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Movie Company Business Structure

Case Study Analysis

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Leopoldo Vendramin

ADVANCED BUSINESS STRUCTURES

Special thanks to Mr. Peter Butters
Academic Year 2010/2011- Term I
The movie company considered for this analysis, has recently acquired one of the major comic company of the world, the “Comedy Factory”. Is therefore being developed a business strategy, that serves to clarify the organizational structure at global level. The investment made, then as purpose, growth and expansion throughout the world, trying to revive the comic book characters (hidden for too long) and trying to exploit the licensing of the former company, implementing a new strategic plan of marketing and distribution of merchandise. As in the past, when Disney acquired Marvel, the CEO of Disney, Robert Iger said: “This treasure find of over 5,000 characters offers Disney the ability to do what we do best." (Robert Iger, 2009).

The organizational structure of a multinational company, requires a detailed treatment of the management and executive system. Therefore be able to build within a specific operating system, which limits the costs of each department to avoid the risk of confusing the various tasks.
The acquisition of Comedy Factory, leader in the field of comics, will help the movie company to implement and develop new projects in the film industry, entertainment and merchandise. “What I love about DC is that we're not a one-note business. We can be on-line, we can be CD-ROM, we can be video games and interactive toys, or we can be movies, television, animation. So the opportunities technology brings are all open to us, and each one of those different areas helps all the others— long as we never lose sight of the fact that the comics made all these other things possible.”(Jenette Kahn, President, DC Comics,2007).

A multinational movie company, has the following major departments (SBU’s) :

• Studio entertainment (cartoons and movies)

• Records (audio sales)

• Theatrical (stage plays)

• Parks and resorts

• Consumer products (sales of licensed products and magazines)

• Media (National Television)

The company will have a central location defined as headquarters. Here are analyzed the main products (in this case, the cartoon characters) formerly belonging to the comedy factory and the spaces offered by the Movie Company (offices, studios, audio sales, stage plays, parks and resorts, sales of licensed products and magazines and medias).
At this point, new strategies are created, to market the products of the two companies, for use in a collaborative way rather than individually a global marketing strategy, which will be the task of the international departments.
As mentioned before, the organizational structure requires a cost-cutting when it relates to all these subordinate roles within the company.
We will delete then, all the roles of surface, and to each person will be assigned one or more roles for the proper conduct of the work.
Define the means to establish the company's corporate structure means: which organs should be distributed among the work, what functions and what tasks are assigned to these bodies and such relations should exist between the various organs, for do not confuse the roles and avoid the individual focus.
Among the factors that determine the choice of location of a multinational movie company are: the national legal system in its strengths and weaknesses, for example as regards the protection of property rights of foreign investors. Access to foreign markets. The geographical distance between different parts of the activities of an enterprise. The availability of low cost inputs (raw materials and labor costs). Below are therefore different departments and the endless possibilities of profit of the company.

• Studio Entertainment: Having the opportunity to enjoy the legal standard (copyright) of comic book characters that have marked the history of reading, means that you have the permission to use the same characters at will. This is why the company has already planned about 4 movies that will be released within the next two years, thus giving visibility to the characters (hidden for too long time), trying to revive the market, making the most of the professional tools of the movie company, for filmmaking. Clearly, the dubbing will be in several languages, and will cover not only the linguistic but also the ethical / religious / communicative and, depending on the country of distribution. The launch of the characters will also cover the TV series. Some characters then, will then be used to create cartoons for children, distributed through international channels as Boing TV, Jumpy TV and Disney Channel.

• Records (audio sales): The movie company offers inside their studios, a recording studio, where there are, and have been made in the past, some of the best soundtracks ever created. The highest level of technology present in the recording studio gives the possibility to the various music directors,to record, inside the studios the soundtracks of the films made. Then, the soundtracks can be selled and distributed worldwide. In addition to soundtracks, the company decided to add to the music market, even albums that contains the sounds of the movies, and CDs for children.

All the products are also sold in special collection boxes and special packaging in limited edition. All the soundtracks and sounds used in film, will then play in theaters all over the world thanks to the musical that will be taken in areas where the film will be more successful.

• Theatrical (stage plays): the theater will be one of the main points for advertising. Through the theater, advertising will be done to promote the theatrical event, in every city where the troupe will be present ,will be studied a precise advertising in order to promote the movie company, the sale of CDs and the importance of the characters. Will be placed corner shop inside the theatres where people can buy merchandise, not just about the work in question but also to all other comic book characters belonging to the company. The theatrical tour will include all the continents and nations, in which the film was released, and it is for the national department concerned, be sure about the proper execution of theater and internal organization (such as artists, set designers, actors and directors).

• Media (National Television): The media will be an important point for the visibility of mass advertising. When cartoons and TV series will be aired, will be make advertising about upcoming Cinema movies output during the episodes. The various continental departments then, will work individually with their national TV companies for the broadcast of TV series.

• Consumer products (sales of licensed products and magazines):

have the license to sell and use the brand Comedy Factory, it means you have permission to re-launch the brand at its discretion. The company has therefore decided to create two departments. a department that will focus exclusively on merchandising, and another that will focus solely on publishing and selling comic books, too long removed from the market. the first department has the task of creating new strategies for the launch of various products, following projects from the first breaf analysis, development of the idea, until you get to production to distribution. The Merchandise department will also be responsible to follow the negotiations (according to company policy already stipulated), for those

who want to buy a license to open a flagship store, or an interest in buying our products. The Department of comics instead, will be tasked to monitor all aspects of comic books and the media (comic books online). This, too, as the merchandising department, you must follow the whole development process. Will then have several offices around the world depending on the country of distribution, with its factories for the production of comics. It will therefore need to diversify the graphic style and language. It must also ensure the production and distrubution efficiency of the product in each country.

• Parks and resorts: the movie company already owns nine theme parks around the world. This offers the opportunity to develop the construction of new parks, thus increasing the possessions in the field of entertainment in all continents. The creation of new parks will consist of the construction of nine new parks that will be positioned as close as possible to the existing parks. The current parks are already in place in a comprehensive way through the study done in the past, with different characteristics depending on country of placement. According to the customs and cultures of different countries, a new study will be done to understand precisely in which country is better to place some of the characters and themes than others.
The reason why it was decided to build new parks, and not to expand existing ones has a definite logic.
From the moment that the reason for which the company was acquired, depends on the inefficiency of the previous managers in the aspect of marketing, the previous management was not able to keep the value of the brand and what it actually represented the Comedy Factory.
Is therefore necessary to boost the image of all the individual characters. With the creation of parks that will carry the name of the characters, and rides will be the sole topic of superheroes, you can increase visibility and bring back customers and fans of the various protagonists in comics. Inside the parks, there will be clearly established souvenirs and boutique shops, and will be available hotels inside the park with various themes of the cartoon characters.

The organizational structure is based on a precise model: the global geographical structure. This does not mean that every continent has full decision-making authority, but it's up to each department to ensure that there is a country in its approach with people who do not create discomfort or is not misplaced. As mentioned earlier, the world headquarters will be in the United States, where this residence, the studios and the U.S. Department. Successfully to the world, Asia, Europe, AME (Africa and Middle East) will be an office that will manage the various products in that precise area. Of course the departments will be linked together to work together, and seek to offer a precise and efficient service. The most important thing beside the distrubution, is the local advertising. We must not forget that anywhere in the world there are different cultures. The customs and traditions teach that a global message in Europe, may not have the same meaning in Asia or Africa, so, each continent has to rely an advertising agency that ensures, that the communication messages are not accepted incorrectly.

Next to the headquarters, will also be the registered office that protects the rights of licensing.

From the moment that the merchandise can be an excellent source of revenue for the company, international department has not the authority to conclude contracts, for the acquisition of the license and distribution of products.
When the manager believes that there may be a good chance of gain, through the granting of exclusive brand, or through the marketing of a product, is obliged to report that to the headquarters (U.S.), to analyze in detail the issue with top managers, and then if the request is accepted, locally and individually start the business.

The global matrix structure attempts to organize activities by two (or more) managerial dimensions-like product, geography, and/or market.

GLOBAL MATRIX STRUCTURE:

The diagram shows how is organized the entire structure. Above all, there's headquarters which is responsible for ensuring that all the departments mentioned below, carry out its own functions. As you can see, the headquarters is supported by the finance department which is responsible to supervise the exclusive licensing. Subsequently, the division of roles is distributed according to the areas of expansion.. So Europe, U.S., Asia and AFME.
All these departments, as well as being linked together, and have direct contact with headquarters, respectively, are interconnected for any need. This means that if the manager of an amusement park in Asia needs something from the European movies department, they can easily get in touch and have the answers about their needs. Everything about the recruitment of personnel, accounting, revenue, marketing, theater performances, merchandise, management, distribution, engineering works (parks, hotels) is followed by each individual country managers.

At the end, this analysis is mad to demonstrate the complexity of global business. The different roles inside a multinational company, responsibilities and collaborations. The merger of these two companies provides a considerable growth and development within the field of entertainment, comics, and films, with a promotion system not only efficient, but thet save at the same time money and incomes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

T: (David Goldman, 2009)
R: David Goldman, Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion, Art. Walt Disney Co. will purchase the comic book company behind X-Men and Spider-Man, CNNMoney.com staff writer, Last Updated: August 31, 2009: 3:18 PM ET, http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/companies/disney_marvel/, 2009.

T: (Jenette Kahn, President, DC Comics,2007)
R: DC Comics Inc. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on DC Comics Inc., 1325 Avenue of the Americas. New York, New York 10003 U.S.A.
Read more: DC Comics Inc. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on DC Comics Inc. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/70/DC-Comics-Inc.html#ixzz15eLu5YM4http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/70/DC-Comics-Inc.html#ixzz15eLhZeFq, 2009

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HEAD
QUARTER U.S

UNITED
STATES

EUROPE

ASIA

AFME
(AFRICA/MIDLE EAST)

MOVIES
TV
THEATRE
MUSIC

PARKS
HOTELS

MAGAZINES

MERCHINDISE

MARKETING
ADVERTISING

FINANCE
LICENCING