Analysis of the Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is considered to be one of the most active family entertainment companies in the world. Primarily Disney became known as an animated film company and a cartoon creator. Later, the company expanded its range of activities into other markets through the Disney stores and theme parks around the world. The Walt Disney Company’s key objective is to be the world’s premier family entertainment company through the ongoing development of its powerful brand and character franchises.

Introduction The Walt Disney Company is an American diversified multinational mass media corporation. It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. It generated US$ 42.278 billion in 2012. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel. The Walt Disney Company operates as five primary units and segments: The Walt Disney Studios or Studio Entertainment, which includes the company's film, recording label, and theatrical divisions; Parks and Resorts, featuring the company's theme

The diagnostic model I have chosen to discuss to analyze Disney and several of the companies acquired throughout the years such as Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm’s LTD for this assignment is the 7-S Framework model. I will also briefly discuss the many changes that Disney has implemented to improve the customer viewing as well as interactive experiences at their many new, current theme parks, and vacation destinations throughout the world. The 7-S model developed by McKinsey and Company consultants Robert Waterman Jr., Tom Peters, and Julien Phillips (Palmer, Dunford, Akin, 2009). The 7-S model may be used

Today, the Walt Disney Company is highly diversified - it is divided into 5 major business segments: Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks, Consumer Products, and Internet & Direct Marketing. Since this paper stresses on only one strategic business unit of Walt Disney, Parks and Resorts, the following discussion of the elements of marketing mix will be with respect to this SBU only.

Walt Disney Company is an expanded global company with operations in four major business segments i.e. Studio Entertainment, Media Networks, Consumer Products and Parks and Resorts. The company has a workforce of more than 15,000 employees in more than 40 countries across the globe. In addition to having a huge workforce, the firm is largely renowned for its success and profitability in all its business segments on an annual basis. One of the most important aspects that have contributed to its growth and profitability throughout the years is its compensation program. The firm has compensation programs for all its employees because of its consideration of employees as one of the major stakeholders of its operations. However, Walt Disney Company has experienced significant challenges in relation to its compensation program because of the various peer groups used in this process. As a result, the company's compensation program has significant structural flaw because of its size and complexity.

As a matter of fact, it is the world's second-largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Its financial success is replicated by the huge amounts of annual profits, for example, the company generated total revenue of over 52 billion dollars in 2015, and a net profit of over $8bn which was an improvement of the previous year. Besides that, Disney employs hundreds of thousands of employees; nonetheless, it has come under constant criticism due to their poor working conditions and its long-standing pension cases. Moreover, with the advent of the internet age and increased competition, the company is facing great challenges as consumers are moving to online platforms rendering its conventional DVDs useless. Therefore, this essay seeks to explore its strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities and provides recommendations on how it can gain a suitably competitive edge over rivals through mitigating its threats, addressing weaknesses and maximizing on

With assets that include film, television, publishing, the internet, music, and recreation, Walt Disney is one of the world’s largest conglomerate in terms of revenue, making $14.28 billion in Quarter Three in 2016. They regularly find different and new innovative ways to promote and sell their brands through various media segments to have a revenue increase and it has helped Disney to successfully complete its mission to position itself as one of the world’s leader of entertainment. Robert A. Iger is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company. As Chairman and CEO, Mr. Iger is the head of the world’s largest media company. He has a strategic vision for The Walt Disney Company that focuses on three fundamental pillars: generating the best creative content possible; fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology; and expanding into new markets around the world.

As a result of restructuring and creating multiple departments within Disney, the organization’s financial planning is efficient. The organization has identified financial goals, prioritized those goals, and developed a financial plan by using the legacy information to determine the organization’s financial forecast. The organization focuses on key relationships that will provide additional resources for the business,

The Walt Disney Company does well to open a wide scene of items purchasers of any age can identify with. Disney, together with its auxiliaries and associates, is a main enhanced global family stimulation and media endeavor with five business fragments: media systems, stops and resorts, studio diversion, purchaser items and intelligent media. Expansion is a basic viewpoint to improving an organization's gainfulness and development.

The Walt Disney Studio’s Diversity Mission Statement is “To create an inclusive environment that is open to all perspectives, allowing us to tell compelling stories in film, animation and music that visually and emotionally reflect our audience worldwide.” “The Walt Disney Studios maintains that the only existing boundaries are those of talent, ambition, imagination and innovation.” (Moore, 2007)

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has a history marked with ups and downs. Taking numerous risks, expanding internationally, acquiring various businesses and diversifying its operations; the company has emerged stronger than ever. Ranking #53 on the Fortune 500, DIS has experienced continuous growth for the past 5 years, with bright prospects. Detailed analysis shows the market undervaluing the stock despite its healthy performance, indicating potential future gains.

The financial ratio analysis of a company is a useful indicator to measure the success of a company. By comparing financial ratios between companies in the same industry (competitors) it is a useful way for investors and shareholders to determine the financial health and/or the sustainability of a company. Disney’s main competitors within the industry include Time Warner and 21st Century Fox. There are five key areas of comparison that provide excellent financial analysis of a company. They are short-term solvency, long-term solvency, asset management, profitability, and market value.

The Walt Disney Company has been successfully creating and capturing value for their customers for over nine decades. With a net worth of 74.9 billion dollars, Disney has claimed the title as of one of the most profitable companies in the world. Their product line is extensive, as they currently own and run a successful media network, several theme parks and resorts worldwide, an extensive merchandise line, a studio entertainment sector, as well as Disney Interactive. Disney’s brand’s success hinders on several points of difference that have allowed the company to flourish. Firstly, Disney creates an undeniably unique experience for its customers. The theme parks have a “magical” feel to them, which keeps families coming back for decades. Their customer retention rate is high, and going to visit Disney world had been incorporated into the American identity. Additionally, their business strategy is innovative and strategic. The company delineates that their purpose is to “create happiness.” This evokes the naturalistic needs of humans, and also pulls at customer’s wallet strings. Furthermore, Disney has published that, “The Company’s primary financial goals are to maximize earnings and cash flow, and to allocate capital towards growth initiatives that will drive long-term shareholder value.” In order for Disney to live up to this financial mission statement and in order for them to continue to be successful, they must continue to create value for their customers in order to

“The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producer 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, innovate and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.” (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.).

As Walt Disney Company is famed for its creativity and strong global brand, Disney appear to create value in its business primarily through a differentiation strategy.