Essay on the International World of Walt Disney

Introduction

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational company that operates in four primary business units better known as business segments. The four segments of operation consist of theme parks and resorts, media networking, The Walt Disney Studios, and Disney consumer products. Each segment plays a huge role in keeping The Walt Disney Company connected with its customers across the globe. This entertainment industry holds great potential for both growth and development. The evolving corporation has emerged to become one of the most successful globalized businesses in the world. The Walt Disney Company has been comprised of their international business units, as well as various consumer-directed streaming systems, global content sales, and international aligning technology. This has formed the company to be a single business segment that has created and delivered personalized entertainment and experiences to people of all ages; all around the world.

Company Background

Small, unique, and humbled, Disney first originated in the early 1920s as The Disney Brothers Cartoon studio. Proudly continuing its legacy, The Walt Disney Company began in 1923 after Walt and Roy Disney signed a contract with cartoon collaborator, MJ Winkler. This multinational company is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families across the globe. Theme parks, television series, and many magical animated pictures have made The Walt Disney Company the second largest media and amusement park corporation in the world, right behind Time Warner.

Walt Disney began drawing cartoons at a young age but when craving success, he wanted to bring them to life and to the company. After getting approval from UB Iwerks, an American animator, the Disney brothers joined his team for the production of The Alice Comedies, a series based on a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The two brothers gained positive feedback of the series and began writing and drawing more cartoons for film productions. After the release of Steamboat Willie in 1929, the world was then introduced to the world’s most popular cartoon character, Mickey Mouse. The recognition of this character convinced the Disney brothers that they should produce a short film, on their own. They worked hard and diligently until the film was complete and ready to be aired in 1934. This project went over 400% in budget and required over 300 artists, animators, and assistants to produce. Sadly, this was not a very successful project for Walt and Roy Disney. The downfall forced the brothers to work smarter and harder and they did not give up on their dreams. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuted in 1937 being the biggest hit for the company. Since then, The Walt Disney Company has produced more than a dozen award-winning films. The company has evolved into a holding company for media and entertainment. They began opening theme parks across the nation in 1955 and acquired many companies such as ABC, Pixar, and Marvel Studios to sign with the company.

Seeing the such success, The Walt Disney Company decided to go global with all products, television series, and theme parks in 1983, opening their first international amusement park in Tokyo, Japan. The Walt Disney Company now operates in 30 countries, shows Disney television series in 133 countries, and has theme parks and resorts in 6 countries. “The focus for this globalized company is to create exceptional entertainment experiences for its fans to build local affinity and trust for the company, its brands, and characters” (Home. 2019, November 5. http://www.thewaltdisneycompany.eu/). The company carries out the global strategy for creativity, innovation, and international growth to seek and deliver the best entertainment to their fans and consumers where, when, and how they want it. The mission and legacy that Walt Disney has left for dreamers across the world is to be entertained, informed, and inspired through the power of unparalleled storytelling, to see the reflection of iconic brands, to let their creative minds wonder, and for innovative technology to make the world entertaining and magical.

Business Activities

The business activities for The Walt Disney Company include multinational business ventures and some key issues that the company has faced. Whether they were able to overcome the risks faced in certain markets or the specialized legalities of those markets, Disney does a great job at staying on top of multinational businesses around the world. To have and maintain a successful business, these aspects need to be addressed and overcome if challenges arise. With more than ninety years in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company continues to grow its market shares in various international markets and maintains its status as the leading entertainment provider across the world.

The issues that The Walt Disney Company has and will continue to face are the competitors that will always exist. Universal Studios, Wild Adventures, and Six Flags are just some examples of which Disney must compete with. Walt Disney is the only adventure park that is based on Disney characters and movies. Although Universal Studios is in the same area and is based off movies and television shows as well. Universal Studios is their biggest competitor. These are the two biggest parks in Florida and are not far apart in distance. Some could argue that Walt Disney is more for children and Universal Studios are more for adolescents and older generations, but despite the differences within the parks, it will always be competition for the two parks. On the amount of revenue made and the increase of growth done to the parks in order to remain “the top park,” Disney is still at this time number one. Smaller localized parks, such as Wild Adventures continue to compete with multibillion-dollar firms. This is due to lower ticket prices at smaller parks as well as those parks marketing to a centralized group of prospective customers.

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Wild Adventures is a smaller competitor that targets audience residences in a 300-mile radius of The Walt Disney theme parks. This allows them to focus marketing on a key group of consumers, reducing marketing costs, and therefore lower ticket prices follow. The other challenge that Walt Disney faces is the need to keep customers interested in their park. This is can be done by consistently updating different features or aspects of the park. It can also be accomplished by taking out rides or activities that are not as popular by the public and adding activities that are more appealing to the park. One thing they could add would be more tours of Cinderella’s Castle, having more than one person dressing up as Cinderella so the lines won't be as long to meet her. Children especially young girls want to meet Cinderella and tour all the Castle. This could be accomplished by having seven or eight people dressed as Cinderella to reduce wait times. If wait times were reduced, the population of the park could potentially increase.

The risks that are faced in certain markets are expanding to new global locations. This is a huge risk for not only Walt Disney but also the CEO of the company. For example, if the new theme park location in Japan does not do as well as projected, it is money lost to the corporation, which can put a strain on the other Walt Disney locations. That means less money for renovations, new rides and activities, and new staff and existing staff. This also means less money for their college programs. This can cause a decrease in the staff if pay cuts are issued because of a fall in revenue. Projecting to add a Walt Disney theme park in another country is a risk, but adding several parks in several countries is an even higher risk that is at stake for the corporation. An example of a new market risk that is faced by Disney is its Hong Kong Disney location. After a strong opening in 2005, a recession hit in the United States just a few years later. This caused more income productivity to be needed from the Hong Kong Disney park. In 2010 when China’s economy took a plunge, Disney was forced to reduce operating hours at it’s park to equalize its profitability. In this case, The Walt Disney Company was able to bounce back as the economy took and upward turn and consumer spending in the entertainment industry increased. But as seen here, when businesses expand to new markets so do the risks associated with them.

When faced with political, legal, and ethical issues The Walt Disney Company stays neutral in an ever-changing environment. Despite what changes the world throws its way, Walt Disney stays consistent for what they stand for. They are never seen in the news for having debates with employees about the new social issues that the world is facing. They are not seen having lawsuits because the employees want to dress as to who they identify as. What is seen is their continuous to be accepting of everyone. The Walt Disney Company does not discriminate on who their customers are, who their supporters are, or who their employees are. They do not push their beliefs on to anyone, instead, they love on their customers and accept them, and that is what makes them want to continue to come back. Their personal beliefs may differ but as for the corporation, they remain neutral. This has helped Walt Disney's theme park globalization, as they are not having to deal with controversial beliefs that may not line up with a new market location. An example of this is in Paris, back in 1982, when they opened one of their first global theme park locations, a harsh political election was taking place and many multibillion-dollar firms were choosing sides to protect their interests, but as always Walt Disney did not choose sides and as a result, did not face tariffs, as many competitors did that landed on the wrong side of the election. This behavior shows how Walt Disney's politically neutral policy has helped their international business standings. “It is also a way for the Disney Company to form their leaders in accordance to the value base that is required... the Disney Company is constantly working with the behaviors of their leaders in combination with business results (Ingelsson, Eriksson, & Lilja 2012).”

The Walt Disney Company is the largest multi-national company practicing corporate social responsibility. They have been very successful with this business model plan especially with Walt Disney being an international business. Walt Disney is socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and to the public. In lame terms, it is a way for The Walt Disney Company to help society. This helps society donate large sums or small sums of money to different non-profit organizations. The organization donated 2 million dollars in relief efforts to southern Florida counties after Hurricane Harvey left 44,000 people displaced without homes. “The Disney theme park in Hong Kong was viewed as one of the most important government projects undertaken to boost the regional economy after the Asian financial crisis (Tsai & Liu 2011).”Corporate Social Responsibility also allows Walt Disney to implement policies in the workplace such as new policies on helping the environment and new workplace rules to better a company or corporation. One-way Walt Disney maintains environmental responsibility within its parks is by conducting stage three recycling in all their theme parks. Something that none of the company’s competitors has done is been environmentally friendly. Being this way has helped Disney gain more praise and respect than their competitors. The main purpose of corporate social responsibility is to conduct The Walt Disney Company in an ethical way and to help other businesses conduct themselves in an ethical way. The Walt Disney Company sets high standards for global social responsibility time and time again.

Capital

Disney is invested globally in its theme parks and consumer products, and with their international business model comes a net worth of 200 billion. Included in this net worth is many operational, industrial, and human capital. Disney strives to be the best in the entertainment industry and to be number one constant capital investments are a must. From cutting-edge technology to quarterly bonus potential for employees Disney's constant capital investments push it to be the leader in global entertainment.

With an ever-competitive business model such as Disney's, there is a constant need for capital investments. One of the corporation's hallmark achievements over the years is updating its theme parks yearly to incorporate new promotions and shows into the theme park world. This extremely expensive capital investment keeps patrons coming back year after year to see Disney's latest creation in the parks. And increasing revenue year after year as seen above. Equally as important as Disney's park investments are its human capital. With over 300,000 employees worldwide, Disney has one of the largest pools of human capital, and to keep a low turnover rate among them they offer competitive rates and bonuses. Not only do they hire regular employees, they have a program called the Disney College Program, which is a paid internship for college students. In this program, which lasts anywhere from five to seven weeks, interns have the opportunity to gain on-the-job experience as well as network with other Disney employees and interns, take development classes, and build teamwork and communication skills. With Disney's ever-constant capital investments it's no surprise they remain the number one global entertainer.

Summary

The name Walt Disney brings so much joy and happiness to millions of people by a number of ways. Walt Disney started as a small company and has now grown to have multiple theme parks, acquired several other media and entertainment firms, as well as employ over 300,000 people. Even though the Walt Disney Company has faced its fair share of threats, competitors, and issues, the growth of the company has not been stalled. In the world we live in, very few companies can manage to not step on toes or offend anyone as Walt Disney has. Walt Disney has shown that time and time again corporate social responsibility, ethical business practices, and investment in capital, both human and financial, will keep you on top.

Reference Page

1. Tsai, T., & Liu, S. P. (2011). Disneyland in Hong Kong - green challenge (A). Asian Case Research Journal, 15(2), 177–200. doi:10.1142/S0218927511001538
2. Ingelsson, P., Eriksson, M., & Lilja, J. (2012). Can select the right values to help TQM implementation? A case study about organizational homogeneity at the Walt Disney Company. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(1), 1–11. doi:10.1080/14783363.2011.637801
3. Disney College Program: Careers at Disney. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jobs.disneycareers.com/disney-college-program.