The Walt Disney Company Strategic Planning Analysis

Strategic planning is the management activity of an organization to achieve the organization’s goals through setting priorities, focusing activities and resources, working of employees and stakeholders, agreement establishment, and evaluation of the organization’s direction (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2015).

Strategic planning is a necessary process to ensure an organization understands its future, and emerging operational environment and issues. Strategic planning also develops measurable plans, processes, and procedures to prepare for that environment and the future.

Strategic planning can dictate the success of any organization if properly planned as well as the failure of an organization if not implemented as planned. Strategic planning is all about making choices. It is a process designed to support leaders in being intentional about their goals and methods. Simply stated, strategic planning is a management tool, and like any management tool, it is used for one purpose only—to help an organization do a better job. This portion of the strategic plan will explain why an

Strategic planning is "a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decision and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it" (Herman, The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, 155)

Strategic planning is the set of decisions and actions that result in the design and activation of strategies to achieve the objectives of an organization.

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.

Strategic planning involves taking information from the environment and deciding upon an organizational mission, and upon objectives, strategies, and a strategic architecture. There are many different ways to go about deciding on your mission. Michael Porter, a researcher from Harvard, had a few ways for developing frameworks for developing an organization’s strategy.

According to literature, strategic planning is vital for strategic management. Burgelman (1994) points that strategic planning is a process which decides how, when and who is going to plan and how the results will be implemented. Drucker (1974) identified that the planning for an organization’s future that includes setting major overall objectives, the determination of basic approaches to be used in

Identify an episode of strategic change for an organisation of your own choice. How appropriate was the approach to strategic change given the issues faced by the organisation? Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic leadership during the change process. Identify the impact of the change episode upon the key resources and core competencies of your organisation.

According to Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Disney’s corporate strategy for diversification is a combination of three objectives that are to be achieved through the fundamental alignment of the Company’s core business units. The three objectives to be achieved by The Walt Disney Company are (1) creating high-quality family content, (2) exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and (3) expanding internationally. The Walt Disney Company’s three objectives that make up the Company’s corporate strategy are to be achieved through each of the Company’s core business units that are split up in to five divisions (1) media networks, (2) parks and resorts, (3) studio entertainment, (4) consumer product, and (5) interactive media.

Strategic planning is the process of gathering information from stakeholders, market players, professional entity, and government agency. The purpose of gathering information is formulating a realistic and a workable framework that any organization can implement and work with. Evaluation of information is a key aspect in determine the kind of plans that the organization wish to a chive over certain a period. Strategic planning ensures the implementation is, crafted well, and parties involved be acquitted with it. Developing a good Strategic plan helps a company to implement its missions and visions effectively, and helps the company to evaluate

The company does not have a written plan in the strategic statement but it does give a general idea on what direction the company is moving. In Disney’s case the strategic statement includes:

Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals,

Many people think strategic planning is not meant only meant for huge businesses, but it is equally applicable to small businesses. Strategic planning is all about knowing the strengths of your business to opportunities what are available .The information is collected and analyzed about the business environment.A clear picture of our business’s strengths, weaknesses, mission and goals is required which involves more work than what is expected. Familiarity can breed contempt for thorough analysis, cannot properly evaluate your firm's strengths or shortcomings.

Strategic planning involves making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and strategies and how the organization decides to implement their goals (Bateman, Snell, Konopaske, pg. 113). Strategies help organizations to have a clear perspective on how to go about accomplishing the goals they have in place. All organizations have a clear vision of what their mission and purpose as a company is, they know how to fulfill the mission, vision, and purpose and they know how to ensure that they accomplish all their goals. However, the route the organization takes to define these things determines how effective they will be.