WALT DISNEY CASE

Walt Disney Case

Walt Disney Case

Company's History development and growth

The Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney or 'the company'), together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified entertainment company. The company primarily operates in the North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. It is headquartered in Burbank, California and employs about 149,000 people. The Walt Disney Company is co founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy in 1923. The company owns many studios, radio stations, cable television channels such as ESPN(in which it owns about 80%),is a major stakeholder in the ABC television network, it also owns many theme based parks called as Walt Disney parks and resorts, often known as Disneyland. The company is known for making high quality animation movies which appeal to global audience. Its annual revenues in the recent years have been close to 35 billion dollars. (Hill, 2008)

The Walt Disney Company is a company which over the many years of its existence still maintains good position in the society in terms of providing quality entertainment, generating high revenues, its inclination towards social and corporate responsibilities and its fair ethical policies that it practices. (Eisner, 2006)

SWOT Analysis

The Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney or 'the company'), together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified entertainment company. The breadth and depth of Walt Disney's product and service portfolio provides it with considerable strength. The company's offerings can be broadly classified into four segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, and consumer products. A broad and diversified revenue base insulates the company from economic cycles in one industry and diversifies the company's business risks. However, intense competition threatens to erode the company's market share in its different lines of business.

Financial side of SWOT

The company recorded revenues of $38,063 million during the financial year ended September 2010 (FY2010), an increase of 5.3% over 2009. The operating profit of the company was $6,596 million in FY2010, an increase of 18.9% over 2009.The net profit was $3,963 million in FY2010, an increase of 19.8% over 2009.

External environment

Porter's-Five-Forces Model focuses on the external environment that the company has to be able to cope with. The first force to be discussed is the threat of new entrants. Since the Disney Company has been able to find a very distinctive niche in the industry, the entrance barriers are relatively high. By relying on past experience, company officials know to a large extent what the target customer wants. Disney has focused of market diversification for years and the company covers a wide array of products and services. Being a market leader has made it possible for the company to practice effective economies of scale in production. For example, over 500,000 copies of the Videocassette "Pinocchio" were sold in only two months, and have 20-30 million visitors to its theme parks every year. In addition, extremely large amounts of capital investment are required for new entrants into the industry. The capital requirements are extremely high. For instance, Disney spent ...