Title page………………………………………………………………1 Contents……………………………………………………………….2 Introduction……………………………………………………………3 Chapter 1: European Fairy Tales and Values about Gender and Class………………………………………10 Chapter 2: Disney Animation and American Culture…………………24 Chapter 3: Disney Animation and (Gender) Commodification…………………………………………..55 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...73 Bibliography…………………………………………………………78 Introduction Among the various aspects which define contemporary life, popular culture – and in particular, American popular culture – is undoubtedly one of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting. Throughout the twentieth century, people around the world have enjoyed film, music, animation, and written works by various authors and artists. One of the most famous and significant American entertainers of the lot has been Walt Disney, introducing millions of children and adults to his world of limitless (or so is widely believed) imagination and magic, from the earliest short cartoons produced in the 1920s, to full-length feature animations such as Snow White and the Seven...
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...ULMS 157 Recruitment, Selection and Performance Management at Epcot Theme Park Introduction This case study examines the concept and management of performance in organizations. In organization and management studies the word performance has two meanings (Fineman, Sims and Gabriel, 2005). On the one hand it simply refers to how well individuals are doing the tasks, duties and job responsibilities assigned to them, whether or not they are achieving output targets and productivity goals, product and service quality standards and meeting customer expectations. It is also refers to personal performance, how well a person is doing in achieving the goals they set for themselves. On the other hand the word performance also relates to how people at work conduct or, more specifically, present themselves to others; how they interact with fellow employees, management, clients, customers, the general public, and so on. In this context the concept of performance takes on a rather different meaning. It refers to how everyday behaviour in organizations is about ‘putting on a performance’. In recent years this latter use of the term ‘performance’ has become increasingly popular in organizational and management studies, and is widely used to illustrate how the nature of everyday behaviour and social interaction at work - verbal and non-verbal communication, such as greetings gestures, posture, etc. - are essentially performances. ’The presentation of self in everyday life’ (Goffman, 1959:...
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...Sell a story…tell a product. Storytelling has been one of the oldest arts in the human history, ¿Why we would use something that old for an innovating idea? Stories are carried with feelings, and sensations, they transport you to an exact place where you can feel the cold air in your cheeks, you can smell the roses, and hear the rush of the water. The key Word: Emotions. Times in Marketing has changed, in the last years the strategy was cold and undirected to the costumer, now marketing is trying to reconnected with them. By telling a story, you start with “Once upon a time” creating a background so the person that will be hearing your story feels that he is part of that beginning, he satisfies his necessity of belonging, so as the story keep growing he will feel identify and emotionally correspond with the story of the brand and not just to the product. The Brand Storytelling is giving the costumer more than a product to or a bunch of numbers and statistics. The idea is humanizing brands through the power of Storytelling. Storytelling and marketing share a common goal - to create communication that is interesting and encourages a specific reaction. Organizational consultants and managers have also discovered the power of storytelling in organizations. A good story of organizational transformation in one organization might motivate similar organizations to change as well; also, the informal stories people tell to each other about organizational norms, policies and...
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...Red Feather Journal 73 “Be Sure You're Right, Then Go Ahead”: The Davy Crockett Gun Craze by Sarah Nilsen In April 2005, sixty thousand members of the National Rifle Association gathered in Houston, Texas for their 134th Annual Meeting. The keynote speaker for the event was embattled U.S. House Majority Leader, Representative Tom De Lay. After his speech, De Lay was joined on stage by Lee Hamel dressed as Davy Crockett in full buckskin attire and a coonskin hat. Hamel presented De Lay with a handcrafted flintlock rifle that he had made for the event with his mentor, Cecil Brooks. The presentation of the reproduction rifle to De Lay is part of a long NRA tradition that began in 1955 when Walt Disney‟s Davy Crockett series first appeared on television. When Charlton Heston received his handcrafted flintlock rifle in 1989, he uttered his famous words, “From my cold dead hands.” President Ronald Reagan and Vice President Dick Cheney also joined the list of those who received facsimile Davy Crockett flintlock rifles from a man dressed in Crockett buckskin attire. This tradition is part of the NRA‟s efforts to represent the gun as a key instrument in the founding of the United States. It secured this ideological representation in part by appropriating the mythology of early American heroes like Davy Crockett. Davy Crockett became emblematic of the gun mythology of early American life. This mythology was synergized by the NRA and popularized through children‟s television...
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...Module 10 . LearningAcross Bord.ers: Disneyland. theMore on Ml0-25 DisneyGoesto Tokyo Crossingthe Pacific In the mid-I970s, the Oriental Land Company, a ]apanese development company that owned a large tract oflandfill east ofTokyo zoned for pubIic leisure activities, approached Disney with the idea of building a Disneyland in lapan. Six hundred acreswere set asidefor the project. But, in an era of conservative (caretaking) management at Walt Disney Productions, senior executivesat Disney were hesitant. After all, lapan was far away, quite distant in terms of culture, and Tokyo not only had much colder winters than California or Florida but endured a lengthy rainy seasonin lune and July. Yet, after exploring alternativeoptions at some length (including other sitesin Asia), Disney decided to go ahead. Nevertheless,it insisted on a deal that left Oriental Land with virtually all of the risk. Instead of taking an ownership position in Tokyo Disneyland, Disney demanded royalties of I0 percent of the revenues from admissions and rides, and 5 percent of the receiptsfiom food, beverages,and souvenirs. Disney also asked for and more or less received artistic control of the park. Its partner, with its experience in developmer-rt projects in Tokyo, looked after the complex relationships with local planning and regulatory authorities, financing, and adjacent development. At first glance,Tokyo Disneyland seemsto be a close physical and social copy of Disneyland...
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...camera angles, striking film noir–style lighting, nonlinear storytelling, montages, and long deep-focus shots were considered technically innovative for the era. Over time, Citizen Kane became revered as a masterpiece, and in 1997 the American Film Institute named it the Greatest American Movie of All Time. “Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound,” film critic Roger Ebert wrote.1 CHAPTER 6 ○ MOVIES 185 (c) Bedford/St. Martin's bedfordstmartins.com 1-457-62096-0 / 978-1-457-62096-6 MOVIES A generation later, the space epic Star Wars (1977) changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George Lucas, departed from the personal filmmaking of the early 1970s and spawned a blockbuster mentality that formed a new primary audience for Hollywood— teenagers. It had all of the now–typical blockbuster characteristics like massive promotion and lucrative merchandising...
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...S HONG KONG DISNEYLAND w 907M13 Michael N. Young and Donald Liu wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca. Copyright © 2007, Ivey Management Services Version: (A) 2007-08-27 September 12, 2006, marked the one-year anniversary of the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD). Amid the hoopla and celebrations, media experts were reflecting on the high points and low points of HKD’s first year of operations, including several controversies that had generated some negative publicity. At a press conference and interview to discuss the first year of operations, Bill Ernest, HKD’s executive vice-president, acknowledged that the park had learnt a lot from its experiences and that the problems had made it stronger. Ernest also announced that HKD attendance...
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...JÖNKÖPING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL JÖ NKÖ PING UNIVERSITY Market ing Str ategic C hange in Expansion of D isneyland : Cases Study of Disneyland’s Overseas Expansion in Shanghai Master Thesis in Business Administration Author: Li Zhu & Dan Xu Tutor: Tomas Mü llern Jö ping nkö August 2010 Master Thesis Acknowledgements First of all, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our tutor Mr. Tomas Mü llern. Thanks to his guidance and valuable suggestions, we correct our mistake on time and finish our thesis in the end. From the first meeting to the last one, you are always concern us and the process of our writing. Every time, we handed in chapters, you always provided useful opinion to let us revise the thesis better and better. We thank you for patient guiding and providing us a good opportunity in our study to learn more and more. Secondly, we would like to thank Mr. Zhang and Edward. Thank you for taking time to find interviewees of our interview. You are busy with your own job, but you still use your private time to help us. You also share your experience about contacting skills with us. Last but not the lease, we are thankful to our families and friends who were helping and supporting us during this writing period. Li Zhu & Dan Xu Jö ping University nkö 2010 i|Page Master Thesis Master’s Thesis in Business Administration Title: Marketing Strategic Change in Expansion of Disneyland Authors: Li Zhu & Dan...
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...Year 2011 Annual Financial Report And Shareholder Letter January 2012 Dear Shareholders, Fiscal 2011 was a year of great accomplishment for The Walt Disney Company, marked by creativity and innovation across our businesses globally, record financial results and numerous important steps to position the Company for the future. While 2011 brought us so much to cheer about, it was also marked by profound loss, with the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve’s incredible stewardship of Pixar, and his decision to sell Pixar to Disney in 2006, brought Steve into the Disney family, as a board member, a shareholder, a mentor, and a friend, and we were so lucky for all that he represented and all that he contributed. Disney, ESPN, ABC, Pixar, and Marvel are an amazing collection of brands that grow stronger every day as new platforms and new markets provide enormous new opportunities for high quality content and experiences. To that end, we are fortunate to have a talented group of employees who are committed day in and day out to building our brands around the world. Since becoming President and CEO in 2005, I have focused on three strategic priorities: creating high-quality family content, making experiences more memorable and accessible through innovative technology, and growing internationally. In fiscal 2011, net income attributable to Disney was a record $4.8 billion, an increase of 21% over last year, and revenue was a record $40.9 billion, up 7% from last year. Diluted earnings per share...
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...citizens and promote democratic ideals through the spread of information. Additionally, the media system itself should be democratic in its own construction shying away from private ownership or intense regulation. Media democracy entails that media should be used to promote democracy as well as the conviction that media should be democratic itself; media ownership concentration is not democratic and cannot serve to promote democracy and therefore must be examined critically. The concept, and a social movement promoting it, have grown as a response to the increased corporate domination of mass media and the perceived shrinking of the marketplace of ideas. The term also refers to a modern social movement evident in countries all over the world which attempts to make mainstream media more accountable to the publics they serve and to create more democratic alternatives The concept of a media democracy follows in response to the deregulation of broadcast markets and the concentration of mass media ownership. In their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, authors Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky outline the propaganda model of media, which...
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...AN OVERVIEW ON BRANDING – IMAGE BUILDING BY BRISHTI PANNA M.F.TECH. MANAGEMENT PREFACE This Minor Project is basically to introduce myself to the basic concept of “Image –Building” in branding. I took this topic for my minor project as I am keenly interested to the field of branding. I was fascinated with the fact that how pure business is so related with human psychology and its application. I have chosen concept of Image Building and I have tried to cover the few areas as follows: a) What is Brand? b) What is Branding? c) How to create an image for a Brand? d) Importance of innovation in terms of sustaining a Brand for a long term. TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 5 HISTORY OF BRANDING 6 WHAT IS BRAND 7 WHAT IS BRANDING 7-8 WHY BRANDING IS SO IN 9-12 PRIMAL CODE 13-20 FIVE DICIPLINE 21-27 INNOVATION AND RENOVATION 28-30 REFERENCES 31 INTRODUCTION Talking about branding is like talking about leadership. There are coaches and courses which...
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...Mary VII. Conclusion I. Introduction For thousands of years, humanity has turned to the Bible to answer questions of how and why we are here. At the dawn of a new millenium, popular culture has shifted away from ancient stories like those in the Bible. Thankfully, more recent tales influenced by the Gospels have emerged to fulfill this craven desire. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is one such book. It offers a mythological explanation of the apparent chaos, pain, disappointment, horror and violence of the world in terms of the struggle between good and evil. Taking this into consideration, a closer look at the The Lord of the Rings reveals grim and glorious lessons that can be learned. The works of Tolkien have been almost universally embraced by literate Christians who have long recognized the richness and beauty of Tolkien’s Middle-earth as well as the profound influence of his Christian faith upon the shape of his imaginary world. On the other hand, it may be read and enjoyed without reference to any theology whatsoever. It succeeds mainly as an exciting tale, but a full appreciation of Tolkien’s accomplishment requires some sense of what lies behind the book. It is one thing to find a connection between Tolkien’s tales and some other story based on inference and perceived pattern, and it is another thing entirely for the author to make a concrete connection between stories. Similarity is totally different than equivalence. “The Lord of the Rings...
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...Josh Brophy Personal Narrative The “It” Factor “I heard you got another A in one of your summer classes. Good job.” “Thanks. Everything is finally looking up. Mom said I’ve earned another shot up at University Park. Dad is still being stubborn, but he’ll come around eventually. I haven’t been this happy since high school.” “Seems like it. You better make the most of it.” “I will. I have to.” “If you don’t mind me asking…where were you the past year?” “Lost.” “What do you mean?” “I wish I knew.” “You know—I went to Penn State too—was there for 8 years and 3 degrees. I knew many of the most talented and brilliant people there. Professors, students, and—“ “You were one of them.” “—and you are too. You’re just as talented as any of them, including me.” “I know Mark, I agree with you.” “Then…can I ask you something?” “Is that rhetorical?” “How badly do you want to succeed?” “As badly as you did…as badly as you still do.” “Then why were you struggling so much? “Because I just wasn’t…me.” “For how long?” “—the past two years.” “So…help me understand what you’re talking about?” “You already know everything that’s happened with me...it’s all been in our conversations; little bits here—small pieces there. You’re smart enough to put it all together—and I know you already have. I’m done thinking about what’s happened in the past. I’ve already moved on.” “Fair enough.” August 22nd, 2012. I didn’t speak to anyone on the two hour ride to State College, but there...
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...FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING BIOGRAPHIES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND ALBERT EINSTEIN, THIS IS THE EXCLUSIVE BIOGRAPHY OF STEVE JOBS. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing offlimits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and...
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