TO: Strategic Management Class – BUS450
FROM: Alex Hadley
RE: The Walt Disney Company, Inc. – Strategy Formulation and Analysis
Executive Summary – The Walt Disney Company enjoys a leadership position in most of the businesses that it operates. It carries one of the strongest brands in media entertainment, and it has a proven track record in the development of creative content. The company should continue to try to leverage its brand to extract profit from its creative processes across the many industries it serves. Disney is unique among its competitors in terms of the breadth of offerings to generate additional revenues. Best strategies for Disney focus on long-term growth in its Parks and Resorts and better margin spread for its Media Production businesses. Because of its extensive product offerings, Disney should also seek to partner across industries to take advantages of innovative distribution technology, as well as to initiate a regulatory framework to protect proprietary content to ensure creative viability.
Overview – Founded in 1923, Burbank, CA based Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an entertainment company worldwide. The company operates in five business segments: Media Networks, including television, radio and cable networks; Parks and Resorts, including theme parks and resorts in Florida, California, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo; Studio Entertainment, which produces and acquires live-action and animated motion pictures, direct-to-video content, musical recordings and live stage plays; Consumer Products, which engages with licensees, manufacturers, publishers and retailers to design, develop, publish, promote and sell the company’s products; and Interactive Media, which creates and delivers Disney-branded entertainment and lifestyle content across interactive media platforms.[1]
2011 Financial Performance (see exhibits 1, 2, and 3) – The company reported revenues of (U.S. Dollars) USD