Story is the foundation of everything

As we ‘celebrate’ Force Friday, where consumers are in a frenzy snapping up new Star Wars toys, it’s good to remember that it all starts with story. It’s no surprise that Disney — which owns Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilms — understands this. Check out Walt Disney’s organizational chart back from the days Walt himself headed up the company:

Notably missing from the chart is a big fat circle named MERCHANDISE. Nobody knows merchandise better than Disney and in one way of thinking, Star Wars is not so much a movie franchise, as a toy franchise.

Takeaway: Stories are intellectual properties which can literally reap billions of dollars of revenues for corporations like Disney. And if story is the foundation for everything, as evidenced by its pole position in Walt’s chart, that means storytellers are a critical piece of the puzzle. So when you see this:

Remember… that piece of merchandise was created by a writer and their words.

HT to Deborah Kawaguchi for sending this tweet my way.