Walt Disney Company Stakeholders

Walt Disney Company Stakeholders When dealing with the stakeholders of any company, it’s important to realize that a company’s actions affects all who are associated with the company. For example, the CEO and the customers of Disney are both stakeholders, but they have different responsibilities and needs. Because of this, when the company decides to implement a change or move in a new direction, both parties will be affected differently. When dealing with the size of a company like Disney, there can be numerous amounts of stakeholders. To start off, they fall into two categories, internal and external. The internal stakeholders consist of the board of directors, executives, employees, and shareholders whereas the external stakeholders consist of the customers, suppliers, competitors, and labor unions. Moreover, both internal and external stakeholders are different one another, but they are still extremely important to the company. Beginning with the internal stakeholders, it’s easy to identify the higher-level executives and board of directors. For instance, the executive leaders consist of 14 different positions including the CEO and other officers that control the operations of the Walt Disney Company. These executives bring a shared experience to the company that helps in day to day operations. Without them the company wouldn’t be able to function at a high level. Just like the executives, the board of directors, which consist of nine members, also bring shared knowledge and experience to help the company meet long term goals (Disney – Leadership). Although the high-level executives and board of directors run the company, there are still many major components that are necessary. One of the most important internal stakeholders are the employees. Whether they be the normal park employees or the janitors who keep it clean, all employees are important to the Walt Disney Company. Without them, there would be no way the parks to be successful because there would be no one to deliver the services that the customers are looking for (McKenzie). Furthermore, the employees are the backbone of the company that keeps it functioning at a high level. Managers can also fall under the employee type which help keep basic employees functioning at a high-performance level. All in all, the employees are the most important member of the internal stakeholders. Finally, the last major internal stakeholder of the Walt Disney Company are the shareholders. Because Disney doesn’t have a singular owner, the shareholders come together to “own” the company. Most notably, the CEO, Robert “Bob” Iger is the largest individual shareholder with over 1.078 million shares (Maverick). Shareholders invest in the company which in hand can turn into profit for the overall company. By having wealthy shareholders, the Walt Disney Company can capitalize on future opportunities. While the internal stakeholders make up the inside of the Walt Disney Company, there are also external stakeholders outside of the company that are affected by its operations. The first being the customers which is possibly the most important stakeholder in both the internal and external types. While the employees are the backbone, the customers are what generates the profit. For instance, the Disney parks see numerous customers a day which allows them to collect massive amounts of profit by offering a service and value that they’re looking for (McKenzie). Next, another external stakeholder would be the suppliers of the Walt Disney Company. Because Disney is an extremely large company, they have high quantities of suppliers for every facet of their company. Disney taps into many worldwide markets because of their multimedia services which allows for several suppliers to rely on Disney for their business. One of the main suppliers would be the major sports such as Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) which use one of Disney’s media services, ESPN (Best). Because Disney is a successful company that brings in a lot of profit, that doesn’t mean they don’t face competition. This brings us to the third major external stakeholder, the competitors. In the theme park industry, Disney’s main competitor would be Six Flags and Universal. Customers have certain interests so whichever park can meet those interests will reach the customers. All in all, Disney affects almost every competitor by competition and attendance numbers (Segal). Lastly, the labor unions, come into play when dealing with strikes and other issues such as underpaid workers. In 2018, the Service Trade Council Union represented the 38,000 employees among a total of six unions in the fight for increasing the hourly wage. Because Disney had the power to change the wages, that would make the labor unions an external stakeholder (Cordeiro).