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The Walt Disney Company Case Analysis
Prepared by
Scott Beyea
Mitchell Stone
George Petre
Ye Li
For
Professor Arocha
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
Policy, Planning, and Strategy Systems
School of Business/Graduate Studies
St. Thomas University
Miami Gardens, Fla
Term A1/Spring, 2014
1. Analyzing organizational goals and objectives
Walt Disney Company has not developed short-term objectives that are inconsistent with its
long-term mission. For example, Disney’s strategy has been drawn upon a few core concepts.
Three of the concepts are the following: (1) creating high-quality family content; (2) exploiting
technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable; and (3)
international expansion. Those concepts are part of Disney’s long-term mission.
Recently, Disney has acquired intellectual property rights to both Pixar and Marvel. These
Disney acquisitions helped increase the resources and capabilities of its animation business with
new techniques and characters. The short term objective of acquiring intellectual property rights
of Marvel characters has increased the creation of high-quality family content, and brought new
technological ideas with Pixar’s CGI style animation prowess. Additionally, Disney has made the
short-term objectives of Hong Kong and China as new Disneyland locations.
The company is not faced with any issues that conflicts with any of its long standing policies.
Rather the challenges that it does face, which it has tried to address with new corporate strategies
such as exploiting technological innovation to make entertainment experiences more memorable,
is the challenges that have been brought on by technological advancement which has spurred the
widespread mass media entertainment to the internet and video games.
2. Analyzing the external environment
Walt Disney Company is effectively scanning and monitoring the competitive environment.
Disney’s international expansion efforts are primarily directed at taking advantage of
opportunities in emerging markets. For example, Disney now reaches 75% of viewers in China
and Russia and is available in more than 100 countries. Disney’s actions show that they are
eliminating foreign competition before it even exists. Disney is creating a brand household name
for itself in other countries, and buying any innovative smaller businesses that get in its way.
The company certainly follow general trends. Specifically it follows sociocultural,
technological, and global trends. With the intrusion of web technology into every aspect of our
lives in addition to the advancement in technology and mass production more and more people in
the world today have access to electronics and to the web. This creates the opportunity for other
mass media competitors with more capability in web technology to gain market share by
investing in such technology to reach more and more people. This has forced Disney to attempt
to develop capabilities it did not have before. One way it did that is by purchasing the company
Pixar. In addition, Disney also attempted to enter the video gaming industry to which they were
completely new to. Global trends followed by Disney are also apparent in its attempt to apply
the strategy of expansion to China and Europe.
3. Analyzing the internal environment
Disney has accurately analyzed the source and vitality of its resources. Part of Disney’s
corporate strategy requires sufficient funds to be distributed to its core theme parks and resorts
business. Disney does this to continue having an advantage in the industry, which is important to
them because those are its most internal core businesses. Disney land in California and Disney
World in Orlando are both geographic icons for the company and some of its most revenue
producing entities. The company realizes this and is putting more money into its parks and
resorts to remain on top in the industry, and to continue generating large profits from those
resources. For example, Disney expanded the range of attractions at its Disney California
Adventure Park with the World of Color water and light show, which cost $75 million.
The company is certainly aware of how the various components of its value chain are adding
value to the company. For example in discussing the media networks Bob Iger made reference
to the fact that Disney’s media networks are profitable because these networks and studios which
make up the Disney media network are using to support the creation of high quality intellectual
property and its film entertainment capabilities. Its ability to reach out to customers worldwide
through its exploitation and of technological innovations in combination with its use of the
medial networks to support the high quality intellectual property and film entertainment proves
that the company s aware of how the various components are adding value to the company.
4. Assessing a firm’s intellectual assets
Disney is definitely not missing opportunities to forge strategic alliances. Disney has done
the exact opposite. Specifically the company has strong alliances with the retail industry for its
