...Running Head: WALT DISNEY COMPANY Walt Disney Company Student University Case: Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Company follows a business strategic which focuses on each line of the business within its organization. It seems Disney has developed a unique strategy for each of its four SBUs and has continued to make the right strategic decisions under competitive markets. The Walt Disney Company is organized in a SBU format in order to serve a specific market more efficiently and therefore extracting maximum value from a group of related businesses. By doing this, Disney enables to create value across its business units and creates a strong competitive advantage by having a strong presence in the business industry. Strategic Business Units are self-contained divisions founded within an organization and it deals specific business matters. The Strategic Business Units act as a complement for each business unit therefore empowering growth for the entire company. Mission Statements and Vision Statements are created to clearly communicate the direction of the company. A Mission Statement represents the organization’s purpose and objectives and it is the starting point of the organization’s strategic planning and goal setting development. The mission statement emphasizes attention and ensures internal management and stakeholders of the company understand what the organization is all about. Having a mission statement helps the corporation to create a relationship...
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...TRAVER CHAPTER 4 CASE 1 BUILDING AN E-COMMERCE PRESENCE: WEB SITES, MOBILE SITES, AND APPS ESPN Goes to eXtreme Scale VIDEO CASE Systems TAGS SUMMARY ESPN; IBM; eXtreme Scale; distributed grid computing; grid. ESPN is the world’s largest cable television sports programming network. In addition, it is the Web’s most popular online source for sports results, content, and commentary. Servicing an online audience of more than 50 million unique visitors every month requires ESPN to adopt processing technologies that are extremely efficient, powerful, and flexible. L= 5:40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqru81sjV4 URL CASE ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a multimedia, global cable television network with headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Founded in 1979 with financing provided by The Getty Oil Company, ESPN grew along with the cable television industry to become a mainstay of American popular culture. After a series of investments by Hearst Publications, and ABC (the American Broadcasting Network), 80% of ESPN finally ended up in the hands of entertainment giant The Walt Disney Company, and 20% with the Hearst Corporation, a 100 year-old media company based largely on newspaper and magazine businesses. ESPN focuses on sports programming including live and pre-taped continued CHAPTER 4 CASE 1 ESPN GoES To EXTREME SCALE 2 event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming. While originally a cable media company, ESPN has since expanded...
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...“Creativity continues to be the essence of Disney, even as our businesses expand across borders and media platforms, it is the foundation for almost everything we do, the source of our strength and our success, and the fuel that will power us into the future” - Robert Iger, President and CEO - When we hear the word Disney, what is the first think that comes up in our minds? Most people think about Disney and relate it to magical, exciting and large attractions parks and hotels, and the famous Mickey Mouse. However, they missed to see how big and influential this organization really is. Walt Disney Company is one of the World largest communications organizations. Everyone knows Disney! It is everywhere in our lives, from TV, radio and movies, to parks, clothing, accessories and toys. Owning diverse media markets, Disney has build a tradition of culture and niche by efficiently managing its markets and products, allocating them among different cultures, age groups and preferences. In this report I will be analyzing some of the major managerial decisions within the Company, its influences over the market and the way it has established across the years in our culture. We are now about to discover all the financial numbers, facts, operational activities and responsibilities of the Walt Disney Company, the “Happiest Celebration in World.” Let the Magic of Disney to begin… A Little Bit of History Walter Elias Disney founded the Walt Disney Company...
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...Introduction Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) is the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company (Hearst Corporation ESPN, 2009). In this paper, I am going to analyze and diagnose different areas within ESPN using the Weisborg Six-Box Model (Weisborg, 1974). The Six-Box Model includes purpose, structure, relationships, rewards, helpful mechanisms and leadership. This article presents a practice theory, Six-Box Model, for diagnosing organizations and how the six different category influence each other. According to the Six-Box Model different aspects of the corporation including the basic background of an organization (Weisborg, 1976). ESPN became the first sports network to televise complete sports coverage; 24 hours/7 days a week. This corporation is the leader in multimedia sports including television and radio with over fifty business assets, televising sixty-five sports in sixteen different languages in more than two-hundred countries (ESPN, 2012). Founded by Bill Rasmussen, ESPN launched their first televised and radio programs in America. Based out of Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN operates their network under ABC Inc. and Hearst Corporation. Currently, George Bodenhiemer, Executive Chairman, and John Skipper, Executives and Other Personal Personnel of EPSN, are the leaders at ESPN Inc. In this case, I want to take in depth perspective of ESPN. In this case study, I collected data through reading written records including speeches...
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...Disney Case The Cap Cities acquisition brought a number of entertainment related distribution properties under Disney's ownership including the ABC television network, 10 other television stations, the ESPN network, the ABC radio networks and several newspapers and periodicals. Prior to the acquisition, Disney was primarily a creative content producer and a theme park operator. With the acquisition of Cap Cities, Disney became a major player in media distribution. The investment thesis was to combine, further capture, and improve vertical components of the value chain (i.e. content development and distribution). In hindsight, we would argue that the benefit and cost based synergies were minimal and generally below expectations. As a result, we believe that vertical integration decreased total value – in this case – given that the market exchange is generally more efficient under licensing agreements. For example, the perception at the time of acquisition was that ABC’s distribution network would serve as a perfect outlet for Disney’s creative content and that the benefit based synergies from cross promotion were to be substantial. However, integration does not appear to have had such success. With the acquisition, ABC is effectively forced into purchasing Disney’s content versus the best, and in some cases better, alternatives. As a result, ABC’s ratings have struggled over time (particularly excluding Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) as the end consumer has opted for programming...
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...ESPN X Games: Commercialized Extreme Sports for the Masses SMGT 798 Allison Renard A Paper Presented to the faculty of Lasell College in Partial Fulfillment of the requirement of the Degree Master of Science in Management. ABSTRACT For years, extreme sports had little to nothing in common with each other except for high risk, and an appeal to women and men from the ages of 12 to 34. Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN), realizing this age group was a prime viewing audience, brought together several extreme sports and created yet another commercialized sporting spectacle. Since 1995, this television network has produced the Summer X Games. After these summer productions proved to be successful television and live spectator events, ESPN expanded into the winter extreme sports. The Winter X Games have been produced since 1997. This paper, which commences with the rise of extreme sports, is an historical and sociological analysis of the creation and growth of the ESPN X Games. While these commercialized adventure and extreme sporting events have had some obvious growing pains, both the Summer and Winter X Games have grown into events, which annually attract thousands of spectators and viewers while offering fame and a few dollars to their participants. INTRODUCTION One need only take a quick glance at the daily news to discover that society in general is still in a state of constant change (Leonard, 1993). In the United States, this is especially true...
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...Products, Services, Building and Brands Customer Value Before starting into the chapter, let’s look at an interesting brand story. Marketing is all about building brands that connect deeply with customers. So, when you think about top brands, which ones pop up first? Perhaps traditional megabrands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, or McDonald’s come to mind. Or maybe a trendy tech brand such as Google or Facebook. But if we asked you to focus on sports entertainment, you’d probably name ESPN. When it comes to your life and sports, ESPN probably has it covered. W The ESPN Brand: Every Sport Possible—Now Television: From its original groundbreaking cable network— which now serves 98 million households—the ESPN brand has sprouted six additional networks—ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes (Spanish language), and ESPN International (46 international networks around the world serving fans in more than 200 countries on every continent). ESPN also produces the sports programming on ABC, dubbed ESPN on ABC, and...
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...The Walt Disney Company 1. According to the Harvard Business School case booklet, Disney started from the short cartoon industry into major industries such as licensing, distribution, movie, home video, merchandise, internet (Distribution channel), hotel and resort, sports restaurant (EPSN zones), cruise ship (Disney Magic Cruise 1998), theme park (1955 Anaheim, 1971 Orlando, 1976 Tokyo, 1992 Paris), and television network (ABC 1995). 2. Walt Disney Company pursues several different ways to diversify: -The first step Walt Disney Company took to diversify itself was when they started to license out their cartoon characters allowing merchandizer to sell Disney products. This was a horizontal diversification strategy as Walt Disney Company did not control these vendors besides collecting on licensing fee and a portion of the merchandize profits. -The second step Walt Disney Company took to diversify itself was when they Greenfield invested to form their own film and home video distribution company (Buena Vista). This was a vertical forward integration effectively cutting out the middle man costs. -The third step Walt Disney Company took to diversify itself was Greenfield invested into the theme park industry. The theme park was a vertical forward diversification strategy that provided a different output to promote their cartoons. -The fourth step Walt Disney Company took to diversify itself was when it Greenfield invested into the resort and hotel industry. The hotels...
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...Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Financial Report And Shareholder Letter January 2012 Dear Shareholders, Fiscal 2011 was a year of great accomplishment for The Walt Disney Company, marked by creativity and innovation across our businesses globally, record financial results and numerous important steps to position the Company for the future. While 2011 brought us so much to cheer about, it was also marked by profound loss, with the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve’s incredible stewardship of Pixar, and his decision to sell Pixar to Disney in 2006, brought Steve into the Disney family, as a board member, a shareholder, a mentor, and a friend, and we were so lucky for all that he represented and all that he contributed. Disney, ESPN, ABC, Pixar, and Marvel are an amazing collection of brands that grow stronger every day as new platforms and new markets provide enormous new opportunities for high quality content and experiences. To that end, we are fortunate to have a talented group of employees who are committed day in and day out to building our brands around the world. Since becoming President and CEO in 2005, I have focused on three strategic priorities: creating high-quality family content, making experiences more memorable and accessible through innovative technology, and growing internationally. In fiscal 2011, net income attributable to Disney was a record $4.8 billion, an increase of 21% over last year, and revenue was a record $40.9 billion, up 7% from last year. Diluted earnings...
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...Walt Disney Case Analysis Corporate Strategy The Disney brand is extremely well known, but most may not realize how diversified the company actually is. The company is made up of media networks, theme parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive media. Walt Disney Company’s corporate strategy involves three aspects; creating high-quality family content, exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and internal expansion. Disney wants the whole family to be involved. Much of their success is due to targeting not just children, but the entire family. The movies and shows they release are done with family in mind. Theme parks and resorts, Disney Cruises, live performances and interactive media are all aimed at creating high quality family content. Disney acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Playdom in order to satisfy their second corporate strategy. The acquisition of Marvel and Pixar was intended to enhance Disney’s animation abilities to make experiences more memorable. Playdom gave the company new online gaming capacities that Disney hoped would help to improve its struggling interactive media division. UTV was acquired to facilitate its international expansion efforts. Disney’s international expansion strategy mainly focused on opportunities in emerging overseas markets. As of 2012 The Disney Channel was available in more than 100 countries and reached 75 percent of viewers in China and Russia. This was...
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...high price of $35.41. Currently, The Walt Disney Company’s stock is quoted at $50.59 as of October 12, 2012. The current quote shows there has been a steady increase as of August 2, 2012 where Stock Watch (2012) reported Disney’s stock at $48.98 at the time of closing. “As of October 2, 2010, the approximate number of common shareholders of record was 998,373” (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). The amount of shareholders is a sign that shareholders believe in the family entertainment company increasing their overall profits. The Walt Disney Company has done a tremendous job in capitalizing from their acquisitions, beginning with their most recent, ESPN. The Walt Disney Company (2012) states that over 70 percent of sports fans who search for the most up-to-date information on stats, scores, commentary, etc. from their phones rely on ESPN. The 2011 fiscal report shows that the company had an increase of 21 percent of net income as well as, a seven percent increase in revenue (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). The increase in net income and revenue directly affected the diluted earnings per share by having...
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...Project Proposal- Part 1 Angela Alvarado 1. For my research project I am going to review some Disney movies and the general media as in television shows and commercials, and take note of how many sexual innuendos or subliminal messages run throughout them. 2. My direct interest in doing this specific topic is to see if there are any innocent Disney films, and When is the right age to expose sexual content to children, when do they become mature enough to notice what’s sex. 3. In order to get the research information I need, I am going to spend some of my nights watching various Disney movies, and different typical television shows and commercials that air on abc family. I am also going to observe my little cousin watch various Disney movies with me, and abc family shows in order to see what their reaction is to them. In order to this I do need to invest in a new vhs player since mine is broken at the moment. 4. My plan for this project is to observe, first I am going to watch a few Disney movies on my own and take note of sexual innuendos or subliminal messages I may find. Then I plan on watching the same movies with my little cousin in order to see what they think of the movies or if they notice anything basically how it affects them. Then after our movie night another time I’ll watch some shows with them that would be on the abc family network and also see what their reaction is to that. 5. I predict that I will find a lot of subliminal messages throughout...
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...First and foremost, Disney wants to educate to the Chinese about their cartoon character and also some famous stories and theme. Second, they also must learn the country’s cultures because different countries have different cultures. For example, in Hong Kong, Chinese vacationers often book package tours, so Disney can launch tour package which include restaurant, theme park and others to fit their cultures. Next, Disney must localize on the different languages from different countries. From the case, Disney provides Tamil language and Indian version in India. Because of the language localization, the customize film in Indian version is very successful in India. Besides India, Disney had localized a lot of country like Russia. In Russian market, Disney launches a Russian version of High School Musical for the local people and its work very well. Besides that, Disney also localize in color and the Chinese culture. Disney had studied the culture, belief, value of Chinese. From the case, during the year 2008, it was a rat year according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Disney uses this opportunity to build awareness. Disney’s famous iconic character, Mickey and Minnie were wearing red color costume to celebrate the rat year. Red is a lucky color for the Chinese, it mean auspicious. Furthermore, Disney not only operates in movie and films but they also operate in theme park, hotel and shops....
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...page report to the board of Disney recommending why your analysis suggests that ESPN should (or NOT) be sold from the Disney portfolio? Focus on establishing the evidence for (or lack of) economies of scope between Disney and ESPN.” “Write a two page report to the board of Disney recommending why your analysis suggests that ESPN should (or NOT) be sold from the Disney portfolio? Focus on establishing the evidence for (or lack of) economies of scope between Disney and ESPN.” Overview of ESPN ESPN is a multimedia sports entertainment company that is part of Media Network division of Disney. ESPN became a subsidiary of Disney when ABC’s parent company Capital Cities Communications was acquired at $19 billion 1995. ESPN provides a 24-hour service and its family of networks includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, Classic Sports, ESPN Radio and ESPN SportsZone. The company is also broadcasting in more than 20 languages and to more than 150 countries. Why did Disney Acquire ESPN? Figure 1 Figure 1 With an aim in building a strong family brand, Disney has been continuously engaging in intense diversification strategy to expand its products offering to cater to both children and adults. ESPN acquisition has created a strong competitive advantage to Disney as it targets a totally different target audience from other Disney channels- primarily young to middle aged men. With its popularity and large user base, ESPN has been contributing significantly to the growth of Disney through affiliates...
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...Corporation is its brand. The Disney brand is by far one of the most recognizable brands in the world. They have utilized characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, and many other loving characters in order to attract children and adults alike. I myself have a love for Mickey mouse. I own an old fashioned Mickey Mouse telephone and waffle iron, just to name a few things. My five year old daughter doesn’t know many brands but she knows her Disney. I believe this is its’ greatest strength because the brand actually grows with many generations from birth on up. Secondly their cable networks are a dependable source of steady income. Cable networks bring in the largest portion of the company’s profits. Owning networks such as ESPN that definitely bring in the ratings is one of Disney main cash cows besides the actual Disney channel. Last year Disney made a distribution deal with Comcast which will all but guarantee more money for Disney over life of the contract. Lastly Disney has an excellent cash flow. One look at their annual report will leave a lasting impression on any business...
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