Walt Disney Company Business Strategy

This assignment analyzes the business and corporate strategies of The Walt Disney Company. It covers key aspects such as product diversification, strategic alliances with ABC, Disney Channel, and Pixar, organizational structure, and the importance of innovation for maintaining market leadership in a competitive media landscape.

Running head: STRATEGY AND PLANNING
Strategy and Planning
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Strategy: Concepts and Perspectives...............................................................................................3
Corporate Governance and Sustainability.......................................................................................5
Goals, Values and Performance.......................................................................................................7
Industry Analysis.............................................................................................................................8
Analyzing Resources and Capabilities............................................................................................9
The Nature and Sources of Competitive Advantage.....................................................................10
Business and Corporate level strategies........................................................................................10
Networks, Partnerships and Alliances...........................................................................................12
Organizational Structure and Strategic Control.............................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Reference.......................................................................................................................................14

Introduction
The Walt Disney Company is one of the globally famous entertainment conglomerates
and multinational mass media company. The headquarters of the company is located at the Walt
Disney Studios located in the city of California. The company was founded in the year 1923 by
Walt Disney, who is one of the world’s famous cartoonists and the creator of Mickey Mouse.
The company is currently at the top position of the American and Global animation industry. The
company has diversified in the recent past in new forms of business sectors like documentary
movies, live-action films and various short television series. It is believed that effective level of
corporate and business strategies of the past are responsible for huge success of the company
over past several decades and have enabled them to thrive in the film and entertainment industry.
The aim of the current business report is to analyze various levels of business and
corporate strategies that are implemented by the Walt Disney Company. The strategies that are
implemented by the company will reflect upon on the organizational objectives and overall
performance of the company. The report will analyze the strategies of the company depending
upon the performance of the past 5-10 years. The report will also suggest future strategies for the
company that will help them to maintain business sustainability.
Strategy: Concepts and Perspectives
The main purpose and concept of strategic management of an organization is to
implement business plan in the practice, which will help to achieve respective organizational

objective. There are various changes that occur within the concept of strategic management. This
help large scale business organization stand for longer period in the market.
The core organizational strategy concepts of the company are to Dream, to believe, to
Dare and to do. With the help of the guidelines of motivation, it is possible for the company to
survive for longer periods and is also responsible for the huge business success of the company
over the past several years. There are 10 management principles that have been implemented in
the strategy making process of the company over the past several years.
 Make Everyone’ Dream Come True: It is highly important for the workers within the
Walt Disney Company to get the opportunity for expressing out the creative talent. The
company has been able to recruit hundreds of Creative designers, who have been able to
develop innovative new ideas about designing animated characters. The creative culture
is an important part of the organizational workplace. This is believed to one of the major
cause of competitive advantage of the entertainment company.
 You Better believe it: The Company has made huge efforts over the past many years
that help them to ensure to have clear concepts about the goals of the organization. This
can help them to believe about the strong future of the company.
 Never a Customer, Always a guest: The visitors in the Disney amusement park are
always treated as guests. This has helped the company to provide much better customer
care service that is an essential part of the strategy making process.
 All for one and One for all: effective teamwork is also an important part of the strategy
in Walt Disney. For the past several years, the CEO of the company has been able to
encourage the workers to improve upon their team working capability.

 Share the spotlight: Strategic management of Walt Disney also focuses upon the
implementing business partnership. The company has found partnership with several
musical group and technicians, who help them in technical aspects of movie making.
 Dare to Dare The Company also encourage taking new risks in the business policies.
This has also helped the company to bring about innovative movie making ideas for the
entertainment industry.
 Make your elephant fly: The Company has both long terms and short terms policies of
success. In order to implement the creative ideas, the company has implemented policies
for the future.
 Capture the Magic with Storyboards: The effective story board technique has helped
the company to generate new ideas and bring about full perfection in the process of
storytelling. The organizational objective of the company is also generated with the help
of the new ideas.
 Give Details Top Billing: The final principle of the company focuses upon the giving
importance to the correct payment to the employees and business service providers. This
helps them to ensure that there is no level of compromisation being done in the process of
filmmaking (The Walt Disney Company. 2017).
Corporate Governance and Sustainability
Being the largest company for media conglomerate, the management at Walt Disney has
to deal with all types of television broadcasting classified information. The governance of the
company also has to deal with major assets that include total revenue of US$ 55.6 billion with

the equity value of US$47.33 billion (Becker 2017). The company operates under the name of
The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Production. The company also has set up a theme park
that is one of the biggest and famous amusement parks of the world.
Effective corporate divisions have been initiated within the company that helps them to
implement more mature marketing content. These elements are associated with the flagship of
the company. The management of the company has the policy of reinvesting 67% the total cash
that are generated from the current market. This helps the corporate for smooth functioning and
improves the quality of service provided by the employee (Bohas 2015).
In the recent few years, the cooperation of Disney has offered subsidiary and application
for leading diversity in international business. The diversity in the business along with all types
of subsidiaries has helped the company to expand in the field of entertainment industry and
media Enterprise. This has helped to maintain sustainability in the overall business strategy of
Walt Disney (Latif et al. 2014).
The overall operational activity of the company is directed by the board of directors,
which aims to look after at the interests of the stakeholders. The primary function of the board is
to properly evaluate the asset value of the business. Proper timely review of the company's
financial status and objective is also one of the primary functions of the board that have them to
decide upon the future strategies. The board has also been able to predict all the business risks
that can compromise upon the factors that compromise business performance.
The principles of Corporate Social Responsibility are also a major part of board function.
It is the duty of the board on the company to ensure conservation of interest for citizen. The
management of the company has also taken important decisions to set strategic environmental

goals. This aims to reduce the carbon footprint and wastage of electricity or other forms of fuel.
This is also aiming to deal with the advanced level of corporate social responsibility. Brand
value of the company can also be enhanced by maintaining high level of corporate social
responsibility. The management uses the interactive multimedia report it is available in public
domain to provide the overall snapshot of company’s philosophy (Carillo et al. 2012).
Goals, Values and Performance
The basic organizational objective and goal of the Walt Disney Company is to be the
world's leading producer in film and entertainment industry. The company is the effective brand
imaging and innovative ideas in film producing and provide new source of entertainment for the
public. Satisfying the financial needs is also one of the major organizational objectives, which
help the company to establish long term relationship with all groups of stakeholders.
Maintenance of ethical behavior is also highly significant to the management port of the
company. This is also a major part of the corporate social responsibility of the company's
management. The ethical standards of the company aim not only to improve the performance
quality of the lower level workers, it is also meant for all the board of directors (Voigt et al.
2017). Hence, there is high level of equality which is maintained within the workplace of the
company.
The ethical values of the company are also reflected upon the performance strategy. In
order to achieve maximum performance one of the major objectives of the company is to provide
equal opportunity to all levels of workers. The company is able to recruit the talented candidates
in bringing about innovation, it is possible for them to provide renowned platform for company
entertainment. The culture of innovation has been one of the major causes of success of the

company over the past many years. In this context, one of the prime objectives of the company is
to encourage cultural diversity, which will also help to improve upon the innovative atmosphere
that is provided within the company.
Industry Analysis
The demand of consumer for broadcasting and media industry is more than expected.
From 2015 to 2019, the industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 2%. The overall revenue
of the media and broadcasting industry was calculated in 2010 is of 263 billion dollar (Carillo et
al. 2012). With a market share of 50% the combined TV broadcasting and cable network is the
largest segment of the American media industry. The Walt Disney Company is currently at the
top position in both Cable Network and television broadcasting media segment with a market
share of 15.6% and 15.3% respectively.
It is important to mention that the TV broadcasting industry have to witness some
downfall in the past few years. This has ended up to an annual revenue fall rate at 0.9%.
However, in the next 5 years the revenue is expected to rise at an annual rate of 1.5% (Carillo et
al. 2012). The competitive environment in the industry is also likely to get tougher due to the
fact that sale of satellite TV service and cable network has increased rapidly. Moreover, due to
the rising popularity of the digital technology, people are now more interested in online
television series. There are also an increased number of HD channels, which has been able to
offer high quality image.
The industry of cable TV Network has witnessed the growth of 5.2% from the year 2007
to 2012. There are nearly 400 business organizations associated in the industry in United States.

The Disney Corporation, Viacom, Time Warner and Chrome cast Corporation are few of the
biggest shareholders in this sector. The performance in the industry is dependent upon several
key factors including changes in technology, cable subscription rate and per capita income of the
society in US (Wasko 2013).
The competition in the media and broadcasting industry in the United States is dependent
upon various factors. The business model implemented by various business corporations in the
sector has direct implication on the overall growth in the industry. It is also important to mention
that the business performance is dependent upon the growth advertising techniques that are used
by these companies. It is also relevant to mention that more than 85% of the revenue generation
of the respective industry is dependent upon advertising dollars (The Walt Disney Company.
2017). With more number of business organizations focusing upon digital media form of
marketing, there is a tremendous fall in the total number of advertisement through traditional
broadcasting media. This Trend had a major impact in the overall development in the respective
domain.
Analyzing Resources and Capabilities
The management of the company has also divided the Asset into 5 different business
segments. These include media network, Studio entertainment, parks and resorts, consumer
products and interactive media... The media network worth 18,714 million dollar, accounts for
46% of the total revenue, parks and resorts worth 11,797 million dollar, accounting for 29% of
the total revenue, Walt Disney Studios worth of 6,351 million dollar, accounting for 16% of total
revenue, Disney Consumer Products accounting for worth of 3,049 million dollar, accounting for

7% of revenue and Disney interactive with 982 million dollar accounting for 2% revenue (Carillo
et al. 2012).
As of 2016, the total number of employees of the company has been estimated to be
195,000. The company has effective policy to deal with the human resource that mainly focuses
upon the improving the innovative work culture for the human resource management (The Walt
Disney Company. 2017).
The Nature and Sources of Competitive Advantage
As mentioned in the previous section, the brand identity of the Walt Disney Company
that is gained through innovative and creative work culture is one of the major sources of
competitive advantage. Moreover, for being the largest shareholder in the media broadcasting
and entertainment industry the strategy implemented by Walt Disney has direct huge impact on
the market performance.
Having being able to create some of the historical famous cartoon character, the company
has been able to gain huge popularity in the global entertainment industry. Hence, the nature of
innovation that has been provided within the industry is one of the major causes of industrial
competitive advantage of the company. This will also help the company to sustain the respective
business environment for longer period (Education 2017).

Business and Corporate level strategies
As mentioned previously within the section of strategic concept it has been seen that
Business strategy of the Walt Disney Company is dependent upon 10 main principles. The
company has been able to segment all the different types of business into different categories.
This is one of the major business ideas, which has helped the management to have proper control
over the each segment of business. Effective business leadership is also an important part of
business strategy of Walt Disney. The company has been able to generate effective business
communication that has been the foundation of all effective workforce culture. The business
strategy is also dependent upon their own types of derived business language that help the
company to able to establish a distinguished business strategy.
The company has been able to bring about successful modification in a business strategic
planning, which is done according to the changes in the media and broadcasting industry. The
tool of market segmentation is used by the company to specify upon the target customer group.
The corporate strategy of the company is dependent upon implementing diverse business
policy and also increasing cultural innovation within the workplace. The corporate value of the
company is created by harnessing high level of fitness across multiple business units and
establishing value chain. Active form of cross marketing across different type of Disney product
and service is also an essential principle behind the business corporate strategy. There is also the
element of horizontal mechanism that has enabled high level of business coordination and
sharing the corporate values. There is also a separate section of corporate event department,
which are responsible for conducting all type of special events across different division. This
corporate events help to promote the work culture within the company (Education 2017). Hence,

this type of corporate strategy is believed to have direct impact on the overall marketing plan of
the company.
Networks, Partnerships and Alliances
Due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company is currently the world’s largest business
mass media, broadcasting and entertainment industry, it has been able to establish a huge
network of suppliers and business partners.
Walt Disney has been able to establish business partnership with major entertainment
companies like ESPN, which has helped them to expand the media and broadcasting section.
This has helped the company to provide broadcasting of sports show. The ABC television group
is another major business partner, which provides all type of family Entertainment television
series. There is also the Disney television channel, which provides worldwide animated and
entertainment shows. The copyright for the channel is distributed through Internet and cable
connectivity throughout the world.
The company has also been able to form business partnership with many other animated
studios. The acquisition of Pixar animation studios in 1999 is one of the major examples in the
given context (Education 2017).
Organizational Structure and Strategic Control
The strategic decisions of the company are made by the management board members that
are headed by the CEO Bob Iger. Each segment of the company is headed by separate
administrative board that helps them to provide better strategic control. The effective work

culture and business communication theory is believed to be highly effective in maintaining
effective balance within the organizational structure (Education 2017).
Conclusion
The above report has successfully in able to describe the all the major components of the
existing business and corporate strategy of Walt Disney company. In the concluding note it can
be said that in order to better sustain in the industry of media broadcasting and entertainment, it
is essential for the management of the company to maintain the creative and innovative work
culture. It is also essential to incorporate the latest form of Technology within the business and
thereby have the ability to deal with all major types of challenges that is rising due to high level
of competition in the respective business environment.

Reference
Becker, C., 2017. The Magic behind the Magic: An examination of The Walt Disney Company,
the most powerful company in the world.
Bohas, A., 2015. Transnational Firms and the Knowledge Structure: The Case of the Walt
Disney Company. Global Society, 29(1), pp.23-41.
Carillo, C., Crumley, J., Thieringer, K. and Harrison, J.S., 2012. The Walt Disney Company: A
corporate strategy analysis.
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merger of The Walt Disney Company improved its performance, showed by financial & industry
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The Walt Disney Company. (2017). About - Leadership, Management Team, Global, History,
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https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2017].
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Voigt, K.I., Buliga, O. and Michl, K., 2017. Making People Happy: The Case of the Walt Disney
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Wasko, J., 2013. Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy. John Wiley & Sons.