Analyzing The Five Business Segments That Make Up The Walt Disney Essay

For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today 's global corporation, Disney continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world. The company is diversified, focusing on its mass media headquartered in Burbank, California (Iger, 2012). In terms of revenue, it is the largest media conglomerate in the world (Silkos, 2009). Founded on October 16, 1923, by the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in

Disney’s long-run success is mainly due to creating value through diversification. Their corporate strategies (primarily under CEO Eisner) include three dimensions: horizontal and geographic expansion as well as vertical integration. Disney is a prime example of how to achieve long-run success through the choices of business, the choice of how many activities to undertake, the choice of how many businesses to be in, the choice of how to manage a portfolio of businesses and the choice of how to create synergies between those businesses (3, p.191-221). All these choices and decisions are

The Disney consumer product ,the Disney studio and Disney interactive. It’s globally known consumer brand are Disney, ABC, Pixar, Marvel, ESPN and Lucas films, the media network contains domestic broadcast, production, their station, cable networks, publishing and digital operations. The global entertainment and television properties comes from it’s ABC television group, it also has television station and publishing and radio businesses.ABC creates programming and other benefits for all other businesses. Disney organizational structure has historically designed to carve the creativity and innovation into different platforms. It does not follow formal organizational chart as most companies do. Every department has equal footing and the structure is providing a creative process for Disney’s

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

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

Actual product: attractions, shows, Disney characters, rooms, food. The actual product is delivered in a "package", so the sections of the parks and resorts are consistent with certain themes.

The Stakeholder analysis: The Walt Disney Company stakeholders consist of communities, business partners, board of directors/shareholders, employees, customers/guests, and major business segments. The board of directors/shareholders and the major business segments are in the section of high power, high importance. The board of directors and shareholders expect a return of net asset value and an increase in the growth of dividend payments. They also expect more involvement in the decision of the company. Included in this group are the long time ousted members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold. Major business segments, consist of Entertainment Studios, Consumer Products, Disney Parks and Resorts, and Media Networks. This group expects creative license to work on projects that allow them to express the creativity of their individual organizations. This requires them to have the freedom of innovation and independence to make choices.

Of the four business units that make up The Walt Disney Company (Disney), the Media Networks unit is by far the largest with revenues accounting for about 43% of total company revenues in 2016 (Appendix C) (MERGENT Online). This segment is made up of cable networks like ESPN and Freeform, broadcasting networks, and all the technology and assets that go into producing content for these networks (MERGENT Online). Through it’s media networks division, Disney aims to provide family-friendly entertainment options to households across the world through television and radio networks. Because the cost to watch Disney’s channels is essentially the same as the cost to watch a competitor’s channel, competitors in this industry must compete on differentiation to attract viewers. This value proposition and strategy helps to focus the segment’s value chain and its efforts to capture value. The value chain (Appendix A), seems to suggest Disney’s brand, technologies, and recruitment capabilities are driving the segment towards its 24.86% margin (MERGENT Online).

The success of movies and television programs were due to diversity and distribution. It does its own distribution and targets several markets from children to adults. Finally, the Disney character consumer product sector, which includes clothing, home goods, and toys, has been an extremely important asset to the company. For example, by establishing deals such as an agreement with Mattel, Disney was able to manufacture more than 14,000 Disney licensed products. Furthermore, Disney expanded it’s retailing by opening up Disney stores.

The Walt Disney Company is a media and entertainment corporation that is centered in the United States but also spans across North America, Europe, Asia- Pacific, and Latin America. Disney has five main components in which it operates, which includes media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive.

Interactive media and studio entertainment are currently generating the least revenue. This is due to the high cost to produce films for studio entertainment and the fact that interactive media is a relatively new business channel for Disney. However, out of all business lines, these two have the most potential in their industry and are therefore very attractive. Interactive media is a hot trend that Disney will be able to capitalize on due to its acquisition of Playdom. While films are very expensive to produce and distribute, the profit potential from Marvel and Pixar make the industry very attractive overall.

Under his leadership the company went from two theme parks to nine located throughout the world. Disney now consists of the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, California Adventure, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios, Euro Disney, Tokyo Disney, and Hong Kong Disneyland. In addition to the theme parks Walt Disney has acquired several companies to increase their television and movie presence. Some recent examples include the acquisition of Pixar Entertainment, Marvel Comics, and the ABC television networks (Goldman, 2009). Eisner is also credited with the creation of the Walt Disney Cruise Line that is made up of four ships; the Wonder, Magic, Dream, and Fantasy (Disneycruise.com, 2011). Disney.com said "Making dreams come true every day is central to our global growth strategy" (2011, p.2).

The Walt Disney Company is an outstanding renowned entertainment and media corporation with business ventures in Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Consumer Products, and Disney Interactive. Walt Disney Company is a diversified corporation with products all around the world. (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.)

The Brand of Disney is our major distinctive competency. With our assortment of characters, primarily our star Mickey Mouse, we are known worldwide through various sources which provides us a competitive advantage. Disney theme parks are reinforced by Disney TV programs, merchandise and movies. The company has unique ability to consistently produce entertainment in various mediums while keeping cost fairly low.

Children’s book publishing and consumer products in retail make up another strength of Disney. In 2011 Disney was the largest licensor of character based merchandise in the world (Gamble & Turnipseed 2014), and lastly there is interactive media. This is the