At the heart of every great business is a creative solution to a problemand those solutions sometimes change the world. To assemble TIMEs first annual list of Genius Companies, we asked our global network of editors and correspondents to nominate businesses that are inventing the future. Then we evaluated candidates on key factors, including originality, influence, success and ambition. The result: 50 companies that are driving progress now, and bear watching for what they do next.
DISNEY
LEADING THE MAGIC KINGDOM INTO TOMORROWLAND BY BELINDA LUSCOMBE
THREE OR FOUR TIMES A YEAR, DISNEY CEO AND chairman Bob Iger crosses from his office on the Burbank, Calif., lot with a couple of fellow execs to Disney Animation Studios, where rooms have been prepared for them. In each, they are pitched a movie. Sometimes the films are no more than an idea, and the room just has some art boards and a director with a 15-minute plot outline. Others are more elaborate— the room for Frozen 2 included a video from a research trip to Norway, Iceland and Finland, a “tone reel” and a wall of index cards detailing themes and emotional threads. Sounds like fun—except that each room represents a $150 million bet on what, in four or five years, audiences will pay to see.
Iger, 67, is good at picking winners. This is, after all, the man who greenlighted America’s Funniest Home Videos. On his watch, Disney has released five of the top 10 grossing global hit movies of all time, selling a cumulative $8.4 billion worth of movie tickets. And not only did he sign offon those movies, he also spearheaded the purchase of the companies that made them, which requires prophetic skills of a whole different order. Apple CEO Tim Cook says Iger operates a lot like a tech-company CEO. “Both are trying to skate to where the puck is going and not where it is. We’re making calls years in advance.”
This story is from the October 15, 2018 edition of TIME Magazine.
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This story is from the October 15, 2018 edition of TIME Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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