Six Flags, Inc.: The 2006 Business Turnaround

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Introduction
Six Flags Entertainment Corp is the world’s second largest amusement park operator in the world after Disneyworld (Hoover's Company Profiles, 2014). It is the world’s largest amusement park corporation in terms of the number of parks and assets owned as it operates 18 parks in the United States alone, with an additional 11 parks in Europe, Canada and Mexico (Hoover's Company Profiles, 2014). It was founded by Angus Wynne, an oil baron, in 1961, and endured and grown exponentially since (Six Flags Inc., 2011).
The Six Flags parks enjoy guest visits of up to 24 million a year who throng them for the theme parks, thrill and water parks as well as the family entertainment offered. The Corp also has licensing agreements with D.C Comics and Warner Bros. that affords them exclusive rights to world renowned cartoon characters and super heroes like Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Batman and Robin (Hoover's Company Profiles, 2014). They are great crowd pullers of families as children adore these cartoon characters and show up for the meet and greet sessions with the characters as well as purchase custom merchandise of them.
Strategy is the name of the ultimate game when it comes to business. Proper crafting and execution of strategy is what differentiates the bigwigs and small fish of any industry. As at 2006, Six Flags was a sinking ship. They were making losses every year and was neck-deep in debt; a situation that threatened to relegate the giant corporation to its knees. Daniel Snyder, the owner of Washington Redskins and Red Zone LLC and a major shareholder at the time, declared a proxy war on the board of directors as he and Bill Gates, yet another major shareholder, were not amused by the company’s frail situation (Hyman, 2006...

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...Six Flags: History. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from Six Flags Inc.: http://investors.sixflags.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=61629&p=irol-homeprofile
Six Flags. (2013). Six Flags. Retrieved March 8, 2014, from Six Flags Official Website: https://www.sixflags.com/
Theme Parks U.S.A. (2014). New Rides at Six Flags Parks in 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from: http://www.themeparks-us.com/six-flags-news/352-new-rides-at-six-flags-parks-in-2014
Thomas, H. (2010). CEO of Six Flags leaves company after bankruptcy reorganization. Washington Post, The.
Thompson, A. A., Strickland III, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. Alabama: Alabama University Press.
Whekeen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2012). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Towards Global Sustainability. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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