Cover Story
Inventing a better mousetrap
How Anne Sweeney sparks employees to find the next great innovation at Disney Media Networks
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business Los Angeles | May 2008
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Anne Sweeney likes to think about how taking a risk on a cartoon mouse can turn into a $35.5 billion entertainment juggernaut.
That keeps Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and
president, Disney-ABC Television Group, from getting a big head
about how Disney and ABC programs like “Hannah Montana” and
“Grey’s Anatomy” have taken over the television world. Instead,
she focuses on how The Walt Disney Co. was created by a man
with the ingenuity to borrow $500 to start a company in his uncle’s
garage with nothing but a few drawings.
“That’s really how the company started was with great risk and
seizing opportunity, being experimental,” Sweeney says. “You have
to look back at Walt Disney and think, why did he believe that
theme parks for families would work, why did he believe that
these little animated films that starred a mouse would captivate
people? Everyone that signs up to work for Disney has signed up
to be an innovator and has signed up to explore new tasks.”
So Sweeney, who is responsible for the entirety of Disney’s global entertainment and news television properties which
includes, among other things, the ABC Television Network family
has pushed the envelope by growing through innovation.
Disney has stayed ahead of the consumer curve, creating outlets
for its programming through high-tech toys, like iTunes and its
own Web content, while also expanding franchising capabilities.
“I decided a long time ago that not only is change good, but
I’m not afraid to change,” she says. “I think the greater danger
for companies and human beings is not making the changes
and maintaining the status quo.”
Refusing the status quo has kept Disney surging forward. Since
Sweeney took her role in 2004, her group has exploded, growing
from $11.2 billion in ’04 to more than $15 billion in ’07, equaling
roughly 42 percent of Disney’s overall revenue.
Keeping the momentum behind that much growth isn’t easy, so
Sweeney is constantly pushing new angles for fresh ideas on what
consumers want next. Here are a few strategies Sweeney uses to
keep that mentality.
