Case Conflict at Walt Disney

Net income increased from $93 million in 1984 to $445 million in 1987, so Disney increased its net income more than four times after Eisner’s takeover in the first four years. Much of this incredible success is due to Eisner’s tough leadership, brand management and his corporate strategies. He not only brought the company back on track, but also made sure, that Disney did not loose its sight in his own corporate values (quality, creativity, entrepreneurship and teamwork) (1, p. 4). Much of Disney’s success in the first four years under Eisner was due to the strategies of simultaneously “managing creativity” and keeping an eye on costs due to well-defined financial objectives (1, p.4). What’s more, Disney

The companies worked towards a culture that was more in line with team learning. Pixar had previously operated under the premise where people were given the full chance to be creative and use their ideas in order to learn from their success or failures. Disney allowed for creativity however was more micromanaged. This new cultural shift for Disney to let go of some of the control was a hard thing to do for them. Disney had initially lost some of the people with this shift in their culture mainly with those who failed to adapt to this new free-spirited environment. With Disney’s regimented culture they followed more of a top down approach within their work environment. This approach initially during the merger hindered the learning approach that Disney Pixar was trying to create. Some employees at Pixar initially had issues with the cultural clash of a free-spirited environment and the rigid environment Disney operated with causing problems with retaining the talent at Pixar. Despite these cultural clashes and differences Disney Pixar was able to pull their new-shared vision in a direction that allowed for cross-organizational collaboration and for a new culture that worked for both companies.

Managing conflict for organizations is very important in maintaining business relationships, especially ones that are profitable like that of Disney-Pixar. At the helm of the Walt Disney Company during the begging and end of these feuds was Michael Eisner and Bob Iger. Even though Michael Eisner is the one responsible for the conflict with Disney and Pixar, he should be equally responsible for trying to fix the damaged relationship. When trying to manage conflict there are several approaches that can be taken to resolve the conflict at hand: dominating, accommodating, problem solving, avoiding and compromising.

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

To answer the main question of the case, we must think of the main problems that it faces. We need to find the solution for Bob Iger. What to do with Disney: to make some improvements in the existed company to compete better with Pixar, or to make a deal with another studio? Or should he work more with Pixar, or maybe just buy the whole company?

Introduction: The Walt Disney Company is on the threshold of a new era. Michael Eisner has stepped down from his position as CEO and turned over the reigns to Robert Iger. A lot of turmoil has been brewing through the company over the last four years; many people are hoping that this change in leadership will put Disney back on the road to success. Issues began around mid-2002; when declining earnings, fleeing shareholders, and

Lee Cockerell was the Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World for over ten years, but he did not gain this position overnight. He had years of hard work and dedication that lead him to this position. His humble beginnings instilled the value of hard work and basic management skills into his life. He discovered along the way through being an intimidating manager that something in his management style was not working. He evaluated himself and decided to become a better leader. His improved management skills are responsible for his climb up the corporate ladder. In the position as an executive at Walt Disney World, he wrote the strategies that were used to create the Disney Institute program that have created many successes for the company. Upon his retirement, Cockerell decided to share these strategies with other managers and leaders across disciplines so that they might be able to have success as well. He decided to do this by collecting his thoughts, tips, and strategies in a novel called Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney.

2. What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in Walt Disney Company’s business portfolio? See p. 234 in test.

The third strategy that Walt Disney Company utilized was a renewal strategy. After Walt Disney died the company lost its direction. They hadn't made a successful movie in years, the theme parks were suffering from little growth, and the attendance had not increased in several years. In 1984 Disney was underperforming and was fighting off takeover bids. Roy Disney, Walt's brother, recruited Michael Eisner to save the company. The end result was that Eisner took the company from a 1.3 billion dollar company to a 30 billion dollar company (ABCnews.com, 2011). He accomplished this by renewing the company's focus on entertainment. Under his

1. About Disney Difference and how it will affect the company’s corporate, competitive, and function strategies.

All the mysteries of Disney are covered in this interesting and thoroughly revealing book. Some of the events covered in the book are the relationships among Roy and Walt Disney, Eisner (former CEO and chairman) and the then Disney president Michael Ovitz, and the bad blood between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs. The book also contains stories about the spying done on Roy Disney by Eisner. The Walt Disney Company also has written several books.

The difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict is that functional serves a purpose in the organization such as the interest and dysfunctional serves no purpose but to threaten the organization ((Kinicki A. Kreitner R.2008 p. 277).

Disney has become a marketing goliath and the #1 entertainment company in the US. They have been able to develop a creativity-driven philosophy that over time was tempered by financial responsibility and that benefitted from powerful synergies between its divisions. From the very beginning, Disney has been synonymous with innovation within the children’s entertainment industry, from their introduction of animations with synchronized audio, full-length animated feature films and then later into theme parks and on-ice and Broadway shows. One important element of Disney’s success was the extent to which they integrated and expanded into different

In the last decades, the number of major corporations that manage to control media has decreased significantly, resulting in a high concentration of ownership. In 2011, only six media companies were responsible for 90% of the things we saw and heard on a daily basis compared to fifty companies in 1983 (Lutz, 2012). The Walt Disney Company is one of them. In this report, we will take a look at how the Company has succeeded in growing into the media corporation it is today.

1) What is the Disney Difference and how will it affect the company’s corporate, competitive and functional strategies?