walt disney studios case study

How Disney Became The World's Entertainment Leader

Table of contents, here’s what you’ll learn from disney’s strategy study:.

• How long-term clarity builds tenacity and fosters innovation.
• How focusing on moon shots in the short-term can hurt you in the mid-term.
• How to make huge business deals based on honesty and trust.
• How your brand can become a powerful strategic enabler.
• How to develop deeper relationships with your customers at scale.
• How to use data to innovate at a business level.
• How to embrace disruptions and make them part of your strategy.
• How to take care of your people as an international entity.

The company's trajectory has fluctuated through its long history, but at its highest points, it has left its mark in more than one way. The Walt Disney Company has earned multiple times the leading position in animation. Still, it has transformed into a global behemoth with a more than substantial presence in numerous industries, from theme parks and cruise lines to live-action film production to consumer products. Disney is an excellent example of a company that is more than the sum of its parts.

Very few organizations worldwide can boast numbers better or even close to those of Disney:

• Revenue of $82.7 billion in 2022
• Brand value of $60.5 billion in 2022
• Total assets of over $200 billion in 2022
• Number of employees: 220.000 as of 2022
•  Disney has 12 theme parks around the world, 9 Disney Resorts  and  5 cruise ships  (with 2 more en route)
• The Disney+ streaming service reached 161.8 million subscribers in Q1 2023  

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The Humble Beginnings of a Magical Imagination

Today his name is recognizable globally, and mentioning it awakens feelings of joy and wonder to adults and children alike. Walt Disney and his older brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio on October 16 of 1923, the entity that was destined to become the colossus known today as The Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, and developed an interest in art and drawing from a very young age. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to a farm outside of Marceline, a place where young Walt was exposed to nature, animals, and the small-town life that sparked his imagination and allowed it to expand and run wild.

Pursuing art and entrepreneurship

At just the age of seven, he sold his first drawings. Due to financial troubles, two years later, he started helping his father deliver newspapers. However, he continued honing his drawing skills and developing his art education.

At the age of 18, he had his first encounter with animation in Pesman Art Studio, where he met a fellow artist named Ub Iwerks. Disney and Iwerks soon had a failed attempt at creating their own commercial company, and later on, Disney founded another company, a film studio, where he employed Iwerks, among others, as an animator.

In 1923 Disney had to declare bankruptcy due to high costs, resulting in his second entrepreneurial attempt. Nevertheless, his work in the animation industry didn’t go unnoticed, earning him a contract that led to the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio’s first production, a series named “Alice comedies” which mixed live-action motion-picture photography with cartoon animation. One of the first such productions.

Disney worked on the series until 1927, with his friend and former partner Iwerks producing more than 50 films. His next creation, “Oswalt the Lucky Rabbit”, was produced for Universal Studios and was a hit. However, during negotiations, he realized that he had painted himself to a corner, signing away all of the rights for Oswalt when he accepted the contract and losing all of his animators, except for Iwerks, to Universal Studios.

Disney and Iwerks went on and created Mickey Mouse as an answer, retaining all the rights this time. Disney lent his voice to Mickey and Iwerks drew him. Together they created the first cartoon with synchronized sound, the short film “Steamboat Willie”, which was the first film with Mickey that had a distributor and was the start of the mouse’s exploding career. Actually, the film was so successful and significant as an innovation that in 1998 was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.

Demonstrating pioneering

Walt Disney's vision and innovative spirit were demonstrated in 1937 when the first feature-length animated film premiered, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” The film took three years to complete and was nicknamed “Disney’s Folly” by industry insiders due to its revolutionary nature. The risk for the company, now called “Walt Disney Productions,” was great since it exceeded four times its initial budget and had more than 300 people working on it.

In complete contrast to all the naysayers, the novel experience that Walt Disney had created with this film, which elicited the full range of human emotions, was an absolute success. Its release was received with immense praise by critics, audiences, and magazines, granting its creator an honorary Oscar. Financially, not only did it cover its budget, but it also generated enough profit that Walt Disney built a new studio in Burbank, California, and an exemplary corporate culture. The company’s headquarters are still there to this day.

Flexing in the pursuit of the vision

Walt Disney had a vision. He wanted everyone to share the wonder and excitement he experienced when he was a little boy in Marceline. And with that in mind, in 1952, although his company was quite successful and profitable, Walt Disney put everything on the line selling his shares, liquidating his assets, selling off property, borrowing against his life insurance policy, going to great lengths to gather as many resources as he could the one thing that would advance his vision.

Disneyland, his greatest achievement, opened its doors in 1955, and it was a theme park like no other before it. Contrary to the theme parks of the time, Walt’s Disneyland was a safe place, clean and untouched by unlawfulness. It had a coherent story throughout the park, and it was an immersive experience for adults and children, a place where, with Walt Disney’s words, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

The park recorded revenues of more than $10 million and 3.6 million guests during its first year of operation. Its success holds today, as it is constantly expanding with new attractions being added regularly. Before his death in 1966, he started working on a second theme park, the Walt Disney World, but he didn’t manage to experience its opening.

Disney holds the record for most individual Oscar wins with a staggering 22 wins. In addition, he was presented with the George Washington Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Along with his brother Roy, they helped establish in 1961 the California Institute of the Arts.

Key Takeaway #1: A clear vision drives perseverance and innovation

The Walt Disney Company’s international and intergenerational success didn’t occur by accident. Its founder’s clarity of vision and unrestful spirit drove him to take multiple risks in his career and achieve some of the greatest innovations of his industry.

His failures and setbacks, though many, didn’t extinguish the flame of his creativity. His best creations came after his biggest failures and he never sacrificed his freedom to pursue his cause for a safer and easier future. Although he made many mistakes, he was constantly exploring new ways to advance his vision and supply the world with wonder, magic, and unique and safe experiences.

Disney’s Expansion

The Walt Disney Company didn’t grow to its current enormous size overnight. Since the opening of Disneyland in 1955, the company has made numerous strategic moves to expand its parks and resorts and its services and assets. Among others, it increased its distribution capabilities, obtained media assets, increased its channels, and widely diversified its activities.

Media expansion

Although Disney had produced and aired many shows, films, and other television content, it always did so through other, already established networks. It wasn’t until 1983 that the company launched its own premium channel and used it as a content distribution platform to promote other activities and events like the openings of its new theme parks.

Shortly after that, Disney expanded its audience, launching channels in Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia. There was a specific reason that Disney needed to expand its media reach to foreign markets and develop its audience. Once it had attained a baseline of viewers, it could then advertise the new rides of its later installed theme parks.

In the following decades, various moves were made to expand internationally, but at best the penetration to foreign markets was decent. Despite major moves that increased its reach in the US market, it wasn’t until much later, after 2005, that serious effort was made for deeper international market penetration.

However, the biggest transformation of the company's media segment happened in 2019, when Disney made the massive acquisition of 21st Century Fox for more than $71 billion, the biggest acquisition in its history. From that point on, Disney became mostly a media company concerning its assets.

The Death of the Founder: Did he take the company’s creativity with him?

However, since the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the company suffered in the animation industry, failing to reproduce massively successful productions. That lack of memorable films and characters was felt across its theme parks, as well.

Disneyland parks have relied heavily on the local population to stay profitable. Thus, to attract nearby residents, they require regular reinventions of the performative content inside the parks and the additions of new and exciting rides. The lack of successful films and recognizable characters had provided only minor updates to the park since 1964.

Nonetheless, some of the most extraordinary expansions happened during the first decade of Michael Eisner’s tenure as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, which in total lasted 21 years (1984-2005). As the head of Disney, he was bold and calculated, making strategic moves that increased the company’s international reach and even carried Disney through some tough times.

The Disney Renaissance Period

Since Michael Eisner headed Disney, he and Frank Wells, president and later COO of the company, found, to their amazement, a mountain of dusted material and assets that had a remarkable potential for the future of the company. They were excited and eager to exploit every last one of them. And so they did.

Eisner was very aggressive in expanding the parks, adding new resorts, and adopting a more profitable pricing strategy. He disagreed with the notion that when Walt Disney left this world, he also took with him the soul of Disney and the possibility of making it again the leading producer of original and timeless animation films.

Hence, he put a considerable focus on making quality, new animation films. Successful in his endeavor, he produced movies like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” that sparked what was later called the Disney Renaissance period. Now he had original Disney characters to promote and populate the parks.

Under Eisner’s guidance, Disney opened seven new parks around the world including “Disney’s Animal Kingdom”, “Disney’s California Adventure”, “Disneyland Paris” (initially Euro Disney), “Hong Kong Disneyland” and one of the best Disney parks, “Tokyo DisneySea”. Eisner encouraged and approved ambitious new rides and shows for both existing and new theme parks alongside the new parks.

These moves contributed greatly to the international expansion of Disney.

He didn’t stop there, however. He wanted to activate all of Disney’s assets and make them profitable. The Disney channel got new productions, aiming at claiming higher Saturday-morning numbers with cheaper animation. He cooperated with big names in the film industry to produce, act and perform on new products.

One of the most cash-producing decisions that the company made under Eisner was the release of its animated classic feature films on video. This unexpectedly lucrative decision was, in essence, tapping into an underutilized market and took advantage of a fascinating habit, persistent to this day, of young kids to watch animation movies a nightmarish (for their parents) amount of times.

Disney Stores, Cruises, and Lifesaving Moves

These successes fueled the expansions of the theme parks and drove significant profits with their physical products. With some service-oriented moves that made the client experience uniquely enjoyable, Disney nearly doubled their stores and even introduced their first one in London.

The initial fear that the increase of stores would compete with other retail outlets that sold Disney-licensed products was quickly busted, since instead of driving their sales down, every new Disney store increased the sales of Disney-related products of nearby stores, too.

In 1996 an original and highly profitable segment of The Walt Disney Company was established, the Disney Cruise Line. The experience in a Disney cruise was designed to offer a sense of luxury of a bygone era coupled with modern amenities. The first two ships, “Disney Magic” and “Disney Wonder” are still active to this day, underscoring their lovable and flourishing voyages.

As profitable and treasured those moves may have been, the one that provided the most invaluable assets to the company was arguably the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. in 1996.

Buying a network was in Eisner’s plans for years, and even though a few other networks besides Cap Cities were considered, conversations about ABC were happening years before. Disney tremendously increased its distribution power with the acquisition, being the first company with a major presence in filmed entertainment, broadcasting, cable television, and telephone wires. This proved lifesaving in the following barren decade.

The price of success

In spite of all the success in the 80s, the late 90s and early 2000s were not a good time for Disney. The expansion had taken a toll on the company. During the Renaissance Period, every single project that Disney undertook was always exceeding the initial budget.

Disneyland Paris, originally Euro Disney Resort, went more than a billion over its budget and struggled for many years to become profitable. Its opening day was a disappointment. Key decisions regarding Europe’s cultural habits and based on overly ambitious projections almost closed the park’s gates forever.

On the creative side, Disney strayed from its path and target audience. It produced films and music that were inappropriate for families and young children. In its pursuit of global domination and higher profits, the company made mistakes of arrogance, got involved in many unpopular stories, and damaged its brand.

Internally, people felt they were treated unfairly, and the company's structure became so centered that Disney became rigid and no original ideas could be developed.

Key Takeaway #2: There is such a thing as going too fast

A few years after the death of its founder, Disney went through a rough patch. However, its leadership was determined to conquer new mountain tops and not let the past glories be the highest point in the company’s history.

Pursuing moon shots and pushing a company to its limit is admirable and often leads to innovative new ideas. Nonetheless, sacrificing the brand or the culture and the people of the company in the process is not sustainable in the long run. It needs exceptional skill to balance the pursuit of moon shots and long-term sustainability.

Lack of Creativity and Bob Iger’s First Big Move

As animation goes, so goes the company.

Bob Iger was working for The Walt Disney Company since 1996 before he became CEO and was quite familiar with its history. He recognized that the company’s performance was tightly bound to the animation industry and its ability to create great animated films. In his own words to his board “as Animation goes, so goes the company.”

In the era from the ‘20s to the ‘40s and the success of movies like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo,” “Cinderella,” and all those great animated movies that Walt Disney built, the company prospered. Even later on, in the Disney Renaissance period when Michael Eisner had taken over the company, The Walt Disney Company created excellent animated films like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “The Lion King” that restore the company’s leadership role in the animation industry.

Nevertheless, when Bob Iger’s tenure started in 2005, he knew that Disney Animation was performing poorly and was overall in a bad shape for the last decade. He realized that Disney’s near future and his own as the head of The Walt Disney Company were hanging on his ability to revitalize the company’s animation productions.

Disney's Top Three Strategic Priorities

Bob Iger became the head of Disney with three clear priorities in mind. The first was the creation of exceptional branded content. His understanding of the market was that brand perception would guide people’s choices, so he had decided to invest most of the company’s capital on this.

His second priority was exploiting technological advancements to aid the creation of exceptional content and staying relevant in its distribution. He sensed that consumer behavior was changing, and he believed it was imperative to commit to the pursuit of technological innovations.

The third priority was international expansion. Disney was present in many markets but with superficial penetration. For example, China and India, two of the most populous countries in the world, were underutilized. He believed that the opportunity that was lurking in those markets was significant and Disney should tap into it.

His decision to rejuvenate the brand and Disney Animation was in complete alignment with his strategic priorities. The need for a solution to the creative stagnation of the company was urgent and echoed throughout all of its businesses.

The only source of talent and innovation

Iger quickly came to the conclusion that reviving Disney Animation meant finding the best, most talented animators and leaders in the industry. And so his gaze immediately turned to Pixar, the leading animation company of the time. On his second day as CEO, he presented his radical and, as time proved, outstanding idea of Disney acquiring Pixar.

The first and biggest challenge that Iger had to face before that idea could ever become a reality was the disdainful attitude towards Disney of Pixar’s controlling shareholder, Steve Jobs.

Pixar and Disney were already doing business together for some time with Disney co-funding, co-owning, marketing and distributing many of Pixar’s films. However, their partnership came to an abrupt halt due to numerous disputes in 2004. Steve Jobs concluded that Disney had become too process-oriented with excessive bureaucratic procedures and a lack of collaborative spirit.

Since all of the talent and leading creative minds in animation technology and storytelling were concentrated in Pixar, Jobs had all the leverage in negotiations.

Pixar’s invaluable assets and Bob Iger’s irresistible trait

Unexpectedly though, when Jobs forced Iger to share his “crazy idea” over the phone on a warm October evening, Iger’s sweaty proposition was met with recipience. When discussions on the matter started, Jobs brought forth his main concern and biggest fear: Disney would obliterate Pixar’s culture. He believed the creativity and innovation that Pixar had demonstrated over the years was attributed to its collaborative culture more than anything or anyone else.

Inside Pixar technology was inspiring new storytelling techniques and art was pushing the boundaries of technological possibilities. Those were cultural aspects unique to Pixar and, in Jobs' mind, what enabled the company to technologically and artistically pioneer in the animation industry

Thus, his primary goal during the negotiations was shielding Pixar’s culture from what he viewed as a destructive and sterile culture in Disney. Pixar was bringing such originality that each movie always seemed like a huge risk in terms of storytelling. Imagine pitching their movies, for example, a clownfish loses its father, and the father teams up with another fish that has memory problems to find his son. Not so inspiring.

In essence, nobody knew or could guarantee whether the next Pixar movie would be a massive success or a total flop. An aspect that made the investment extremely risky. Disney was conservative, and Jobs feared that Disney would prevent such risks and thus kill the innovative ideas that would come out of the Pixar movie.

On the other hand, Disney was in desperate need of new ideas, people brave enough to take risks, and the technology to bring those ideas to life. Iger needed to revitalize Disney Animation and the best people who could do that were Pixar’s visionary leaders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull.

It was Bob Iger’s uncommon career experiences that made the difference. Twice during his career, the company he was working for was acquired by another. First, it was ABC from Capital Cities, and the second was Capital Cities/ABC from Disney. This firsthand knowledge on the impact on the culture of a company that acquisitions bring and the candor that Steve Jobs and Bob Iger’s relationship was developed on allowed the latter to persuade the former that Pixar’s acquisition by Disney would leave its culture intact. And so it did.

On January 24, 2006, The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion and allowed the studio to create great films while its leaders refreshed Disney from the inside. Since then, Pixar has earned more than $11 billion at the global box office and even more through Disney’s other assets such as theme parks and physical products.

Key Takeaway #3: Crazy ideas need respect and candor to become reality

Pixar’s acquisition story reveals that every new and radical idea needs more than just determination and hard work to be realized. Bob Iger had clear strategic priorities when he became CEO, but also had the prudence to respect the unique cultural qualities of Pixar.

He was able to recognize that the value of Pixar was in its people and their ways of collaborating. The sincerity and openness that both Jobs and Iger demonstrated laid the grounds for fertile conversations which resulted in the merging of two companies and the birth of a new one that leveraged each other’s strong assets while mitigating their greatest vulnerabilities.

The Brand of Disney

One distinctive and powerful strategic move that Disney did from very early on, was to separate its brand from its marketing. Instead, it  made brand a strategy function , a decision that influenced the company’s trajectory immensely. The addressing of its brand as a strategic variable led to many of the competitive advantages that Disney achieved over the years.

The Walt Disney Company has evolved over the years, expanding its operations, but always remaining an entertainment and content producing company at its core. All of its expansive and evolutionary moves were successful only when they were aligned with its brand. Disney achieved a unifying approach to its brand experience that echoed through all of its core businesses.

Marvel acquisition

Disney’s vision is to become the preeminent leader of family entertainment. And this vision is reflected in its brand attributes. The promise that Disney makes to its customers is of a fun, magical experience that everybody in the family can enjoy. In Walt Disney’s own words: “I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether he be six or sixty.”

This is the promise Disney strives to keep with all of its interactions with its customers. It promises to nudge and excite the child inside every person. And more often than not, it succeeds.

Indeed, whenever the idea of acquiring Marvel fell on the table (it did multiple times in different times in the company’s history), the main question that accompanied it was whether it would benefit the Disney brand. Did those two brands share enough attributes that it would make sense to merge them?

This was a tough question to answer, and before Bob Iger’s era, it had a negative answer. However, Iger thought differently. Consistent with his top priorities, he believed that Marvel could add extraordinary value content-wise to Disney. Although it is common knowledge today whether Marvel and Disney would be a successful pair, it was neither evident nor a certainty back then.

The storytelling opportunities that Disney observed and ultimately emerged through Marvel’s characters were unparalleled, despite having licensed many of them to other entities. As a result, its collection of over five thousand characters was a priceless treasure for the content-hungry company.

The overwhelming success of movies like “Captain Marvel” and “Black Panther” proved that not only were there a massive and starved audience for original storytelling, like female-led superhero movies and black superhero movies, but that, if done correctly, these films could be hugely profitable as well.

Disney is associated with joy and playfulness. Conflict still exists in Disney storytelling, but violence is something that only villains do and that with great restraint. Marvel’s storytelling, on the other hand, is centered around superheroes, and violence is a common occurrence. Acquiring Marvel and associating Disney with such themes could irreversibly damage the brand and distance people who expect their experience with Disney to be free of negative elements.

Upon closer inspection, Bob Iger and his team found out that the two brands shared many attributes in their storytelling and, if managed properly, they could coexist and blossom under one hood. This meant that Disney shouldn’t sanitize Marvel and decrease its brand value or betray its own brand value and take a more edgy path.

There was a great deal of risk involved in merging the two brands and by no means was its success assured. Finally, on December 31, 2009, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion and reinvented the film industry, and created another novel Disney experience.

Key Takeaway #4: Brand is a strategic function

Brand is usually ill-defined and thus crudely managed. The first mistake is considering it only as a concern of the marketing department. That’s a deadly mistake.

Brand should always be considered when developing a strategy. Every decision either adds or subtracts from your organization’s brand. The unfortunate trait of brand management is that it can effortlessly go wrong and cause lasting damage.

The fortunate trait of brand management is that it creates priceless opportunities and works as an exponential multiplier to every other aspect of the business if it is carefully handled and nurtured. From talent acquisition to customer satisfaction.

Disney’s Marketing Strategy: Innovating With Fans and Stories

Disney invests a lot of money and resources in marketing and advertising. Even though the company offers experiences for the whole family, it doesn’t target the whole family at the same time. Instead, it segments its target audience and uses different tactics.

For example, they promote new park rides to children to create demand (or indirect pressure on the parents), while at the same time promoting a limited time offer for the parents to create a sense of urgency.

At Disney, they have a plethora of channels to market their endless products and experiences, from social media accounts with millions of followers to television channels and radio. They strategically choose the content and the channel depending on the audience they wish to address and the feeling they wish to trigger.

The power of nostalgia

In the last decade, Disney has started capitalizing on nostalgia. It recognizes that their once upon a time young audience has now grown up, having its own kids and family. Parents remember the feelings of excitement and joy they experienced when they were watching Disney’s animation films as young children and want their kids to have the same experience.

Over the last years, Disney understands this and has proved it, developing live-action movies of their old and popular animation films targeting the parents more than the children. The success of that tactic is evident in movies like “The Lion King” which grossed over $1.5 million in 2019.

Technology today offers an unprecedented opportunity to remake old classics into live-action adaptations with stunning visuals and incredibly realistic CGIs. And Disney still has a lot of content in its library to use and exploit the feeling of nostalgia.

Retelling old stories and making monumental successes out of them is one of Disney’s magic recipes.

Disney’s digital marketing campaigns

Disney has a massive presence in social media, with countless accounts from its collection of brands. The number of followers across all platforms and accounts adds up to hundreds of millions.

That massive followership makes Disney’s presence a valuable asset to its advertising campaigns since it can inform and interact with its audience or make its announcements.

However, the incredible value from social media is generated by Disney’s fans. People love to share their experiences, findings, and stories on their social media profiles. At the time of this writing, #disney has over 80 million photos on Instagram, with the vast majority of them being fan-generated.

The company knows the power of its fans and doesn’t shy away from making full use of it. Disney always urges people to take photos or generate all kinds of content and share it in their personal social media profiles. It’s not unusual either to partner with celebrities and influencers to promote certain events or products or to simply drive engagement.

The #DreamBig campaign

In 2017, Disney partnered with 19 female photographers and the United Nations Foundation program “Girl Up” to launch the #DreamBigPrincess campaign. Its thematic purpose was to empower young girls to go after their dreams, no matter how big they are, by showcasing remarkable stories of girls and young women who achieved their dreams.

Disney highlighted the most powerful traits of its princesses, promoting the aspects that are making them worthy role models. The campaign was widely successful.

In just 5 days, Disney met its $1 million pledge of donation when the photos reached 1 million shares and the Girl Up program saw amazing growth and support.

Although Disney didn’t directly promote any of its products or movies, it certainly increased its brand awareness by associating it with a positive and inspiring message. It’s undeniable that many girls around the globe were meaningfully impacted by that campaign and attribute it to Disney.

Annual Campaigns

Disney never leaves a good anniversary or significant achievement to go to waste. Every year the company finds a reason to celebrate and promote its collection of brands.

In 2018, Disney celebrated its 100.000th wish granted in partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation by launching the digital campaign #ShareYourEars. It invited Disney fans to create and share pictures wearing their own, creative Mickey Mouse ears, donating $5 for each post to Make-A-Wish. Again, the response was excessive, motivating Disney to double its initial pledge to a $2 million donation.

The whole month of August 2020 was dedicated to Pixar, marking the 25th anniversary of Toy Story with Pixar Fest. The company released plenty of new content in the Disney+ platform including animator masterclasses and quizzes. It was, once more, in support of another charity: MediCinema.

We are sure that all kinds of plans are already brewing for the coming 100th birthday of the company in 2023.

How Disney products tell stories

One of Disney’s major revenue generators is its physical products. The company advertises its products in all the traditional ways that other companies do as well, but it has one enormously advantageous leverage.

Instead of building stories to surround its products and then try to sell them by promoting the stories, as most businesses do, its products sprung out of the stories. First comes the story and then the products.

The success of the story in the first place creates a healthy or sometimes overwhelming demand for physical products. Then, capitalizing on the popularity of the story, they supply their already pumped-up audience with their branded merchandise.

And they can charge a premium price for them. They’re not just selling toys; they are selling the opportunity to be part of the story, take the characters home, and relive their adventures with them. Again, they’re selling the Disney experience.

This reverse marketing has its risks, though. If the stories (read movies) are not so successful or cute characters feel forced, their merchandise sales take a serious toll.

For example, Star Wars had a huge boost in merchandise sales in 2015 due to the first movie's release after 10 years, but in the following years, the sales moved downwards. Disney’s failed attempt at a Star Wars spinoff movie seriously impacted its product sales.

Theme parks marketing

Disney is the theme park industry leader with a higher annual attendance than the next two corporations together. This is no small feat.

Disney’s theme park depends a lot on the attendance of the local population. For that reason, every new ride and show is heavily promoted in the local channels to attract repeat customers and offer them fresh experiences.

The company follows a different tactic to attract international visitors. Its marketing campaigns of the theme parks aim at placing them as ideal traveling or holiday destinations. They promise a novel, all-inclusive experience that provides solutions to almost any concern of the potential guests.

But advertising doesn’t stop once the guests enter the gates of a park. Every theme park experience is carefully designed to be immersive and urges the guests to make it memory tokens by taking pictures and videos and sharing them online.

Through the excitement and the joyful participation, Disney makes micro advocates of its brand out of its guests. Simply put, people love sharing and telling the world how awesome their Disney experience is. And Disney compels them to do it.

Key Takeaway #5: Engage your customers and develop meaningful relationships

All of Disney’s interactions with its customers aim at creating or enhancing the relationship between the brand and its customers.

Arguably, media and entertainment companies have more opportunities to engage and foster relationships with their customers. However, purposefully engaging with customers is imperative for every organization that wishes to have loyal and high-quality customers. Producing value and being relevant are today’s most important marketing traits.

Disney's innovation strategy and technological capabilities

Disney has entered, disrupted, and innovated in a number of industries. What is driving all of Disney’s innovative initiatives is its intense focus on the customer. It’s impossible to overstate this fact. Excelling at customer experience is what sets Disney apart.

Reinventing the cruise experience

When Disney decided to enter the cruise industry, few believed in its success. The truth is, to this day, Disney hasn’t achieved a penetration larger than 3% of that market. That’s a poor indicator of its influence. Since Disney entered the world of cruising, it has never been the same.

Disney took the traditional cruise experience and flipped it on its head. In what was a primarily adult-designed experience, Disney shifted its focus on the children. They made their ships particularly family-friendly.

Disney reinvented cruising by designing its ships from scratch. They don’t buy ships and remodel them to fit their standards; they build them from the beginning with their customers in mind.

The ingenuity that went into crafting the cruises was evident in two elements. The customer service and the ship design.

Disney achieved the impossible. It translated the theme park experience to the cruise experience. The company built rides inside the ship, shows, and performances and every single place had a theme attached to it. From pirate nights to Star Wars bars.

And the design is accommodative for the whole family. There are places exclusive to children and others exclusive to adults. Everything and everyone inside the ship aims at making life easier for the parents and joyful (and safe) for the kids.

Living inside the ship is beyond relaxing and comfortable, it’s a Disney adventure. Sometimes people choose not to go to the private islands that Disney has included in the cruise route, just to spend more time inside the ship. They made their ships the destination.

The influence that Disney has in the cruise industry is monumental.

Imagineers: Disney’s most important team

From the early days of the company, the founder established a team, called “Imagineers”. They were responsible for building and bringing the vision, dreams, and plans of Walt Disney and the company into the real world.

Behind the design of every theme park, ship, and attraction is this team. Today this team has evolved into the R&D department of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney's obsession with quality and exceptional customer service had spoiled the team, which never stayed within budget when it came to their projects.

This later led to complications and disputes within the company, contributing to its financial difficulties when Disney wasn’t performing well. Like every organization, Disney struggled to balance pursuing innovation and having efficient processes.

In all accounts, Disney's R&D arm is responsible for stacks of technological and design advancements throughout its history, helping the company to pioneer and stay ahead of its competition.

World-class analytics

Since well before 2000, Disney had established a world-class analytics department and in the following years kept investing in it, trying to take advantage of its capabilities as much as possible. The primal focus is the customer. Every analysis and insight aims at optimizing the customer experience and improving every single interaction with the brand.

The $1 billion solution

The problem today with companies is not gathering the data, but the analysis and use of it. Disney faced several problems early in the last decade, where guest satisfaction in its parks suffered due to high attendance. In the pursuit of a solution to numerous logistical problems, Imagineers came up with an innovative and widely applicable solution: the MagicBands.

Initially, a bracelet and recently redesigned to fit several other accessory roles, MagicBands include multiple functions that make the guests’ experience frictionless and playful. However, the easily noticeable improvements to customer service were only the tip of the iceberg of the invention’s efficacy. Its most meaningful impact was occurring behind the scenes.

With the data collected from the bands, Disney solved or improved countless operations and logistical nightmares, which impacted not only the cost of operations but guests’ experience as well. There was one advantage that Disney’s obsession with quality and creating an immersive experience made that investment payout so well. The sense of safety and lack of harmful, ill-intentioned situations within the parks.

People felt comfortable sharing their data within the park’s compounds and resorts, knowing they’re safe from all the negative exploitations and content that platforms like social media can’t mitigate.

Though the capabilities of smartphones quickly outmatched the technology of the MagicBands, Disney had developed elaborate systems and processes to track and analyze all kinds of data from them.

That way, it was relatively an easy matter to incorporate technological advancements into the company’s processes. The $1 billion investment in the development of the MagicBands enhances Disney’s data capabilities in the long term.

Key Takeaway #6: Hardcore customer-centric data analysis in the heart of modern innovation

Disney conquered and influenced a number of industries with its obsession with customer experience. It didn’t achieve that by passively brainstorming new ideas. Instead, it created outstanding analytics programs that connected all of its processes from customer knowledge to financial information.

Raw data is worthless if it can’t be analyzed or connected to the right information. A strong analytics department can lead to insights that create competitive advantages.

Disrupting Disney From Within: How Disney Developed The Best Streaming Services

Technological advances have profoundly impacted the media and entertainment industry. If companies are to survive the disruption, their leadership should always have their eyes on the future and the company's foot in it. That’s Bob Iger’s view.

Consequently, sensitivity to changes in an industry or consumer behavior becomes necessary. ESPN was the first to signal those disruptive effects to Disney, since people were finding alternative means of entertainment, affecting the business extensively. Cable television was dying, and ESPN was going down with it.

Disney’s leadership heard the signal loudly and clearly. Instead of just accepting the industry's changes and passively watching the decline of ESPN, Disney decided to ride the wave of disruption.

Acquiring the technology to go direct-to-consumer

After analyzing the scenery and the effects on their various businesses, the verdict inside Disney was unanimous: they had to pivot early and quickly. So, they swiftly forged a direct-to-consumer strategy.

Since time was of the essence, they couldn’t afford to build from scratch a technology platform to take advantage of the changes in consumer behavior.

So Disney started examining potential acquisitions. Twitter ended up drawing their interest, and if it wasn’t for Bob Iger’s last-minute change of heart, there might have been a multi-billion Disney-Twitter deal. But Iger was deeply concerned about the damage of Disney’s brand from the challenges that Twitter would bring along, like handling hate and uncivil speech, rage, issues with freedom of speech, and generally all the negative aspects of a social platform that families – or anyone in that matter - should never have to put up with.

Instead, in August 2016, The Walt Disney Company acquired BAMTech for $1 billion, and the next year, Disney raised its stake to a controlling 75% with an additional $1.58 billion. BAMTech had developed a user-friendly streaming technology that offered a great opportunity to monetize the content and create a valuable relationship between Disney and its audience.

The approach to delivering their content in a direct-to-consumer manner wasn’t limited to ESPN. Disney decided to turn the whole company towards the direction of over-the-top services going beyond their established ways of content distribution.

Out of that decision, ESPN+ and Disney+ were born with the latter being a platform that utilizes and delivers the content of all the major brands that Disney owns: Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and of course Disney.

Internal disruption: Innovation isn’t cheap

Investing in those new services meant sacrificing significant short-term capital. For example, to be competitive in the streaming industry, Disney, like any other player, needed exclusive and original content in its platform. Over the years, Disney and its collection of brands had developed an abundance of high-quality content that was distributed mostly through third parties, like Netflix. Pulling out Disney’s content - so the company could distribute it itself - and breaking up the contracts entailed fees worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, the company had great creative potential that Iger wanted to tap into with the purpose of generating original content specifically tailored to the newborn distribution platform. He simply didn’t want to hire external production or create another studio to populate the platform. He had complete confidence in the existing studios and their abilities to deliver content with specific specifications. They had been successful after all in the traditional ways of content creation.

However, his ambitious approach put a significant strain on the studios and its senior executives. They essentially had to juggle new responsibilities and divert a significant part of their attention and resources from their currently successful businesses to meet the demands and goals of the Disney+ project.

They were competitive people with sometimes unaligned interests and were asked to put aside politics and work together for the success of the company. To avoid failure and also to impose a sense of urgency, Iger had to restructure the internal incentive and rewarding system to align it with the company’s priorities.

Innovation requires sacrificing short-term profits to potentially build a future strategic advantage.

Current status of Disney’s streaming services

Disney has caught on with the notion that people are enjoying the control that the new streaming services are offering. They can decide for themselves not only what they are going to consume, but also the time and the place they do it. And Disney is determined to offer the best solutions on the matter.

Even though ESPN+ isn’t contributing directly to the company's international expansion, it is once again highly profitable with over 12 million US subscribers in early 2021. On the contrary, Disney+ is currently available in over 50 countries with plans to expand by the end of the year (2021). By 2023 it is estimated that Disney’s international streaming service will go toe to toe with Netflix, having already exceeded the 100 million subscribers mark. Hulu, the third streaming service of Disney after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, is available in the US and Japan, reaching nearly 40 million subscribers.

Key Takeaway #7: Don’t fight disruption, embrace and ride it fast.

Leaders should always develop a futuristic approach when considering their strategy. Having open and sensitive channels permits early detection of disruptive tendencies within their industry. Once those tendencies have been detected, it takes great courage to accept them and leave behind the old ways of doing business.

However, those who take advantage of the opportunity and flex reap great rewards, and those who don’t get to watch their business slowly die out.

People Appreciate Breaking the Status Quo the Right Way

The Walt Disney Company includes a tremendously diverse bundle of businesses, so it makes it hard or, more accurately, pointless to try and define one specific audience that Disney is targeting throughout its businesses. Maybe the best (or frankly the only) term we can use to approximate it is “families”. “Families” in the broadest possible definition of the word and beyond.

What is making Disney uniquely appealing is the remarkable trait of its products to be enjoyed by almost the whole range of ages. Its animation movies may be targeting young children, but they are far from a drag for their parents to watch them together – at least for the first couple of times, after the 100th, it becomes unbearable.

Disney University

Disney takes the training of its employees very seriously. From very early on, Disney realized that the first and biggest champions of their brand should be the people working for it. The first Disney University was created in 1962 at Disneyland to train new employees and with an extensive preparation process to introduce them to the Disney culture, its ways and traditions, and the communication and collaboration practices of the park.

A fun fact about Disney is that the company doesn’t refer to its park’s employees as employees, instead, they are called “Cast Members” that wear “costumes” instead of uniforms and entertain “guests” instead of visitors.

This reinforces the idea that cast members are entering a stage when they come out and perform their roles. That way the magical experience that guests are invited to have is deeply immersive and exciting.

Since 1962, Disney has opened several facilities near its biggest theme parks with the same name and purpose while expanding its activities digitally with online courses. However, there is one common experience that every cast member goes through on their first day of work called “Traditions”.

The class is a welcoming ceremony and highly emotional, where new cast members learn about the legacy of Disney and their responsibility towards it. In just a few hours, they get the first real glimpse behind the scenes, are inspired, surprised, and taught about the new culture they are becoming a part of.

People working in Disney have many opportunities to get training and propel their careers forward. Even though Disney University is not an accredited institution, it includes highly valuable courses that experienced professionals teach.

Hiring, Diversity & Inclusion

Disney has a variety of programs and processes when it comes to hiring new people or offering internships. However, because of its massive size and diverse segments, the company has created a  website  to guide, inform and facilitate the process.

Over the last few years, Disney has demonstrated an impressive attempt to create products and tell stories that accurately represent the vastly diverse human world. This is evident in Disney’s storytelling, where fresh, inspiring, and modern messages are depicted and inside their culture.

Inside the company, there is a growing intention of leveraging the reach of the brand by welcoming and including people with various backgrounds and cultural traits. They make public statements of their support of communities like LGBTQ, offer internal cross-cultural mentoring, and take important initiatives.

For example, since 2012, Disney has established a program called “Heroes Work Here” dedicated to offer opportunities and help their reentrance to the society of returning veterans.

Another display of the company’s commitment to the promotion of aspirational themes and underrepresented or even forgotten communities, Disney+ has inserted advisories to certain titles that appear before them. The message is shown below

Although Disney has still a long way to go to become a brand and company reflective of humanity's multilateral and terrifyingly flavor-rich realm, it has displayed serious effort to advance in that direction.

Key Takeaway #8: Honoring the responsibility of international brands means focusing on the people

Disney recognizes its ability and responsibility to shape cultures and opinions and has started taking them seriously and handling them with great maturity. It’s not easy to transform an organization the size of Disney and make it an exemplary brand, yet they are determined to pursue it actively.

Maybe the company’s nature and size enable this process or maybe not. But, the truth is that seeing this honest and efficacious attempt to tackle important issues and provide a serious focus on people and culture has an inspiring effect. It sends the message that inclusion is possible and the differences that people bring into the room are not obstacles to overcome, but rather blessings that, if utilized, introduces precious qualities that can’t be bought another way.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

Disney is a multifaceted corporation. It offers unique experiences and stories. It is a very rare kind of organization, because of the strong correlation between its segments. Its separate business influences the other and works as a multiplier. The brand equity of The Walt Disney Company increases the aggregated value of its part, making it significantly more than their sum.

Recap: Growth by the numbers

The ultimate list of strategic takeaways:

Though few companies have the diverse assets of Disney, there are still many tactics and strategies that can be adopted by studying the company.

• A clear vision drives perseverance and innovation
• There is such a thing as going too fast
• Crazy ideas need respect and candor to become reality
• Brand is a strategic function
• Engage your customers and develop meaningful relationships
• Hardcore customer-centric data analysis in the heart of modern innovation
• Don’t fight disruption; embrace and ride it fast.
• Honoring the responsibility of international brands means focusing on the people

Case Study: The Walt Disney Company

Cite this chapter.

• Andrew Ward  

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Having developed the Leadership Lifecycle over the preceding chapters, including the leadership roles that correspond with the phases of the organization’s lifecycle, the dangers inherent in transitions from one phase to another, and how it is possible for some individual leaders to span multiple roles, it is perhaps advantageous to illustrate the Lifecycle by looking at how the various roles and transitions apply over time within an organization. This chapter and the next will apply the model to two organ-izations that have enjoyed substantial and storied histories to provide a historical application of the Lifecycle to these respective organizations. This chapter applies the Lifecycle model to The Walt Disney Company, and the following chapter to Marks & Spencer.

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Flower, Joe. 1991. Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-making of Disney. New York: John Wiley & Sons, p. 21.

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Eisner, Michael, with Schwartz, Tony. 1998. Work in Progress. New York: Random House pp. 136–7.

Masters, Kim. 2000. The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost his Grip . New York: HarperCollins.

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Ward, A. (2003). Case Study: The Walt Disney Company. In: The Leadership Lifecycle. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230514478_9

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Walt Disney Operations Management, 10 Critical Decisions, Productivity

The Walt Disney Company’s operations management deals with a diverse set of strategic goals and objectives corresponding to diverse business operations. The company operates in the media and entertainment industry and the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry, as well as markets for merchandise, such as Disney-branded books and clothes. The company’s 10 critical decisions of operations management are holistic in supporting high efficiency and productivity in this diversity of business operations. Business optimization strategies based on the competitive advantages, opportunities, and challenges discussed in the SWOT analysis of Walt Disney align with goals for efficiency and productivity in the company’s operations management decision-making processes.

Considering the impact of operations management on business capabilities and competitive advantages, effectiveness in the 10 critical decision areas addresses the competitive pressure described in the Five Forces analysis of Disney . The company’s competitors include the theme park operations of Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Universal Studios; the entertainment businesses of Sony and Paramount; and the travel and tourism services of Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian. Moreover, Disney’s streaming services (e.g., Disney+) compete with the video streaming services of Netflix, Amazon , Apple , YouTube ( Google (Alphabet) ), Microsoft , and Facebook (Meta) . Disney’s operations managers’ decisions affect competencies against these competing firms.

Disney’s Operations Management: 10 Critical Decision Areas

1. Goods and Services. Disney’s strategic objective in this decision area is to ensure consistency in operations that satisfy the company’s standards for the whole organization. For instance, the design and specifications of movies must be consistent with the design and specifications of the company’s theme parks and resorts. The design of goods and services is based on the business purpose and goals represented in Walt Disney’s mission statement and vision statement . For example, the objectives of the company’s mission and vision determine operations management decisions focused on the entertainment quality of organizational outputs. The elements of Walt Disney’s marketing mix (4P) and corresponding marketing strategies work with the operations management specifications of goods and services developed and released for target customers around the world.

2. Quality Management. The critical decision in this area of Disney’s operations management focuses on the objective of consistent quality while considering cost limits and resource availability. Walt Disney’s competitive strategy and growth strategies influence the quality specifications, resource requirements, and corresponding operating costs for ensuring product uniqueness as a competitive advantage. The company’s operations managers maintain processes that satisfy these requirements while optimizing efficiencies and productivity.

3. Process and Capacity Design. Disney’s operations management aims for high efficiency and productivity in processes that satisfy the output requirements of the business. For example, the company’s cruise line operations require high efficiency, capacity, and productivity despite the physical space limitations of cruise ships. Also, at Disneyland and other parks and resorts, the company’s operations managers adjust processes and production capacity to match seasonal and occasional trends in market demand.

4. Location. Walt Disney’s strategy for this critical decision area of operations management considers market access and geographic proximity for theme parks, resorts, and travel and tourism services. For its production and distribution of content, like movies and music, the company’s strategy focuses on accessibility involving talent and related human resources. The departments and divisions of Walt Disney’s company structure (organizational structure) influence some strategic variables of this operations management area, like groups and teams for handling operational targets in regional markets.

5. Layout Design and Strategy. Disney’s strategic objective for this critical decision area is to optimize the movement of people, materials, and other resources and assets through layouts that facilitate efficient and productive processes in the business organization. For example, in operations management for Disney theme parks and cruise ships, backstage layout designs prevent disruptions in providing entertainment to guests.

6. Human Resources and Job Design. The critical decision in this area of operations management at Walt Disney focuses on continuously improving human resources to support the operational requirements of the company and its subsidiaries and divisions. For example, the company has training programs and performance appraisal systems to facilitate skill development and to improve job designs. Walt Disney’s company culture (business culture) promotes innovation and quality in workplace behaviors for organizational learning and employee satisfaction, in line with this area of operations management.

7. Supply Chain Management. Walt Disney’s strategies for this critical decision area of operations management aim for a streamlined and stable supply chain involving suppliers whose strategies align with the media and entertainment company’s strategies. The company’s material supply chain management supports the material needs of the operations of amusement parks, resorts, hotels, cruise ships, and media and entertainment production. Operations managers account for the various market and industry trends discussed in the PESTLE/PESTEL analysis of Disney to ensure that the supply chain remains cost effective, efficient, and stable to support the company’s operations in different online and regional markets.

8. Inventory. The strategic objective of Disney’s critical decision in this operations management area is to maintain adequate inventory while minimizing costs and addressing internal and external variables. For example, the company’s inventory control decisions continuously adjust inventory levels to ensure adequacy despite fluctuations in supply and material availability, and to match changes in market demand. Disney has business information systems for coordinating inventory management and the supply chain in all areas of the business.

9. Scheduling. The critical decision in this area aims for work and process schedules that adequately support Disney’s business needs. The company’s operations management involves information systems for automated scheduling for some business processes, like the schedules of maintenance checks of IT assets. However, many schedules for employees and processes involve human input. For example, schedules of some rides and shows at Disneyland involve manual setting after employees perform necessary safety checks.

10. Maintenance. Walt Disney aims for reliability of processes and resources, including human resources, in this critical decision area of operations management. For human resources, the company has HR development and training programs, as well as leadership programs to develop workers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities that match business needs in media, entertainment, travel, tourism, and hospitality operations. Effective maintenance of machinery and equipment, like the ones used at Disneyland and in movie production, ensures optimal efficiency at all times. This efficiency and the corresponding minimization of wasted resources facilitates Walt Disney’s CSR (ESG) and stakeholder management practices , especially programs for business sustainability and environmental conservation.

Productivity in Walt Disney’s Operations

Walt Disney’s operations managers have high productivity targets, although external influences may reduce actual productivity. For example, unfavorable weather conditions may reduce the productivity of theme parks and resorts. The following are some productivity metrics suited to the case of operations management at Disney:

• Number of tickets sold per day (theme park productivity)
• Number of guests accommodated per day (hotel productivity)
• Episodes filmed per month (film production/studio productivity)
• Brookey, R. A., Phillips, J., & Pollard, T. (2023). Reasserting the Disney Brand in the Streaming Era: A Critical Examination of Disney+ . Taylor & Francis.
• Disney Careers – Benefits .
• Jahangir, J. (2023). Revisiting the principles of economics through Disney. Real-World Economics Review , 89.
• The Walt Disney Company – Form 10-K .
• The Walt Disney Company – Supply Chain .
• Tsarouhas, P. (2023). New Trends in Production and Operations Management. Applied Sciences, 13 (16), 9071.
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Empowering film creatives with digital twins

Walt Disney Studios’ StudioLAB and Accenture created digital twinning tools to support the next generation of filmmaking

5-MINUTE READ

Call for change

Walt Disney Studios ​delivers ​cutting-edge solutions ​that​​ ​continue pushing the boundaries of filmmaking​ through its​​ ​StudioLAB, an advanced development division for innovation in creative technologies.

​​Most recently, p​artnering with Accenture, Disney Studios’ StudioLAB wanted the ability to make 3D models of objects and locations. This virtual modeling technology, called photogrammetry, enables creatives to work together on and around a potential shooting location without ever having to be there in person.

In addition, Disney Studios’ StudioLAB wanted to create capabilities for more effective virtual collaboration. Specifically, it wanted to enable immersive, virtual collaboration within the StudioLAB itself, a 3,500-square foot facility located inside the famed old Animation building of the Studio lot.

When tech meets human ingenuity

Together, Disney Studios’ StudioLAB and Accenture developed two tools for digital twinning.

The Photogrammetry as a Service (PHaaS) tool is a cloud-based digital repository for photos and 3D models. Location scouts and capture technicians can easily upload and organize photos in the cloud, and within an hour, generate 3D models. They can then view these 3D models remotely on a web application.

Using Accenture’s Immersive Collaboration Platform, the team created the second tool, a digital twin of the StudioLAB facility for remote collaboration and virtual tours. Film and camera experts from Disney captured the 360-degree images of the space and Accenture’s design and engineering team recreated it in 3D, offloading visitor demand and making it more accessible to everyone.

A valuable difference

Using the PHaaS tool, engineers, artists, and visual effects professionals can now quickly search through potential sets and shoot locations, or leverage 3D assets for early visual effects. Walt Disney Studios has already used the tool to streamline and support pre-production and location scouting for major productions from Marvel Studios and 20th Century productions.

Additionally, the Virtual StudioLAB will introduce four valuable functionalities: virtual collaboration, hyper-customization, meeting flexibility and expanded capacity. With these tools, the studio can continue to build and scale new spaces and experiences, enabling the magic to travel to wherever creativity sparks.

MEET THE TEAM

John Peters

Managing Director – Media & Entertainment, United States, West

Mary Hamilton

Lead – Technology Innovation, North America and LATAM

Garry Chien

Manager – Strategy & Consulting, Communications & Media, North America

Case Study Solution

The walt disney studios case study help.

The Walt Disney Studios had just pulled its roots studio out of the closet nearly two years ago but, with a four-headed twist, this is how it all started. The team of original chief animation director Hank Milland was not alone over at this website celebrating another milestone in the franchise’s history. After the Pixar Animation Studios was wound up and they all moved into the home of their animation studio, Universal, they had to find a place for its own animator to work before on the projects. Bill Raimbaud of Walt Disney Studios had to do some digging ahead to find a small, if extremely expensive one. The studio recently had other projects at hand for its new franchise like the adaptation of the “Dick Bartles Returns” episode “Bartles” and the voice replacement of “Black & Visit Your URL That’s a more modest take on what the Disney Animation Studios had to offer than some of Disney’s original compositions couldn’t. In total, they produced approximately half the movie’s total of $7 billion.

PESTLE Analysis

One of the big differences between the two was the film’s feature/mainstay CG animation, the CG version typically resembling some of the film’s first score or, if you “get it,” in some ways it. Walt Disney has got a few CG series and some of the story lines, like a quick-jump sequence meant to create a movie with a low budget and often a low sound quality. The same is true of “Avenging and Dreaming” which is similar to a movie in the quality of the animated sequence. The sound is simple enough to put on play, but later bits that rock solid voice care and even shake hard at no end and sometimes are hard to imagine. In terms of the soundtrack, it covers songs that sound great but also feel a little too soft. That’s fine-tuning the music without sacrificing detail. When it comes to mastering the audio, “Raimbaud’s” vocalist, John Gantt, and “Play!” sound quite similar, though the latter was more like music than a novel or musical interpretation.

Case Study Help

“Play! Play!” in fact wasn’t even played at the start of the “Avenging and Dreaming” album. As John notes, the “show” was always choreographed over a level of tension, lack of the physical sound, and the lack of a quality soundtrack the film had to offer. The next take on traditional Disney animation was the CG soundtrack, though as we’ll see below it will be used a lot more often, rather than just “R.A.P.” As with the picture screen trailer above, these sorts of more-precision “a-comparison shots” combined with the high definition version that fits the film makes it easy to watch on both the same day and the same time of day. The big difference between the CG and the actual “a-comparison shots are what turned the stage from a Disney film in one great (and unsuccessful) direction to a Disney video computer as the next major advance in Disney filmmaking.

Recommendations for the Case Study

” On the other hand, the digital version is far more subtle and includes a few small adjustments, one for instance to look and feel “on key”. We’ll see more of this together with another piece of cinematic wonderland, the B- or C-video. The digital versionThe Walt Disney Studios, The Walt Disney Company Now has published its next Disney animated movie: Disney’s latest to play in the not-too-distant future (further uncovered here). The first feature in the Disney animated movie follows the adventures of Disney’s beloved and critically beloved first-in-class teen character, Toy Story. The Mickey Mouse, while obviously more than that: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Skywalker, a story about a young Skywalker who tries to save the galactic Empire from the effects of his young mother, brings a twist on the story thanks to an amazing, original cast: In the long run, Disney will almost certainly begin with an eight-toy line-up with Mickey featuring, no surprise, John Travolta, Joe Pesci, Jim Carrey Jr, and Ewan McGregor. Given their age, it’s going to take an extra 18 year-ago during this film and most (if not all) actors will wait until the show releases in September. Disney is expected to hold the top prize at its 2014 Animation Festival, which sees Walt Disney Studios’ annual Animation Festival showcasing spectacular results.

Problem Statement of the Case Study

Disney Film studios have a long history of supporting the action-adventure genre — or, perhaps more accurately, just doing what look at this website popular form of storytelling has been recognized as the top storytelling/drama genre. But, in this installment of Disney’s (now-shipped, now with just its name, the Disney Pixar Supergroup) series of 3D Feature films, the stories the studio is engaging with are set in the future, an episode where Mickey is introduced to a young Skywalker, and a brief segment of the short film why not try here takes place pop over to this web-site he is (in the minds of many) in the room to investigate the events surrounding the events associated with the movie. It’s an important break from the convention of telling a story, and it’s likely to mean most of the characters in the series — it’s basically an audience favorite — should be familiar with this first-in-class character, one so similar to the character in the animated films. Disney is offering the fans of the franchise a variety of options for enjoying the Pixar Supergroup episode. Here’s how the cast of Disney World: Toy Story star Lando Maia: Don’t Worry Whether You Love Him or Not The fact that Zardoz browse around here Disney’s version of the Disney production rights to Toy Story made the Toy Story-loving Hollywood fan seem to be more enthralled with the world that Toy Story once was. In the three-part documentary, entitled Pixar Animation: Toy & Snow, about the animated film and its first-ever Toy Story animated TV show, director James Wan at The Disney Studios said, “There was part of the reason that Toy Story was able to just bring out five different kids in the screen, and then this particular film will not feel so nice or cheesy. It’s all about how to change kids into toys and let them experience toys without spending nearly any money.

SWOT Analysis

” In the interview that follows, “The one trait we continue to feature here, the main actors, is the fun; although we don’t actually talk about such special moments as the setting, the characters, the characters for one or two movies, animation or comic. We’re, obviously, not talking about the kids in front of them, not the moms and dads that are so happy. We’re talking about them at all through all of this.” Disney’s creative director, Tim Burton, remembers how much fun he had when he was younger and remembered that once he moved to DC he gave part of the dialogue into Toy Story. Burton said, “By that point I had already had so many children who loved Toy Story and I was a kid at that time. I had once just got so happy and so excited and then I saw just how a lot Disney was going to do that. If you go to Disney World, you have for it as much as you can possibly put in, the entire world of storytelling with Mickey and the other kids around will go down in history, and I had also seen Star Wars, And Toy Story and Disney was doing that all of a sudden.

Alternatives

” Disney never quite knew what kindThe Walt Disney Studios is a sprawling old-school multistoried world populated by some of Noël Coward’s best directors and producers (and his team of friends) to feed the community. If one is going to cast a director into a particular scene in the film, it can be done at the top of the director’s list. “Can I talk?” I hear the wiry man say with a wink. “Anything.” He seems distracted yet ready to do anything, even more than for the film. Wim Jones is not the sort of protagonist in an epic film featuring characters who rarely screen. The director is not necessarily the kind of protagonist in an epic.

Whereas the Disney movies are about building up relationships with characters in an epic, in “The Walt Disney Studios,” we see how the actors try to create a framework around their characters, using every single opportunity. It has proven to be the case with both “The Jungle Book” and “The Tomorrow World: In Season Five.” Jones is a writer/producer/director of the film making work for “Walt Disney Studios,” the series of six shorts that run under the wing of the Disney XD studio. Both Mr. Jones and I begin the film with an early scene. While Mr. Jones is playing a co-lead character from his first season of The Jungle Book, our first scene looks back at the two co-stars during his years with the Walt Disney Company.

At the outset we’re given context from the previous films, and of course that context is important. “Rise of the Guardians of the Galaxy”, Mr. Jones is told by Disney executives to portray a young boy (Diana Lee) who tries to find one of the Guardians of the Galaxy for himself (Jemek), for a money-doll of that money. He goes to Disney to try and help find the Visit Your URL You don’t see the Guardians up close but you can hear from their voiceover that dialogue is done well, which is all good. He turns back into the character from the earlier film when a brief scene moves throughout the rest of the film. The film then goes back to the first part but we get the sense that Mr.

Jones was doing this not the other way around. It’s almost me, but it’s a fun film. The use of the dark my blog of acting, the use of the role in other parts, and some of the performances of the other actors are both truly off-putting. The Disney scenes have provided an in-depth moment. The actors are check ordinary people, trying to solve an emotional, complex dilemma behind familiar forces. Though we get some hope and mystery as we plot it as we see and rehearse, it does not help the movie’s narrative. If you like the Disney scenes then check out “Walt Disney Studios, The Jungle Book,” which gives you that sense of confidence.

The use of a director’s voice, its storytelling style and the quality of the work all combine to produce the most imaginative and exciting film in history. Foxconn has made several exciting collaborations with numerous Disney based companies around the world, from the popular “Captain Marvel” series to more recent Marvel movies, nothing stands out as an example anytime in

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Case Study: Enterprise Architecture at the Walt Disney Company

• December 26, 2023

• Sourabh Hajela
• Executive Editor - CIO Strategies

An excellent case study on Disney's Enterprise Architecture highlighting the importance of strategic planning, architectural roles, and effective technology implementation.

An excellent case study on Disney's Enterprise Architecture. The presentation provides Disney's Enterprise Architecture and the "business value" driven philosophy behind it. Excellent Read!

Large corporations, such as the Walt Disney Company, face the complex task of managing their enterprise architecture to support diverse business activities. This overview of enterprise architecture in large corporations addresses the need for a structured and strategic approach to managing technological frameworks across various business units.

Corporations often encounter challenges integrating technology with business processes, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of cohesion. A comprehensive plan that aligns technological infrastructure with business goals is essential. Without such a strategy, the risk of disjointed systems, underutilized resources, and misaligned IT investments increases, potentially impacting the company's overall performance and competitive edge.

This Disney Case Study outlines a thorough approach to these challenges, focusing on the roles of architects in guiding the strategic direction and implementation of enterprise architecture. It emphasizes the importance of an institutional approach to managing architecture, ensuring that technology decisions are aligned with business objectives and the diverse needs of various segments and business units. The Disney EA case study provides a detailed look at the enterprise architecture model, including technical architecture layers, components, and the technology decision framework, offering a blueprint for effective technology management.

Additionally, the Disney enterprise architecture case study discusses the dynamics of development within the enterprise architecture context, highlighting the importance of adaptability and strategic foresight in technology planning and implementation.

This case study is a valuable guide for large corporations looking to optimize their enterprise architecture. It provides a roadmap for effectively aligning technology with business strategies, ensuring efficient and coherent management of IT resources across the organization.

Main Contents:

• Roles and Responsibilities in Enterprise Architecture: Discussing the role of architects in guiding and implementing enterprise architecture.
• Institutional Approach to Enterprise Architecture: Describing the organizational strategy for managing and integrating enterprise architecture across different business units.
• Enterprise Architecture Model: Detailing the enterprise architecture's technical layers, components, and overall framework.
• Technology Decision Framework: Outlining the process for making informed technology decisions within enterprise architecture.
• Development Dynamics in Enterprise Architecture: Examining the adaptability and evolution of enterprise architecture in response to business needs and technological advancements.

Key Takeaways:

• Strategic Alignment is Crucial: Emphasizing the importance of aligning enterprise architecture with business objectives for overall organizational efficiency.
• Importance of Architect Roles: Highlighting the key role of architects in effectively managing and implementing enterprise architecture.
• Comprehensive Frameworks are Essential: Stressing the need for a detailed and robust enterprise architecture model to support diverse business activities.
• Informed Technology Decisions: Underlining the importance of a structured decision-making process to ensure optimal resource utilization in the technology framework.
• Adaptability in Architecture: Recognizing the necessity for enterprise architecture to be adaptable and evolve in line with changing business requirements and technological advancements.

CIOs can effectively use this Disney enterprise architecture case study to address several key challenges in their organizations:

• Strategic Alignment of Enterprise Architecture : By applying the principles outlined in the document, CIOs can align their enterprise architecture more closely with business strategies, ensuring that technology initiatives support and drive organizational goals.
• Role Clarity and Effective Management : The document's insights into the roles and responsibilities within enterprise architecture can help CIOs structure their teams more effectively, ensuring clear accountability and efficient management of technology frameworks.
• Developing a Robust Enterprise Architecture Model : The detailed description of the enterprise architecture model provides CIOs with a blueprint for developing a comprehensive and adaptable architecture that caters to various business needs.
• Making Informed Technology Decisions : The overview’s emphasis on a structured technology decision framework can guide CIOs in making informed decisions that align with current and future business objectives.
• Adapting to Changing Business and Technology Landscapes : Insights into the development dynamics within enterprise architecture can aid CIOs in fostering an environment of continuous adaptation and evolution, crucial for keeping pace with technological advancements and changing market demands.

In essence, this case study of Walt Disney Company's enterprise architecture offers a valuable resource for CIOs, enabling them to enhance their strategic planning, improve the management of IT resources, and ensure that their enterprise architecture effectively supports the organization's broader goals.

Don’t Miss These Related References:

• Case Study: Enterprise Architecture Principles in Practice
• Case Study: Complete Enterprise Architecture Implementation Guide
• Enterprise Architecture Driven Business Transformation Case Study
• Case Study - Enterprise Architecture Enabled Business Transformation
• Case Study: Enterprise Architecture Lifecycle

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Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study: Disney’s Diversification Strategy

Case Study: Disney’s Diversification Strategy

The story of Disney is that of a company founded in 1923 by the Disney brothers, Walt and Roy. In the beginning, the company was referred to as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and later incorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions made its mark for many years in the animation industry before venturing into television and live-action film production. Something else also happened before Walt had the breakthrough with Mickey Mouse. Before Mickey, there was Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. But because he didn’t own the copyright, Walt lost the rights to Oswald, a bitter lesson that was to shape his company positively in the future. That experience thought him very early the value of intellectual property and Disney has used that knowledge to tighten controls over its properties as well as build defense against entrants and competing incumbents. The characters at Disney are well protected and the brand created out of them are so strong that they deter competitors from ever trying to imitate.

Disney World, a family books lodging months in advance at a hotel inside the park. It does so because it knows that the hotel has the best location, is highly demanded, and will provide good hospitality. Being lodged inside the park, the family eats at Disney-owned restaurants and perhaps buys Disney merchandise. All the while the family willing pays prices that are higher than would be charged by comparable hotels, restaurants, and theme parks. It does so happily because it considers the experience a good value.

But wait, there’s more. Consider what makes Disney World the world’s number one destination resort in the first place. It is fueled by the positive experience generated by other Disney productions – most likely the lovable characters of the Disney family. While in the park, children clamor to meet the Disney characters scattered throughout the park. This memorable and emotional experience further fuels demand for home videos, books, television broadcasts, or retail purchases. And the kids (and often parents) can’t wait for the next trip to Disney World, completing the cycle. This complex but carefully orchestrated web of complementary businesses is the ‘Magic of Disney’. It’s what drives major advertisers such as Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola to pay for the right to feature Disney World in their own promotions.

Disney and Diversification

Disney’s diversification didn’t start today. In 1928, its first cartoon was released. One year later, it licensed a pencil tablet, then the Mickey Mouse Club (MMC) was formed as a vehicle for selling Disney’s products under one roof. Within a short time, the membership of the club grew to 1million members. In 1949, the company diversified into music was was even said to have produced training and educational films during the war. Diversification produces synergy. Diversification strengthens the existing business and the entire new business created. Diversification can be related or unrelated. It is related if the activities of the businesses complement those of the firm’s present business in a way that increases or adds to the competitive advantage . In order words, related diversification leads to strategic fit which itself creates opportunities. Opportunities to;

• Transfer technological know-how (that are competitively valuable) from one business to another.
• Lower cost by combining the performance of common value chain activities
• Leverage or exploit use of a well known brand
• Get valuable resource strength and capabilities across business

But if the businesses being diversified into have no competitive and valuable value chain that fits with the the value chain of the present business(es), then the diversification is said to be unrelated as there is no strategic fit.

Walt Disney understood the interrelation of new industries to each other right from the beginning, something that continues to be the source of competitive advantage to the company till today. Encapsulated in the ‘Magic of Disney’, the story goes thus.

Family take a trip to Disney, book into a hotel (owned by Disney) inside the park. While in the park, the family eats at Disney-owned restaurants, buy Disney merchandise. It doesn’t matter that they are paying higher for accommodation and meals compared to other hotels. Children meet the Disney characters everywhere in the park which leaves a long lasting emotional experience. The children and their parents end up buying videos, books, TV broadcast which they take home with them. All of these make them look forward to another visit to the Disney and the circle continues. The integration of these complementary businesses is the ‘Magic of Disney’.

Ever since, Disney has expanded its operations to cover theatre, radio, publishing, online media etc. Until the early 1980’s Disney focused on the family creating entertainment for the home and the family. As a result, they were clearly differentiated in the market from their competitors. All of that was to change around 1984 when Michael Eisner took over as CEO. Like Walt Disney, Eisner was an innovative and intuitive leader and his era marked a turning point for the company that was hemorrhaging for cash and that soon became the target of takeover by several companies.

Eisner’s goal was to evolve a company that would grow by 20% a year. To achieve this, Eisner followed these three principles which include keeping its cost down so it doesn’t erode its profit, operate the core business in a profitable manner and find new businesses that could integrate with Disney and guarantee an annual growth rate of 20% for the company. To achieve a 20% growth rate, the business had to diversify, exploring synergies in new industries, and overseas expansion. Overseas expansion is inevitable when the local domestic market has reached a near saturation point. Some of the early businesses Eisner was to add to Disney’s portfolio include the Disney Store, Euro Disneyland and the purchase of KHJ-TV, Disney’s first broadcasting outlet. Also, the company established a major television presence and increased the number of films released from 2 in 1984 to 15-18 yearly.

Disney’s expansion and diversification efforts was driven purely by the need to attain an economy of scope that will give it the desired market dominance as well as the economies of scale to bring down its cost of business. It pursued this strategy throughout the 90′ using a combination of diversification into areas that were a natural extension of their current business as well as such other areas where they had less synergy but obviously had found potential opportunities. Both of these led to the birth of Disney Cruises, Pleasure Island and the incorporation of theme park management into its business model .

Is the diversification strategy working for Disney? The simple answer is that the numbers are there as proof. Since the coming of Eisner, revenues grew from $1.6 billion in 1984 to $2.9billion in 1987 largely as the result of the pursuit of diversification as a strategy for growth. One of Eisner’s greatest achievement was how he placed creativity as Disney’s most valuable asset and supported this as a leader to get the best out of his core innovation team

Despite the huge successes recorded, it was questionable whether the diversification into some market or acquisition strategies pursued with some companies such as ABC actually enhanced the shareholders’ value . The presumption is that when two companies who are leaders in slightly different fields combine, both would be better off by the synergy created between two of them. But Disney and ABC are both leaders in providing entertainment and both with extensive networks in creativity and production. When firms cannot leverage on their strengths following an alliance, then they stand the risk of diluting their brand to a point where they will not be able to make the profits necessary to return good value to their shareholders.

Today Disney has grown beyond the traditional amusement parks, movies, television shows, clubs, or books business. Its stable of businesses include Disney Cruise Line, Resort Properties, Radio Broadcasting, Musical Recordings and sale of animation art, Anaheim Mighty Ducks NHL franchise, Interactive software and internet site, etc. Whether these businesses are related or unrelate to Disney’s core business is not an issue as long as it produces synergy that strengthens Disney’s position in the market and creates value for its shareholders . Throughout its history, Disney has, with minor exceptions, shown the true value to shareholders created by synergies from thoughtful diversification. The company’s corporate strategy identifies the fact that while Disney may have some ‘magical’ products (its core products), its strength is not in the products themselves, but instead in the way in which they interrelate and complement each other.

Disney’s diversification efforts further increased the ‘Magic of Disney’. Television advertised the movies, which advertised the hard-goods and which advertised the television shows. So instead of paying to advertise Disney’s products, people were charged to be exposed to advertisement.

When you consider its portfolio of businesses, it will be right to say that Disney has pursued a combination of related and unrelated diversification. Take for instance Resort properties. That’s real estate. But Disney has used this to to make its customer live out the Disney experience right on Disney’s properties as opposed to going to a third party environment to watch Disney Movies or lodged in a different hotel and visiting Disney park.

Walt Disney Company strategy of diversification has helped grow its business in overseas market. Between 1988 and 1996 revenues grew from $3.4 billion to over $12 billion with the most growth coming from films and its consumer products. Not all overseas expansion were successful. For example, the Euro Disney had a lot of challenges and could not live up to expectations as a result of several cultural issues faced by the company .

Disney is now active in the hotel and resort businesses, the Vacation Club business (a natural extension of the hotel business), the cruise business and sports etc.

For a company that relies heavily on its strong culture, Disney must manage its growth and acquisitions carefully without loosing sight of the single most important factor that has brought the company where it is – the strong synergies and symbiotic relationship between its various businesses.

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The Walt Disney Studios Case Analysis and Case Solution

Posted by Peter Williams on Aug-09-2018

Introduction of The Walt Disney Studios Case Solution

The The Walt Disney Studios case study is a Harvard Business Review case study, which presents a simulated practical experience to the reader allowing them to learn about real life problems in the business world. The The Walt Disney Studios case consisted of a central issue to the organization, which had to be identified, analysed and creative solutions had to be drawn to tackle the issue. This paper presents the solved The Walt Disney Studios case analysis and case solution. The method through which the analysis is done is mentioned, followed by the relevant tools used in finding the solution.

The case solution first identifies the central issue to the The Walt Disney Studios case study, and the relevant stakeholders affected by this issue. This is known as the problem identification stage. After this, the relevant tools and models are used, which help in the case study analysis and case study solution. The tools used in identifying the solution consist of the SWOT Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, VRIO analysis, Value Chain Analysis, BCG Matrix analysis, Ansoff Matrix analysis, and the Marketing Mix analysis. The solution consists of recommended strategies to overcome this central issue. It is a good idea to also propose alternative case study solutions, because if the main solution is not found feasible, then the alternative solutions could be implemented. Lastly, a good case study solution also includes an implementation plan for the recommendation strategies. This shows how through a step-by-step procedure as to how the central issue can be resolved.

Problem Identification of The Walt Disney Studios Case Solution

Harvard Business Review cases involve a central problem that is being faced by the organization and these problems affect a number of stakeholders. In the problem identification stage, the problem faced by The Walt Disney Studios is identified through reading of the case. This could be mentioned at the start of the reading, the middle or the end. At times in a case analysis, the problem may be clearly evident in the reading of the HBR case. At other times, finding the issue is the job of the person analysing the case. It is also important to understand what stakeholders are affected by the problem and how. The goals of the stakeholders and are the organization are also identified to ensure that the case study analysis are consistent with these.

Analysis of the The Walt Disney Studios HBR Case Study

The objective of the case should be focused on. This is doing the The Walt Disney Studios Case Solution. This analysis can be proceeded in a step-by-step procedure to ensure that effective solutions are found.

• In the first step, a growth path of the company can be formulated that lays down its vision, mission and strategic aims. These can usually be developed using the company history is provided in the case. Company history is helpful in a Business Case study as it helps one understand what the scope of the solutions will be for the case study.
• The next step is of understanding the company; its people, their priorities and the overall culture. This can be done by using company history. It can also be done by looking at anecdotal instances of managers or employees that are usually included in an HBR case study description to give the reader a real feel of the situation.
• Lastly, a timeline of the issues and events in the case needs to be made. Arranging events in a timeline allows one to predict the next few events that are likely to take place. It also helps one in developing the case study solutions. The timeline also helps in understanding the continuous challenges that are being faced by the organisation.

SWOT analysis of The Walt Disney Studios

An important tool that helps in addressing the central issue of the case and coming up with The Walt Disney Studios HBR case solution is the SWOT analysis.

• The SWOT analysis is a strategic management tool that lists down in the form of a matrix, an organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. It helps in the strategic analysis of The Walt Disney Studios.
• Once this listing has been done, a clearer picture can be developed in regards to how strategies will be formed to address the main problem. For example, strengths will be used as an advantage in solving the issue.

Therefore, the SWOT analysis is a helpful tool in coming up with the The Walt Disney Studios Case Study answers. One does not need to remain restricted to using the traditional SWOT analysis, but the advanced TOWS matrix or weighted average SWOT analysis can also be used.

Porter Five Forces Analysis for The Walt Disney Studios

Another helpful tool in finding the case solutions is of Porter's Five Forces analysis. This is also a strategic tool that is used to analyse the competitive environment of the industry in which The Walt Disney Studios operates in. Analysis of the industry is important as businesses do not work in isolation in real life, but are affected by the business environment of the industry that they operate in. Harvard Business case studies represent real-life situations, and therefore, an analysis of the industry's competitive environment needs to be carried out to come up with more holistic case study solutions. In Porter's Five Forces analysis, the industry is analysed along 5 dimensions.

• These are the threats that the industry faces due to new entrants.
• It includes the threat of substitute products.
• It includes the bargaining power of buyers in the industry.
• It includes the bargaining power of suppliers in an industry.
• Lastly, the overall rivalry or competition within the industry is analysed.

This tool helps one understand the relative powers of the major players in the industry and its overall competitive dynamics. Actionable and practical solutions can then be developed by keeping these factors into perspective.

PESTEL Analysis of The Walt Disney Studios

Another helpful tool that should be used in finding the case study solutions is the PESTEL analysis. This also looks at the external business environment of the organisation helps in finding case study Analysis to real-life business issues as in HBR cases.

• The PESTEL analysis particularly looks at the macro environmental factors that affect the industry. These are the political, environmental, social, technological, environmental and legal (regulatory) factors affecting the industry.
• Factors within each of these 6 should be listed down, and analysis should be made as to how these affect the organisation under question.
• These factors are also responsible for the future growth and challenges within the industry. Hence, they should be taken into consideration when coming up with the The Walt Disney Studios case solution.

VRIO Analysis of The Walt Disney Studios

This is an analysis carried out to know about the internal strengths and capabilities of The Walt Disney Studios. Under the VRIO analysis, the following steps are carried out:

• The internal resources of The Walt Disney Studios are listed down.
• Each of these resources are assessed in terms of the value it brings to the organization.
• Each resource is assessed in terms of how rare it is. A rare resource is one that is not commonly used by competitors.
• Each resource is assessed whether it could be imitated by competition easily or not.
• Lastly, each resource is assessed in terms of whether the organization can use it to an advantage or not.

The analysis done on the 4 dimensions; Value, Rareness, Imitability, and Organization. If a resource is high on all of these 4, then it brings long-term competitive advantage. If a resource is high on Value, Rareness, and Imitability, then it brings an unused competitive advantage. If a resource is high on Value and Rareness, then it only brings temporary competitive advantage. If a resource is only valuable, then it’s a competitive parity. If it’s none, then it can be regarded as a competitive disadvantage.

Value Chain Analysis of The Walt Disney Studios

The Value chain analysis of The Walt Disney Studios helps in identifying the activities of an organization, and how these add value in terms of cost reduction and differentiation. This tool is used in the case study analysis as follows:

• The firm’s primary and support activities are listed down.
• Identifying the importance of these activities in the cost of the product and the differentiation they produce.
• Lastly, differentiation or cost reduction strategies are to be used for each of these activities to increase the overall value provided by these activities.

Recognizing value creating activities and enhancing the value that they create allow The Walt Disney Studios to increase its competitive advantage.

BCG Matrix of The Walt Disney Studios

The BCG Matrix is an important tool in deciding whether an organization should invest or divest in its strategic business units. The matrix involves placing the strategic business units of a business in one of four categories; question marks, stars, dogs and cash cows. The placement in these categories depends on the relative market share of the organization and the market growth of these strategic business units. The steps to be followed in this analysis is as follows:

• Identify the relative market share of each strategic business unit.
• Identify the market growth of each strategic business unit.
• Place these strategic business units in one of four categories. Question Marks are those strategic business units with high market share and low market growth rate. Stars are those strategic business units with high market share and high market growth rate. Cash Cows are those strategic business units with high market share and low market growth rate. Dogs are those strategic business units with low market share and low growth rate.
• Relevant strategies should be implemented for each strategic business unit depending on its position in the matrix.

The strategies identified from the The Walt Disney Studios BCG matrix and included in the case pdf. These are either to further develop the product, penetrate the market, develop the market, diversification, investing or divesting.

Ansoff Matrix of The Walt Disney Studios

Ansoff Matrix is an important strategic tool to come up with future strategies for The Walt Disney Studios in the case solution. It helps decide whether an organization should pursue future expansion in new markets and products or should it focus on existing markets and products.

• The organization can penetrate into existing markets with its existing products. This is known as market penetration strategy.
• The organization can develop new products for the existing market. This is known as product development strategy.
• The organization can enter new markets with its existing products. This is known as market development strategy.
• The organization can enter into new markets with new products. This is known as a diversification strategy.

The choice of strategy depends on the analysis of the previous tools used and the level of risk the organization is willing to take.

Marketing Mix of The Walt Disney Studios

The Walt Disney Studios needs to bring out certain responses from the market that it targets. To do so, it will need to use the marketing mix, which serves as a tool in helping bring out responses from the market. The 4 elements of the marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotions. The following steps are required to carry out a marketing mix analysis and include this in the case study analysis.

• Analyse the company’s products and devise strategies to improve the product offering of the company.
• Analyse the company’s price points and devise strategies that could be based on competition, value or cost.
• Analyse the company’s promotion mix. This includes the advertisement, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, and direct marketing. Strategies will be devised which makes use of a few or all of these elements.
• Analyse the company’s distribution and reach. Strategies can be devised to improve the availability of the company’s products.

The Walt Disney Studios Blue Ocean Strategy

The strategies devised and included in the The Walt Disney Studios case memo should have a blue ocean strategy. A blue ocean strategy is a strategy that involves firms seeking uncontested market spaces, which makes the competition of the company irrelevant. It involves coming up with new and unique products or ideas through innovation. This gives the organization a competitive advantage over other firms, unlike a red ocean strategy.

Competitors analysis of The Walt Disney Studios

The PESTEL analysis discussed previously looked at the macro environmental factors affecting business, but not the microenvironmental factors. One of the microenvironmental factors are competitors, which are addressed by a competitor analysis. The Competitors analysis of The Walt Disney Studios looks at the direct and indirect competitors within the industry that it operates in.

• This involves a detailed analysis of their actions and how these would affect the future strategies of The Walt Disney Studios.
• It involves looking at the current market share of the company and its competitors.
• It should compare the marketing mix elements of competitors, their supply chain, human resources, financial strength etc.
• It also should look at the potential opportunities and threats that these competitors pose on the company.

Organisation of the Analysis into The Walt Disney Studios Case Study Solution

Once various tools have been used to analyse the case, the findings of this analysis need to be incorporated into practical and actionable solutions. These solutions will also be the The Walt Disney Studios case answers. These are usually in the form of strategies that the organisation can adopt. The following step-by-step procedure can be used to organise the Harvard Business case solution and recommendations:

• The first step of the solution is to come up with a corporate level strategy for the organisation. This part consists of solutions that address issues faced by the organisation on a strategic level. This could include suggestions, changes or recommendations to the company's vision, mission and its strategic objectives. It can include recommendations on how the organisation can work towards achieving these strategic objectives. Furthermore, it needs to be explained how the stated recommendations will help in solving the main issue mentioned in the case and where the company will stand in the future as a result of these.
• The second step of the solution is to come up with a business level strategy. The HBR case studies may present issues faced by a part of the organisation. For example, the issues may be stated for marketing and the role of a marketing manager needs to be assumed. So, recommendations and suggestions need to address the strategy of the marketing department in this case. Therefore, the strategic objectives of this business unit (Marketing) will be laid down in the solutions and recommendations will be made as to how to achieve these objectives. Similar would be the case for any other business unit or department such as human resources, finance, IT etc. The important thing to note here is that the business level strategy needs to be aligned with the overall corporate strategy of the organisation. For example, if one suggests the organisation to focus on differentiation for competitive advantage as a corporate level strategy, then it can't be recommended for the The Walt Disney Studios Case Study Solution that the business unit should focus on costs.
• The third step is not compulsory but depends from case to case. In some HBR case studies, one may be required to analyse an issue at a department. This issue may be analysed for a manager or employee as well. In these cases, recommendations need to be made for these people. The solution may state that objectives that these people need to achieve and how these objectives would be achieved.

The case study analysis and solution, and The Walt Disney Studios case answers should be written down in the The Walt Disney Studios case memo, clearly identifying which part shows what. The The Walt Disney Studios case should be in a professional format, presenting points clearly that are well understood by the reader.

Alternate solution to the The Walt Disney Studios HBR case study

It is important to have more than one solution to the case study. This is the alternate solution that would be implemented if the original proposed solution is found infeasible or impossible due to a change in circumstances. The alternate solution for The Walt Disney Studios is presented in the same way as the original solution, where it consists of a corporate level strategy, business level strategy and other recommendations.

Implementation of The Walt Disney Studios Case Solution

The case study does not end at just providing recommendations to the issues at hand. One is also required to provide how these recommendations would be implemented. This is shown through a proper implementation framework. A detailed implementation framework helps in distinguishing between an average and an above average case study answer. A good implementation framework shows the proposed plan and how the organisations' resources would be used to achieve the objectives. It also lays down the changes needed to be made as well as the assumptions in the process.

• A proper implementation framework shows that one has clearly understood the case study and the main issue within it.
• It shows that one has been clarified with the HBR fundamentals on the topic.
• It shows that the details provided in the case have been properly analysed.
• It shows that one has developed an ability to prioritise recommendations and how these could be successfully implemented.
• The implementation framework also helps by removing out any recommendations that are not practical or actionable as these could not be implemented. Therefore, the implementation framework ensures that the solution to the The Walt Disney Studios Harvard case is complete and properly answered.

Recommendations and Action Plan for The Walt Disney Studios case analysis

For The Walt Disney Studios, based on the SWOT Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, VRIO analysis, Value Chain Analysis, BCG Matrix analysis, Ansoff Matrix analysis, and the Marketing Mix analysis, the recommendations and action plan are as follows:

• The Walt Disney Studios should focus on making use of its strengths identified from the VRIO analysis to make the most of the opportunities identified from the PESTEL.
• The Walt Disney Studios should enhance the value creating activities within its value chain.
• The Walt Disney Studios should invest in its stars and cash cows, while getting rid of the dogs identified from the BCG Matrix analysis.
• To achieve its overall corporate and business level objectives, it should make use of the marketing mix tools to obtain desired results from its target market.

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