Walt Disney Company Analysis

Walt Disney is extremely known for being a film producer and popular showman. He was very recognizing for being an innovator in animation and theme park design. Disney was a visionary in terms of cartoons. Disney views and visions came from his persistence for the future. Walt Disney strives upon building Disney’s to have core strengths in three areas of entertainment and recreation, motion pictures and videos. Walt created his first animated character, Mickey Mouse.

Mickey made his first debut on November 18, 1928, in a black and white cartoon called the “Steamboat Willie”. What distinguishes Mickey from the rest of the cartoons was the modern day appearance with his white gloves on his hands. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Disney was very insistence on technical perfection and was a very gifted story editor.

Disney had a dream to create a theme park that would appeal to children and adults. He first opens Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1957. With great success with the park years later he opened a second park in 1971 in Orlando, Florida.

Walt Disney died in 1956, leaving his brother Roy Disney to oversee the company. Roy decided to become partners with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Frank worked alongside Eisner until his death in 1994. Michael Eisner became the chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the company in 1984. Eisner had a reputation as a creative genius. He revitalized expanded and improved the theme parks, acquired major televisions networks and cable stations. Eisner ideas strive to create a magic but at the same time keep within a strict budget.

Disney’s future prospects certainly helped strengthened the brand, as well as created an empire around re...

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... until ABC had two hits during 2003, Designing Women and Lost. Because of the Internet, there were less people watching TV. The only channel that was increasing in views was ESPN.

Problems in theme parks and resorts also arise during 2000. Disney spent five billion dollars to build new rides and to modernize its Anaheim and Orland properties to protect its famous franchise. A few months after Disney finished remodeling the parks, disaster events such as 9/11 occurred and it drove tourists down. Disney suffered a great loss during this time since there were a lot of terrorist threats against theme parks in Orlando such as the four Disney own. It wasn’t until 2004 that tourists were coming back and profit margins rose. Disney World, with its four theme parks, remains the number one tourist attraction I the world and is its most important asset.