When one thinks of the Walt Disney Company and all it has to offer, it brings a smile to their face. Believe it or not, the Walt Disney Company has brought countless smiles to millions since 1925. Ever since birth, the company has embraced the filter of satisfaction to its customers creating the “Happiest Place on Earth” philosophy. (Blitz, 2014) In order to maintain this philosophy, the company meticulously capitalizes on strategic tactics to ensure their iconic status never fades away. Popular names such as Mickey Mouse started with Disney, and were the infrastructure of an organization that has now enlarged it’s territory into several entertainment studios, theme parks, products, and other media productions. (Sanders, 2015)
The main purpose
…show more content…
First, a brief history of how the Walt Disney Company was originated will be discussed. Next, the paper will provide the organizational design, which will highlight the 5 sectors in which Walt Disney has been so successful from. Then the paper will prove a SWOT analysis that will present both the external and internal factors of the Walt Disney Company as a whole. From the SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will be brought to the forefront. Lastly, the paper will provide improvements and suggestions to the company objectives and end with the topics of strategy, finance, and global …show more content…
Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.” (Jurevicius, 2013) The mission statement of a company is ideally suppose to possess ten variables in its business plan in order to capitalize on future organizational success. These ten variables are identifying the organization’s customers; products or services; technology; concern for survival; growth and profitability; philosophy; self-concept; concern for public image and concern for employees, which is identified by Fred R. David in the text on pg. 54. We can all vouch that both vision and mission statements are important, but on the other hand we can also agree with the former CEO of IBM, Mr. Louis V Gerstner. He states, “The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.” (Gifford, 2010) I personally believe many would feel the same way toward their organizational vision and mission statements as Mr.
Both, vision and mission statements provide purpose to organizations. Therefore, they should set the foundation for the strategic planning process. However, if and organizations strategic direction evolves, leaders should consider revising the organization’s mission and vision
problems. In a study done on the role of the Walt Disney Company, Vincent Faherty explains
Disney Consumer Products (DCP) is one of the business segments of The Walt Disney Company. DCP was designed to bring new, exciting and intriguing product experiences across many categories –everything from toys and apparel to books and fine art. DCP as a whole is the worlds largest licensor and thinks of its self as liable for bringing the magic of all things Disney into the consumers homes with products they can enjoy anytime of the year. Revenue for Disney Consumer Products for the year of 2014 was at 3.93 million USD.
The Walt Disney Company is a highly diversified media and entertainment company that has been growing by leaps and bounds since its inception in the late 1920’s. In the past few decades, The Walt Disney Company has expanded into numerous markets and diversified its business greatly. The company states that their corporate strategy is targeted at creating high-quality family content, exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and expanding internationally. Upon studying the happenings of the company throughout the years, it is easy to see that the company is executing this strategy well through numerous strategic moves in the industry.
Walt Disney created Disneyland on July 17, 1955, and from this date it was deemed, “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Nearly every child today knows what Disney is and what it represents: imagination. Not all children have the privilege to go to Disneyland, but with the different movies and TV shows now circulating the world, Disney has made an impression on our youth, in the best possible way. Disney represents our children's imagination, creativity, hope, dreams, and debatably the most important one: family bonding time. Walt Disney’s Snow White was one of the first movies to produce retail products, that were distributed before the film release in order to maximize profit, giving Walt Disney the appearance of creating the marketing strategy. One of the most prominent methods of advertising that Disney used, was advertisements directed towards the children alone. For example, when a child would watch Disney’s television show, they would become enveloped and fascinated by what they saw. This would lead to the children asking for their own “little piece of Disney” at home. Disney was able to perfect this method by understanding that in 1955, the majority of the adults were working hard and had no time to spend with their children. Many parents of the working force felt bad for not spending more time with their children which lead to an increase in spending money on their children. Advertisers believed that by “planting the seed” at a young age, the children would not only bring sales now, but as well as in the future. “They have come to believe what RayKroc and Walt Disney realized long ago — a person’s “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two.” (Schlosser 42). For example, our parents grew up going to Disneyland, and now take their own children back to Disneyland, as a tradition from past positive experiences. Walt Disney was able to
The Disney corporation is easily the greatest empire of entertainment in the world thanks to the creator Walt Disney and his brother. Disney’s influence has been great within culture and society and I learned how much of an influence Disney has had through our course this semester. This influence is reflected and broadcasted through the many works and readings that we examined in class. The articles gave me new knowledge about Disney that I was previously unaware of.
[1] Information was mainly taken from the Harvard Business Case Study “The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King”
This case provides a brief history of management conflict and change at Walt Disney Company. Former CEO Michael Eisner was considered to be controversial because of his abrasive style and tendencies toward micromanagement. It was this style that strained several important relationships to the Disney Company. Though his reign as CEO during the 80’s and 90’s helped advance Disney Company, it was his conflicting management style that led to his demise and the beginning of Robert Iger’s epoch at Disney. Since Iger has taken the helm as CEO Disney was ranked 67th in the Fortune 500 list for largest companies, it has become the largest media conglomerate in the world, and relationships and disputes stemming from Eisner have been reconciled.
One of the key factors of the successful diversification is the very strong branding of the name Disney. That the name was famous after the success in the early years made it among other things possible to go into the theme park industry. Evaluated isolated, the theme parks was a success. But when also accounting for the synergies created, the decision to go into this industry was a huge success. It has created a spiral of synergies, where the characters in the movies get more popular due to the parks, as well as the fact that when people are visiting the parks they get stimulated to buy the merchandise. This is just one example of the synergies that exist in Disney. When Michael Eisner took over control in Disney, he kept focusing on same corporate values as earlier, which are quality, creativity, entrepreneurialism and teamwork. These values have been preserved despite of the size of Disney, and are an important factor in sustaining and building the Disney brand.
The Walt Disney Company is the largest entertainment company in the world in terms of revenue. It was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy O. Disney. They started the company, The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where they became the leader in the American animation industry and later working in live action film production, television and their world famous theme parks. Through different acquisitions, they have diversified and now do business in theater, radio, publishing, online media, music and own several television channels (Disney History Institute).
This is a publicly traded company in the US that has been ding quite well in the recent years. The company’s 10k filing for the year 2014. From this statement, the risks facing the company will be identified classified and suggestions made on how best to mitigate them in the subsequent areas. There are various areas that the risks can arise based on the company’s 10k filling (Mertz, 1999).
The company that I choose to explore is The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney started the Disney Brothers studio in 1926, after years of working as a cartoonist. I selected this company due to the fact I am a fan of their products and services. Disney produced some of my favorite films like Aladdin, Hook and The Lion King. After I visited their website, I discovered that Disney owns multiple media outlets, in such areas as film, Internet, music, broadcasting, publishing and recreation. According to Disney’s “The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be the one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, service and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world”. The Disney brand is doing exactly what their mission states.
They include: excellence in leadership, excellence in casting, guest satisfaction, financial results, and repeat business (Coverly, 2013). As it pertains to leadership excellence, Walt Disney is cognizant of the fact that communication is indeed the key driver and foundation for a collaborative culture within the company. Therefore, in this regard, the company encourages the cultivation of collaboration by essentially creating an enabling environment where ideas are spoken without fear of favoritism. Hence, Walt Disney promotes the use of positive language as part of its strategy of fostering leadership and collaboration. The use of positive language lays a basis for the realization of excellence in casting as one of the company’s policies. It is necessary to note that according to Coverly (2013), Walt Disney does not refer to its staff as employees; rather, the company classifies them as casts within the whole business arena. This concept, as Coverly (2013) continues to elaborate, emanates from the cognizance by the company that each employee has an intrinsic and unique role to pay within the company. As such, it is more natural to refer to them as casts, rather than the traditional “employee” notation. This strategy is very influential in generating and sustaining employee motivation which stems
Whit the rise of globalization and technology companies are looking for every advantage to gain a strategic advantage. Having a vision, mission and values statement are one way companies have attained these advantages. A vision is a long term aspiration of where the company wants to go. A mission is a long term goal, which is directed toward the stakeholders, and shows what the company wants to accomplish. Values are the principals on which the company operates. Having Vision, Mission and Value statements in place not only gives employees direction but it lets everyone else know what your company is about. Leaders within organizations who have these statements need to ensure full support so the company can continue to maintain a competitive
Most successful firms spend millions on building a strong brand image. Disney must continue to expand the brand at every opportunity and keep the focus on its image. The creative energy of Walt Disney himself must exist throughout the organization. Disney can’t afford to lose its “magic” as the stakes are too high. So far, Disney is a textbook example of marketing genius. The mantra “Think local, act global” is a winning strategy for Disney since their product has a market all over the world. Everyone loves being entertained and escaping to a fantasy world every now and then.