Walt-Disney

Similar problems occurred in Disneyland Tokyo, where management didn’t even think about the height difference of Asians and Americans, resulting in too high public phones for Japanese guests. Concluding it is clear that the American company originally tried to implement a standardization strategy, when launching theme parks in other countries, without taking the local culture into consideration. Country specific procedures and regulations, and different local customer preferences forced Disney to adapt features of the US theme park business model to the local markets.

The case “Euro Disney: First 100 days” talks about the issues faced by the Walt Disney Company when expanding to international borders. The case begins with the history of Disneyland and then describes the reasons behind its success and expansion to various states across the country. It then describes the success of Tokyo Disneyland, first Disney theme park outside America and the factors affecting it.

The Walt Disney Company has created theme parks throughout the world for guests to undergo a specific experiences that recalls the guests’ inner child through rides, visuals, and music. Disney has proved to be more than just a theme park; it is portrayed as a “world” or “land” of acceptance and integration of all cultures into one place. The universality aspect is what draws people in from different countries to visit the parks. Ultimately, the Disney parks are based off of two key concepts: commoditization and Americanization. Since Disney is an imagined utopia, guests buy into, literally and figuratively, the commodities and experiences it offers. Through music and visuals, Disney intertwines a message of Americanization through a single world culture that the guests accept. Disney’s limited understanding of cultures became much more apparent as theme parks were erected in different countries with cultural values that differ from American norms. Disney is a utopian society that exposes a narrow interpretation of the different cultures throughout the world.

The Walt Disney Company has seen their share of success in taking their parks and resorts into global markets. “60 years ago, the first Disney theme park opened, in California and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself, who was motivated by the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters.” (Forbes, 2016). Disneyland California penetrated the market rapidly, and its popularity led to the opening of Disney World in Florida, followed by global expansion in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. Their latest expansion came in June 2016, on a 963 acres’ site in Shanghai, China (Xu, 2012). After one year in operation, Shanghai Disneyland is outpacing their most optimistic projections, and the park’s

When a company enters a foreign market, the company’s management team should work hand in hand with managers from the home country to have a better understanding of what the culture is like. In this case, I feel that Disney did not do that. One telling point is that Disney changed its leadership from American to French some fifteen times. The second point about the leadership of Disney was that the American and French leadership styles were often confronted. Another point is that the company did not have the support of Francois Mitterrand, the French president.

“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” – Walt Disney (Goodreads). The success of Walt Disney films, theme parks and company has built a legacy and attracted the attention of millions of people. Through the animated stories they enable to fill children’s imaginations with entertainment. Disney has embodied American culture with its catchy tunes and mass marketing. It has portrayed different repertories through movies and TV shows that shine light into different cultures, which is centered to be a controversial aspect. Not only has Disney become controversial, it has also become popular with its accomplishment in being able to create a wide spectrum of animated characters.

When the International Offer of Shares for the Euro Disneyland S.C.A. (in the following called Euro Disney) was published in October 1989 the plans for this new enterprise of the Walt Disney group were ambiguous. The financial plans for the first year of operation projected total revenues of FF 5,482 million and a net profit after taxation of FF 204 million. For the following years the development should be even more impressive. At that time the plans were seen as a consequent application of the concepts of the existing Disney-designed theme parks.[1]

Disney is a world-renowned brand. They have built their brand through popular characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy and timeless movies such as Toy Story, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast (About The Walt Disney, n.d.). Today, Disney’s greatest advantage for their firm is not just their reputation, but also their size. They have market control in both the amusement parks and media outlets divisions. However, the company can still continue to grow. They can expand by venturing into the European and Asian

The vision of Walt Disney’s America in the 1950’s was revolutionary then as it is today as he created an impossibly high standard of service, ambience and entertainment into an inelastic good. His rendering of America into a transactional commodity is not only a testament to our values but how deeply rooted capitalism is engrained in our nation’s core. Walt Disney created the world of Disneyland not only to escape the negative and furic energy of the real world, but to pay homage to the country that allowed his dreams to come true- the United States. Disneyland, through architecture, atmosphere and aesthetic, stamps the American masses with a yearning to attend “the most magical place on earth” and in doing so created an industry on it’s own- but does this fantasy world come with a price to pay? The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California was the beginning of the Disney Empire and is a testament of its economic effects both on a regional scale and a microeconomic one, but from it all, Disneyland serves as the perfect business model in the age of computers and service.

When it comes to Walt Disney around the Globe, the key facts in this summary is the different Walt Disney's around the world and their social and cultural differences in the global market (Ferrell, 2009). Walt Disney is best known by the famous Mickey Mouse character. Mickey has been an American icon since the 1930's and became part of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California in 1955 (Ferrell, 2009). Throughout the years Disneyland has expanded all over the world, not just America but globally. The second largest theme park was in Florida 16 years later (Ferrell, 2009). The first international park opened in Tokyo, Japan in 1983, then in Paris, France in 1993, and Hong Kong, China in 2005 (Ferrell). The openings of these different Walt Disney's brought about different global expansions. All Walt Disney's have different trends, cuisines, events, and more that all differs and vary from country to country (Ferrell, 2009). Not all Walt Disney's were a success. It took growth and change to keep the different theme parks together. In some situations the park had to offer discounts and run specials to keep the park running. So in all the main factors of this summary comes down to the differences culturally, and the way that the different Walt Disney's branched out to expand globally and worldwide and to not just look at Walt Disney being famous for just Mickey (Ferrell, 2009).

Biographical facts: placing emphasis on crucial experiences, episodes, pre-occupations and challenges that created turning points in advancing the subject’s leadership role.

Tokyo Disneyland was opened to the public on April 15, 1983. This amusement park was owned and operated by an unrelated Japanese corporation. The Walt Disney Company received royalties, paid in Yen, on certain revenues generated by Tokyo Disneyland. This new overseas business venture was bringing some concern about the foreign exchange risk to Disney. The management team at the Disney has been considering hedging future Yen inflows from Disney Tokyo since 1985. Mr. Anderson, the director of finance at The Walt Disney Company, focused his attention on a possible 15 billion ten-year term loan with an interest rate of 7.5% paid semiannually. On the other hand, Goldman Sachs, who had been working with

Disney’s target market consists mainly of family-oriented Asian tourists, primarily those from mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The mainland China accounted for large number of incoming visitors. At the time of Hong Kong Disneyland’s establishment, Hong Kong already enjoyed booming business and tourism sectors, but the government believed that the latter would be invigorated by the creation of a then absent “family tourist” niche. Below are the

Even in the United States, Disneyworld (Florida) and Disneyland (California) vary in there social forces. Cast Members (Disney’s term for employees) in CA are trained to be friendly and greet every guest, while in FL they are trained to only greet guests who seek them out. The political, legal, and regulatory factors again, vary from theme park to theme park. The parks in the United States have more restrictions than say those of Hong Kong, China. In the U.S, minors (age 15-17) are only allowed to work 20 hours a week. In Hong Kong, young persons (ages 15-17) are allowed to work up to 48 hours a week. Regulatory factors such as this differ in each region. The Walt Disney Company Parks and Resorts has quite an extreme variety of natural environments. The weather in Florida for example can get in the 100’s regularly whereas in California it can get as cold as the low 50’s. These weather conditions actually are a big factor in guests determining which park they want to visit. Technology seems to stay consistent between most of the theme parks. In fact, many of the theme parks have some of the same rides at their parks. The global forces actually can create threats to the company. The addition of the newest theme park to the company, Shanghai Disney, took several years to become accepted. This has been common throughout the duration of The Walt Disney Company. Many people vote against a new theme park or resort because of the crowds that it

Culturally, Disney cannot force itself on another people, which in this case was the whole of the European continent. Disney promoted its product, the theme park, similar to that of Tokyo Disneyland believing Europe wanted their piece of “Americana”.