Disney Strategic Initiative
Intro
Strategic planning or long range planning determines where Disney is going in the next few years or more and what initiatives they will use to arrive there. Strategic analysis is just one of the three major steps to be performed in achieving a solid plan. As Disney encounters major issues such as the current state of the economy or positive opportunities, the planners must come to careful conclusions. To reach such conclusions we will have to examine a strategic direction; which will include strategic goals the organization should achieve and the overall strategies use to achieve them. The current financial state of the company should be included in the planning process. A few key steps with the financial aspect of strategic planning are developing financial goals, alternative courses of action, evaluating risk, implementing a financial action plan, and reevaluating your plan. At some point in this process senior planners will need to identify or update the strategic philosophy. This is accomplished by simply updating the mission, vision, and values statement to be aligned with the strategic plan. We will begin reviewing Disney’s strategic and financial planning initiatives by first examining the annual report.
Section 2b-1
“Some deft observer of the laws of physics as well as economics once said that the two most powerful forces in the world are gravity and the time value of money, (http://www.finance.cch.com/text/c10s10d020.asp).” Time Value of Money is an initial building block for financial planning, and Disney must have a complete understanding of this concept in order to achieve financial security throughout this strategic initiative. The TMV concept allows Disney to quantify their goals in dollar amounts by using five “variables” that interrelate in any given situation. Present and future value, number of compounding periods, interest rate, and periodic payment amount are the variables that can measure the impact of cost for Disney’s initiative.
By analyzing the basic elements of time value of money Disney can compute the net value of a major project or shift in strategy. To help determine the opportunity cost for such projects or strategies the company can look to measure its future value and adjust for inflation. After reviewing the past 3 year’s statements, operating cost has risen 2% from 2006 to 2007, and risen 6% from 2007 to 2008*, it is important to note that all of the 2008 Q4 data is not complete since the quarter is still ongoing (http://corporate.
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.
This study intended to observe the behavior of characters in Disney movies in order to examine their potential influence on the development of gender roles in society’s youth. First, we were interested in determining whether or not, Disney products do in fact contain characters that portray gender stereotypical behaviors as has been discovered in previous studies. If we were able to determine that stereotypical gender behaviors are present in Disney tales, then we would like to build off of previous studies. Therefore, next we attempted to analyze whether the characters in these movies have any fluidity in their behavior in that is either gender more likely to cross over and exhibit
The financial analysis provides the information on the company's financial data in operations. Based on the research, we are able to conclude that Toys "R" Us is a fundamentally strong firm in the industry, and the top toy retailer around the global. In the past five decades, the company has hardly experienced any serious financial difficulties; and it's been growing steadily in terms of both market share and market value.
When testing if a corporate strategy is leading the company to success, there are techniques that can be used to project data collected from the company. Long term attractiveness, competitive strength, and the nine cell industry attractiveness/business strength matrix are used to highlight strategic positions of each business in a diversified company. The industry attractiveness gages the prospects for long-term performance. Competitive strength measures how strong the units are positioned in a business in their industry. Lastly, the nine cell industry attractiveness/business strength matrix merges information on attractiveness and competitiveness to show where in the industry does a unit fit when it comes to long-term success. Walt Disney
As financial consultants, we have been asked by Walt Disney’s management to provide an evaluation of this alternative to the company for this financing decision. For this estimate, we have reviewed the data of the Consolidated Income Statements from 1982 to 1983, the Consolidated Balance Sheets of 1984 and 1983, the Historical Summary of Average Yen/Dollar Exchange Rates and Price Indexes, ECU/Yen Swap flows in the following ten years, Yen Long-dated foreign exchange forward, Cash flow of 10-year ECU Euro bonds with sinking fund (Exhibit 6), and also the list of the French Utility’s outstanding publicly Traded Eurobonds.
Disney’s long-run success is mainly due to creating value through diversification. Their corporate strategies (primarily under CEO Eisner) include three dimensions: horizontal and geographic expansion as well as vertical integration. Disney is a prime example of how to achieve long-run success through the choices of business, the choice of how many activities to undertake, the choice of how many businesses to be in, the choice of how to manage a portfolio of businesses and the choice of how to create synergies between those businesses (3, p.191-221). All these choices and decisions are made through Disney’s corporate strategies and enabled them to reach long-term success. One will discuss Disney’s long-run success through a general approach. Eisner’s turnaround of the company and his specific implications/strategies will be examined in detail in part II. Disney could reach long-run success mainly through the creation of value due to diversification and the management and fostering of creativity, brand image and synergies between businesses (1, p.11-14).
significant requirements for the financing portion of the remaining needed amount. Disney was looking to
Hammond Cards, Inc. is a small player of the greeting cards industry in the United States of America due to the fact that their annual revenues equate to less than 1% of the industry leaders as described in the case. In their effort to stimulate growth, however, Wendy Hammond has employed me to analyze the potential acquisition of another company, Creative Designs. My analysis will firstly look at the main issue behind this acquisition and then further break it down into sub-issues that I will address individually. Since both of these companies follow a different strategy I will evaluate the two different companies and discuss the implications of their strategies on the merger. I will then perform various cost analysis to determine the cost structures of the two firms which will help me identify whether Wendy’s intentions can be carried out. In my analysis I will aim to figure out the practical capacity of the firms and get an indication on whether their current operations are using the optimal level of capacity and minimizing waste. This data will help me with my strategic recommendation of acquiring Creative Designs and fitting it in with the current strategy of Hammond C...
The Walt Disney Company, known generally as Disney, is an american entertainment conglomerate located in Burbank, California. In terms of revenue, it's the second largest media conglomerate behind the cable giant, Comcast.
Every company has some kind of Revenue and they all have costs that are associated with running the company. It is also true that if a company wants to increase their Revenue, their costs will increase too. It is every company’s goal to maximize revenue and either through Production or Services, and minimize cost. These things are easy to figure out, but actually identifying the production and figuring out how it will increase or decrease with change is very difficult.
Disney Inc. Operational Planning Strengths and Weaknesses There are four different types of planning within and organization, strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency. Each will have an impact on each other and how they are carried out. Disney’s operational planning consists of how things are run on a day-to-day basis within a year helping to reach the company’s strategic planning goals. “Operational planning identifies the specific procedures and processes required at lower levels of the organization.”
Disney has a rich history and an even brighter future due to the smart decision making of the managing body. Throughout its history Disney has been heavily involved in acquisitions, keeping up with the industry trends and even starting new ones through its parks and resorts segments.
Apple Inc.’s Financial Analysis case study will cover the nine-step assessment process to evaluate the company’s future financial health. The nine-step evaluation process will entail the following: 1) Fundamental analysis covers objectives, plan of action, market, competing technology, and governing and operational traits, 2) Fundamental analysis-revenue direction, 3) Investments to support the firm’s entities action plan, 4) Forthcoming profit and competitive accomplishment, 5) Forthcoming external financial requirements, 6) Accessibility to direct at sources of external finance, 7) Sustainability of the 3-5 year plan, 8) Strain examination beneath scenarios of calamity, and 9) Present financial plan (State University, 2013). The fundamental analysis will be explained primarily in the next section.
The primary goal of The Walt Disney Company is to become one of the world’s leading producers and providers of not only entertainment, but also information (The Walt Disney Company, 2014). The company aims to achieve this by utilizing its immense brand portfolio so as to differentiate services, content, and consumer products. While this is the overall goal, there exist other innate milestones that essentially touch on socially responsible business in enhancing sustainability. They include, but are not limited to; zero net greenhouse gas emissions, whereby the company aims to have reduced net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020; zero waste, whereby Walt Disney hopes to achieve a 60% reduction in waste from
The four steps that lead managers and the firm through the strategic planning process are first defining the company’s mission, then setting objectives and goals, next designing a business portfolio and lastly developing functional plans. The first step involves focusing on consumers’ needs and wants. Setting forth a market oriented mission that organizations want to reach based on consumers of the environment. After finding the mission, organizations then proceed to put together supportive objectives for every level of management to help achieve its mission. Next the company has to design a business portfolio evaluating all of its current business and future business by coming up with