The Strategy Behind Disney’s $160B Empire

Hey founders! 

Happy Friday! Welcome to our weekly newsletter, where we aim to pack tons of value for your business journey in 5 minutes or less. 

Today we’re talking about your favorite childhood brand: Disney. 

Disney's Genius Corporate Synergy

Let’s pause for a second and ask an obvious question: why is Disney so successful?

Well, you can probably name 100 reasons: 

• Great films!

• Fantastic marketing!

• Memorable music! 

The list goes on…

But we’d argue they’re successful for one core reason.

And it’s explained in this image below:

This is a 1957 image of Disney's original corporate strategy. And it’s a masterclass in creating a synergistic ecosystem around a core product. 

In the image you can see at the center are “theatrical films.” Disney’s core business is films (and that hasn’t really changed in 60+ years).

And on the edges of the image, you see words like comic strips, publications, merchandising, and a bunch of others. This is the supporting cast. All the spinoffs that support and uplift the core business. 

But most importantly, you see all the lines crossing and interconnecting. Each feeds into each other. 

And while this image looks complicated, the strategy is actually quite simple (in theory at least).

Hub & Spokes

When Disney makes a movie today, they think beyond the motion picture to how the story can be leveraged in multiple categories. 

Think of it like hub & spokes:

One film becomes dozens of things: 

• Theme park rides

• Action figures

• Musicals

• Merch

• TV shows

But they all point back to the core. And thus increasing the power of the core thing. 

Disney has done this over and over again. 

Think of your favorite Disney franchises: The Lion King, Frozen, Toy Story, etc. They aren’t just movies. They are entire ecosystems that work together to continually build up the brand. 

And with 100s of hit movies and TV shows… it’s no wonder Disney’s market cap sits around $160B.

But let’s look beyond a media giant (which is often hard to relate to) and take a closer look at a business you might be a little more familiar with… 

Tribe’s Strategy

Tribe – this very business! 

Tribe’s core thing is our founder community. Everything we do revolves around making this community the BEST it can be for early-stage founders. 

And we have all sorts of different elements that feed into the core mission: 

Each of these elements is critical on its own. 

But they don’t really mean anything if they’re not supporting and uplifting the core mission. 

We’ve strategically built out (or are starting to build out) each of these elements for our business with the ultimate goal of creating an excellent experience for founders. 

Each element works together as well. Our content helps us secure guest speakers. And guest speakers bring in partnerships. And more partnerships…well, you get the point :) 

We have a core business: the founder community.

And our supporting things solidify the core. 

What’s Your Core Thing? 

And here we get to the most important question in this newsletter: What’s your core product or service? 

Whether you are just starting or scaling, coming back to the core thing is always important. 

But at the same time, what are the “spokes” in your business that are enhancing, improving, and extending the core business? 

It’s not easy, by any means. It takes strategy, execution, and focus.

But when you successfully build out spokes that support the core, you create a sort of flywheel that propels your business to the next level. 

That’s it! Have a fantastic rest of your week,

– The Tribe Team