Disney final project

Project Phase 1, 2, and 3 Name

Date

( Running Head: PROJECT PHASE 1, 2 AND 3 ) ( 1 )

Project Phase 3

Executive Summary

The Walt Disney Company, usually known as Disney, is the world’s leading media and entertainment company. The Company was first established on October 1923 by Roy O. Disney and Walt Disney and was initially known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. The organization has swiftly established itself as a leader in the animation industry since then, which can be evidenced by its large success in terms of its asset and net returns. It developed into Walt Disney Corporation in 1986 after which it realized massive expansion into a broader market comprising of various theaters, radio channels, publishing and online media (David, 2014).

It has numerous entertainment divisions that include media networks, consumer products, Disney Interactive and Parks and Resorts. Disney’s media network include ten broadcasting stations, the ABC television network as well as other cable networks that include Disney Channel, ABC family, Toon Channel and the ESPN. Moreover, the company’s produces movies through its various studios that include Touchstone, Pixar, Walt Disney Picture, Marvel Entertainment and the Lucas films (Sehlinger & Testa, 2016). The company’s parks and resorts comprise the operations of 11 theme parks, 4 cruise lines, and 43 resorts.

I must mention that the company’s largest asset is the ability to embrace new technologies, innovations, and most importantly, to stay diversified. Disney is a multinational firm with supremacy in both theme parks and the entertainment industry and besides it has double opportunities to grow and expand its globalization and outsourcing strategies. For example, by expanding its products into Asia and Europe, it stands immense intensification potentiality which apparently would lead to better productivity.

For any other firm within the entertainment industry, growth in the theme park requires intense diversification of a company’s resources, and Disney is not an exception in this case. Disney’s chief executive officer, Michael Eisner notes that the Company will have to diversify its resources to meet the target growth of 20%. Eisner also indicates that the company is nearing its saturation point in the market and thus its expansion should be focused in international countries (Sehlinger & Testa, 2016). In essence, the diversification strategy will aid the business in meeting its corporate objective that includes sustaining its premier world entertainment, maximizing shareholders’ wealth through a consistent annual growth rate while at the same time adhering to the integrity of Disney’s name and customer franchise.

The company’s integrity integrates aspects such as fairness, quality, innovations and creativity, entrepreneurship and, more importantly, teamwork among the company’s employees. With the attainment of the above objectives, Walt Disney Company will be able to maintain its leading position in the field of entertainment. Besides, this will enable the company to live to its mission of being among the leading producers and providers of information and family entertainment in the word by use of its compilation of brands to differentiate its products while maximizing its earnings.

( Project phase 1, 2 and 3 ) ( 2 )

A Financial Projection for Walt Disney Company for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018

A financial projection is a forecast of an organization’s future revenues and expenses based on the internal and the historical data of the company. This is of particular importance in attracting the attention of potential investors, who obviously will be attracted by growth potentiality of a company. In the case of Walt Disney Company, this projection is done after careful evaluation of the company’s past performance in each of its segments. Below is a financial projection of the company’s revenue and expenses based on the company’s income statement for the year that ended December 2015.

( Total 2720000 3055000 2678000 2665000 Operating profit or Loss 3,892,000 3,111,000 3,761,000 3,116,000 156000 3,272,000 Income Before Tax 4,458,000 3,214,000 3,962,000 (58,000) 3,320,000 )Disney’s income statement for the t period ended December 2015 and forecasted income statements for the periods that will end December, 2016, 2017, and 2018

	Period Ended Total revenue	Dec, 2018 15,245,000	Dec, 2017 13,511,000	Dec, 2016 13,102,000	Dec, 2015 12,4610000
	Cost on revenue	8,633,000	7,345,000	6,663,000	6,680,000
	Gross Profit	6,612,000	6,166,000	6,439,000	5,781,000
Operating Expenses
Selling General and	2,030,000	2,400,000	2,102,000	2,080,000
Administrative
Non Recurring	90,000	55,000	-	-
Others	600,000	600,000	576,000	585,000

Total Other Income	590000	103000	201000
Net
Earnings Before Interest And	4,482,000	3,214,000	3,962,000
Taxes
Interest Expense	24,000	-	-

		Income Tax Expense	1,458,000	1,493,000	1,323,000	1,082,000
		Minority Interest	(31,000)	(133,000)	(146,000)	(130,000)
		Net Income From Continuing	3,031,000	1,854,000	2,695,000	2,314,000
	Net Income		3,031,000	1,854,000	2,695,000	2,314,000

As seen from the projected Income statements of the years that will end in December 2016, 2017, and 2018, Disney’s revenues is forecasted to increase from 12, 461000 that was realized in 2015 to 13102000 by the end of 2016. Following this increase and other historical data on the company’s performance, it is expected that revenue will increase to 13511000 by the end of 2017 and later increase to 15245000 by December 2018.

To be noted is that Aggregate revenue of an organization includes all revenue that is gotten from goods and services that are offered by all the company’s divisions as noted earlier in the executive summary. Besides, the item includes interest from investment as well as gains from trading activities (Lee, 2009). The operating income corresponds to the income of the firm after deducting the operating expenses. With an increase in income, operating income also raise as seen in the pro forma income statement above. However, Disney’s operating income is forecasted to decrease in 2016 due to an increase in operating expenses resulting from the elevated advertising cost in an effort to combat the encroaching competition. It is projected that it will be on the rise across the three years.

Projected balance sheets for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018

A balance sheet is a statement of a company’s financial position as at a given period, and avails information concerning an organization’s assets and equity. On the other hand, a projected balance sheet recaps the forecasted financial situation of a company based on the present financial situation. Below is Walt Disney’s projected statements of financial position for the years that will end December, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Period that will end	Dec,2018	Dec, 2017	Dec, 2016
Long term Assets
Fixed Assets ( this includes all company divisions,	27170000	27100000	2690000

Parks, resorts and other property)
Intangible assets	7 170000	7150000	7040000
Goodwill	27900000	27885000	27882000
Other long term Assets	8619000	8517000	7720000
Total long term Assets	46406000	46450000	40332000
Current Assets
Cash and cash equivalents	4264000	3460000	3420000
Inventory	1563000	1555000	1573000
Net receivables	8788000	8500000	8318000
Other current assets	2134000	2037000	1966000
Total current assets	16749000	7902000	15277000
Total assets	63155000	12556000	55609000
Current liabilities
Accounts payable	7885000	7645000	7598000
Short term loan	4560000	300000	2160000
Other current liabilities	3928000	3700400	3533000
Total current liabilities	16373000	11645400	13291000
Long term liabilities
Long term loan	12780000	12555000	12665000
Long-term lease	6368000	6050000	5945000
Total liabilities	19148000	19154000	18610000
Assets- liabilities	44545000	37759000	36999000

Stockholders’ equity	29389000	30560000	34693000
Net profit of 2014 and 2015 respectively	1515600 0	7199000	2306000
Capital	44545000	37759000	36999000

The cash and cash equivalent encompass both cash at hand together with Disney’s demand deposits in banks and other nonbanking financial organizations. Further, it includes other accounts with general characteristics of current accounts in that the corporation may either deposit or withdraw additional deposit at will without necessarily having to give a preceding notice or sustain any penalty. Additionally, the cash equivalent item in the balance sheets, comprise highly liquid assets in that they may be converted into money within a short time (Pratt, 2011), for example, a two-month US Treasury bill. More specifically, all investments that have a maturity period of less than three months are included in the equivalent cash category of the current assets. In the case of Disney company, cash and cash equivalent are expected to increase from 3420000 in 2016 to 3460000in 2017 and to 4264000 in 2018. Receivables consist of trade accounts receivables together with other receivable like net allowances established with an intention of reducing the receivables to an approximation of the net realizable value. Disney’s company’s receivables are forecasted to increase from 8318000 in 2016 to 8500000 in 2017 and to 8788000 in 2017 (Lee, 2009).

It should be noted that the value of Inventories is recorded at the lower cost at as at the balance sheet date and besides excludes noncurrent balances. In essence, it is forecasted to remain on hand for one operating period, usually one year. Disney’s stock is expected to decrease slightly from 2016 to 2018 by $10000. Assets are the sum of owners’ equity plus borrowed capital that includes long-term and short-term liabilities. This implies that the sum of capital in an organization is the difference between its assets and liabilities; thus, the similar values for the company’s stakeholder’s capital and its net value.

Product position map

Product positioning is a significant element of marketing a company’s products based on the available communication channels, products attributes and the competitive pressures. It involves building a unique and consistent customer perception regarding a company’s product in relation to those of competitors. The main competitors of Walt Disney are the Six Flags and the Universal Studios. Below, I have illustrated by use of a map the position of Disney’s Parks and Resorts in relation to its two main competitors. To start with, Disney can only maintain its market share if it can offer differentiated products in relation to those of its competitors besides diversifying its customer base to include adults as now its audience is generally the young children. Diversifying customer base is a very significant strategy as adult audience is obviously more reliable than that of children. One desirable characteristic about Disney is the great customer service that causes customers to keep on coming back (David, 2014). This is probably

due to the well maintained parks and resorts, which are ever appealing to the customers. It also has a wide brand recognition that will enable it to go global, hence, increasing its sales in relation to those of the competitor.

Product Positioning Map for Disney’s Parks and Resorts

High brand recognition Disney Parks and Resorts

Universal Studios

Best customer service worst customer service

Six Flags

Low brand recognition

Evaluation of strategies and objectives to achieve most favorable market position

Evaluation of Disney’s strategies and objectives may be best done using a space matrix as shown below

Financial strength

Conservative Aggressive

Competitive advantage industrial strength

Defensive competitive

Environmental stability

The space matrix implies that Disney Company should follow an aggressive strategy. This is because Disney has a sturdy competitive position in the market as indicated by its high growth rate. Disney needs to use its internal strength to develop a market penetration and a market development strategy. It can do so through acquisition of competitors, integration with other firms in the industry, and most importantly, through product development. The company has four critical dimensions, which include the competitive advantage and its financial strength as the internal strategic dimensions while the environmental and industrial stability are the external strategic dimensions. The aspects under the internal strategic dimensions explore Disney’s internal strategies (David, 2014), and they may include the company’s financial information such as liquidity ratio, cash flows, working capital, and leverage turnover. The company’s competitive advantage includes its outstanding technologies and innovations, product quality, customer loyalty, and a significant market share.

Specific results Disney want to achieve

The goal of Walt Disney is to improve its brands reputation both domestically and internationally by focusing on adult customers. Although Disney has a good standing all over the world, it intends to undertake a public relation campaign in order to maintain it at the top. Regarding this, it intends to increase its customers from the adult audience by 20% in 2016 and by 50% by the end of 2017 (Sehlinger & Testa, 2016). Moreover, Disney aims at establishing a positive customer relation that will give it a competitive advantage relative to its competitors through being socially responsible to the community. This way, the company aims at conducting two awareness programs on important of leisure besides how to have a healthy lifestyle. At least, this will help it in building its corporate image

References

David, F. (2014). Strategic management concepts (custom ed.). Pearson-Prentice Hall Custom: Upper Saddle River, N.J

Lee, A. C., Lee, J. C., & Lee, C. F. (2009). Financial analysis, planning & forecasting: Theory and application. Singapore: World Scientific

Pratt, J. (2011). Financial accounting in an economic context. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Sehlinger, B., & Testa, L. (2016). The unofficial guide to Walt Disney World 2016

Project phase 2

Current strategy including the Company’s current use of technology

The objective of Disney Company is to be among the world’s leading firms in producing and offering information and entertainment, by use of its collection of brands to differentiate it services, content as well as consumer products. Additionally, it aims at maximizing its cash flows besides allocating capital towards growth strategies for increased productivity in the long run. To achieve this, the Company has a current strategy of further expansion with an aim of making its presence be felt international. This strategy will be of great significant since, the Company presence is only a dominant force in the United States of America, although it has potential to offer its products overseas. For instance, in 2013, only 25.2% of its net revenue came from other courtiers with the rest having its source in the US (Sehlinger & Testa, 2016).

In addition to this, Disney has a strategy to redirect its efforts in pursuing budding talents within the entertainment industry that would be able to produce excellent scripts. This couples with the companies plan to produce 15 to 18 scripts within a year, which is expected to yield returns of between 12 and 15 percent. On this plan of expanding its entertainment industry, it has a strategy to establish limited partnerships that would aid in financing the project. Furthermore, the Company has made an agreement with the government of France to start a theme park near Parish, which will comprise an up to date magic kingdom. The facility will be named Euro Disneyland. All these collective strategies aim at enhancing the Company’s long-term sustainability.

Furthermore, the Company’s addition of a new mobile technology is an excellent way that has seen it live it objective. This technology aims at aiding costumers plan trips conveniently and in advance, which has consequently increased personalized visits. Presently, approximately ten million wristbands or else magic bands have been used. Moreover, Disney is exploring other wearable technologies that would be of great advantage to consumers.

Evaluation of current organizational structure and culture

The current organizational structure of Disney Company is a Strategic Business Unit (SBU), which comprises five distinct family entertainment segments. These segments include Media Networks, The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Interactive, Disney Consumer Products, and Parks and Resorts (Sehlinger & Testa, 2016). Each of these segments has a chairman together with a communication team that manages communication within and outside the segment, they are in charge of. These teams are answerable to the managers. There are also middle communication teams that are subordinate to the segment teams. They ensure that employees in the different segments are able to communicate with one another even when they are in different geographical regions.

( Project phase 1, 2 and 3 ) ( 10 )

Disney Company also has an elaborate organizational culture that is defined by respect among workers and a fair work that is focused on organizational goals. Furthermore, the Company has a culture to reinforce the efforts and commitment of the employees as well as of the other people in the community through ethical and social responsibility

Core values I would use to create the desired culture in my organization

A positive organizational culture is a critical element in determining a Company’s success both in the short run and in the long run. In creating this culture, I would employ core values such as transparency, empowerment and a sense of freedom as well as a great communication network within the organization. Transparency gives the employees a feeling that they are valued, which in return motivates them to concentrate towards the achievement of the set organizational goals. Equally, empowering employees by giving them a sense of freedoms enables them to develop a positive culture of working without supervision. Ideally, they focus on attainment of the organization goal, as if they were their personal goals. More importantly, is a great communication network where each party is able to voice out their decisions, which may add up to making of sound decisions.

Further, there is a need to have clear guidelines of what is right and wrong by creating an organizational code of ethics and a corporate strategic plan that would guide the employees. The code of ethics should define everything from the mode of dressing, communication channels expected as well as behaviors and attitudes expected towards colleagues in a written form. Ideally, this would guide the employees towards adapting the right organizational culture. More fundamentally, there is a need to offer the tools that the employees would require to act ethically such as training, consultations, and supervision (Botten & McManus, 1999). Besides, external professions would be helpful in grounding employees in a particular culture. Finally, it would be necessary to provide timely and accurate feedback to the employees regarding their behavior and performance. This way, the feedback will act as a positive reinforcement that will encourage the behavior and performance further.

Possible strategic alternatives and recommendations to Disney Company.

First, the Company needs to battle some of the competition it is facing by purchase assets aimed at future expansion. For example, the Company can use these assets to start “the Mini Disney Kingdom” both within and outside the United States of America. Essentially, this would enlarge its market share both domestically and internationally, which would consequently increase its productivity.

I would recommend to Disney to partner with real estate brokers in the United States, who would help it acquire property that would be used for the expansion purpose. For instance, it can opt to acquire Cable television networks, which would consequently enlarge its channels viewership.

SWOT matrix with strategic implications for the Company

( Weaknesses Strengths )

1.Customer loyalty 2.Increase in profitability 3.Motivated employees 4. It is one of the largest resorts in the world with more than 30,000 acres of land 5. Brand recall is very high across the world	1. No getting customer feedback on their products 2. High operational costs 3.undeversified employee benefits 4.Overreliance on the media industry 5.Declining ROE
Opportunities	Threats
1Going global 2.Depreciation of the USD 3. Increase in domestic disposable income which means more customers 4. Developing infrastructure around Orlando 5. Brand recognition 6.Increase in net returns	1.High ticket price 2.Encroaching competition 3. Political condition in other countries which could hinder globalization 4. Negative attitude towards leisure
So strategies
1. Identify new market 2. Identify new customers internationally, (S1, O1) 3. Utilize the global market to earn more profit with the depreciation of the dollar ( S2, O2) 4. Penetrate new market (S1.O3)
ST Strategies.
1. Reduce the price of tickets to maintain its customers (S1, T1) 2. Differentiate its product further to maintain its market share (S1, T2) 3. Invest in Bio technology to cut on oil consumption (S2, T3)

( ST Strategies. Reduce the price of tickets to maintain its customers (S1, T1) Differentiate its product to maintain its market share (S1, T2) Invest in Bio technology to cut on oil consumption (S2, T3) )

( WO Strategies 1. 2. 3. Increase employee benefits (W3, O6) Diversify its forms of investment (W4, O6) Incorporate a customer-follow up strategy (W1, O6) )

( Increase benefits for employees (W3, T2) Use bio energy to reduce operational cost (W2, T3) Sensitize people on the importance of leisure (W5, T5) WT strategies )

Disney’s key strengths include a strong customer loyalty towards its product, a high brand recall and motivated employees that jointly contributes towards its high profitability. Disney can combine these strengths with its opportunities to penetrate a global market, hence, widening its market share which consequently results in increased returns. However, it will have to mitigate its weaknesses such as low employee benefits that may lower their motivation thereby turning to competitors that who may offer better deals. Another great weakness of the Company is the constant increase in its operational costs, which significantly reduces its returns. With regards to this, Disney should consider using bio oil resources to cut down on operation costs, hence, increasing its profitability further.

BCG matrix with strategic implications for the Company

Stars Parks and Resorts	Question marks Interactive
Cash cows Media Networks	Dogs Consumer products

The cash cows represent the aspect that has a high market share and a low market rate for Disney (David, 2014). Media networks fall into this category as they realized the most profit for Disney Company by achieving a wide margin of 20,356,000,000 and 14,087,000,000 in 2013 and the next year. The sector only realized a growth of 1%. Parks and resorts fall under the stars category due to their high growth rate and high market share. They realized a margin of 14,097,000 and a growth rate of 9%. The Interactive forms the question marks for the Company as it realized a high growth rate with a small market share. This sector only made 10,640,000,000 and realized the greatest growth of the Company of 26%(David, 2014). The Consumer products had both a low growth rate and a low market share alas well. The sector had a growth rate of 9% and made 325,200,000.this qualifies it for the Dogs category.

Disney’s Space matrix

Financial strenght	Ratings
Liquidity ratio	5
Return on investment( ROI)	4
Cash flow	4
Earnings per share (EPS)	2
Total	15
Industrial strength
Easy of entry	5
Growth stability	5
Financial stability	3

Profitability	4
Total	17
Competitive advantage
Market share	-1
Product quality	-2
Customer loyalty	-1
Suppliers distributors loyalty	-3
Total	-7
Environmental stability
Demand stability	-5
Barriers to entry	-1
Difference in pricing with competitors	-2
Price elasticity of demand	-4
Total	-12

The information in the space matrix above can further be illustrated in a quadrant as shown below

Financial strength

Conservative aggressive

Competitive advantage Industrial strength DefensiveCompetitive

Environmental stability

The above space matrices suggest that Disney Company should pursue an aggressive strategy. This is because Disney has a strong competitive position in the market, which is evidenced by its high growth rate. Disney needs to use its internal strength to develop a market penetration and a market development strategy. For instance, it can do so through product development, acquisition of competitors or integration with other firms in the industry. It has four dimensions, which are the financial strength and the competitive advantage as the internal strategic dimensions, environmental stability, and industrial strength as the external strategic dimensions. The factors under the internal strategic dimensions analyze Disney’s internal strategic position (David, 2014). These may include Disney’s financial information such as liquidity ratio, working capital, leverage turnover, and cash flows. The competitive advantage of the Company includes its excellent technologies and innovations, customer loyalty, product quality, and a significant market share.

IE matrix

Strong 2-2.99 Weak 1-1, 99

( Media Networks Disney studio Consumer products Parks and Resort Disney Interactive )Highest Score 3-4 weak score

Medium2-2 .99

Low 1-1.99

In the IE

matrix

above, IFE total weighted score is on the x-axis and EFE is on the y-axis. For instance, on the x- axis, the IFE total score of 1-1.99 shows a weak position with a score of 2-2.99 being considered as an average score and that of 3-4bbeing as a strong score. The matrix implies that Disney Company may require using market penetration, product development or market development to better its productivity. Other strategies that the Company may use include backward integration, horizontal integration as well as forward integration strategy (Cockerell & Disney Institute, 2008).

Reference

Botten, N., & McManus, J. (1999). Competitive strategies for service organizations. West Lafayette, Ind: Ichor Business Books.

Cockerell, L., & Disney Institute. (2008). Creating magic: 10 commonsense leadership strategies from a life at Disney.

David, F. (2014). Strategic management concepts (custom Ed.). Pearson-Prentice Hall Custom: Upper Saddle River, N.J

Sehlinger, B., & Testa, L. (2016). The unofficial guide to Walt Disney World 2016

Project Phase 1

Description of the company and its products

The Walt Disney Company is a diversified and multinational media company that mainly deals with family travelling and entertainment. Among the products it offers include media networks, parks and resorts, consumer products as well as an interactive media platform. Its media network contains a series of broadcasts, cables, publishing and digital businesses across the world. In essence, Disney Company’s products particularly the interactive media are creators and sustainers of entertainment across both the current and the emerging media platforms. In addition to content development and distribution functions, the company’s media networks include communication, marketing, and distribution as well as research functions meant to increase its efficiency.

For instance, the Disney/ABC Television group comprises of the company’s global news and entertainment, other television, and radio stations that all team up in entertaining the its customers. Another important product for Disney Company is parks and resorts which consist of five vocational destinations that contain eleven theme parks together with forty-four resorts in America, Europe, and Asia. These parks and resorts include the Disney cruise line, the Disney Magic, Disney Dream Disney Wonder and Disney Fantasy (Capodagli & Jackson, 1999). On the same note, Disneyland also includes hotels and recreational services that are designed with customer preferences in mind. Furthermore, the company has other facilities such as the Walt Disney Studios and Disney Consumer products (DCP). The latter is involved in making movies, stage plays, and music depending on customer’s preferences while the former constitute three business units that include Publishing, Licensing, and Disney store. Finally, the company’s product, Disney Interactive, offers entertainment experiences for customers across all the existing and emerging digital media platforms through mobile and social games.

Company History

Walt Disney Company was incorporated on October 16, 1923, by Walt Disney and Roy Disney and later established itself as a leader in the entertainment industry. At first, it was known as Disney brother cartoons studio but was later incorporated into Walt Disney Studio. It is an American multinational media company with its headquarters at the Walt Disney Studios in California. It is the second biggest media corporation in terms of realized returns. For instance, it has an estimated net income of 36 billion dollars, with its profitability increasing year after year. In 1928, the Mickey Mouse Cartoons were first discharged to the public, which was followed by massive production of a variety of cartoons such a Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck (Barrier, 2008). In 1937, Disney featured in the first animated film, Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, which was of great significance to the company in the entertainment industry.

It is a diversified international company that primarily concentrates on family entertainment and media enterprises. Besides, the company is a provider of family leisure and travel experiences, which it does mainly by bringing movies, music and plays to consumers all over the world (Thomas, 1998). The company’s critical functions are to offer family entertainment and traveling services all offer the world. It has a well-developed media network,

which comprises of a wide array of broadcasts, radio, publishing and digital businesses across the Disney channel ABC television, and the ESPN Inc. Furthermore, it is among the world leading providers of family travels together with leisure experiences through its parks and resorts, hence, enabling millions of people to spend time with their family members. Another critical event of Walt Disney is the provision of entertainment particularly by offering movies, stage plays, and music. Moreover, the Company offers Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media by availing apps, toys as well as books and games. This way, the company brings out its stories to real life experiences through innovations and digital experiences.

Disney faces a large number of competitors in the entertainment industry. This is mainly due to its diverse nature that exposes it to many competitors in its distinct aspects. Some of the main media industries, which compete with Disney include. Time Warner Inc (TWX), CBS, Viacom Inc (VIAB) and Comcast (CMCSA).

The organization is governed by directors who are headed by a chairman. Disney’s leadership style thrives on innovative, thoughts, creative minds and mostly capitalizes on transformational leadership. This style of leadership was instituted by the founder, Walt Disney, who continuously encouraged his employees to take in his vision and objectives. Although Walt Disney is deceased, his transformational leadership style continues to thrive as his followers continually encompass it. For instance, the current CEO, Robert Iger, constantly practices, Walt leadership skills and continues to develop new business units and ventures for Walt Disney Company. Important strategic elements of the development of Walt Disney Company include how it was founded its critical functions, current events and more importantly how it is fighting the encroaching competition.

Vision and mission statement Disney’s mission statement

"The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world."

Disney’s vision statement

The vision statement of Disney Company is “to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.”

Assessment of mission and vision

To start with the Disney’s mission statement, it nearly has all the characteristics of mission statements. For example, it is broad in scope in covering almost all the aspects of the company’s strategic plan. Most importantly, a company’s mission statement should clearly define where the institution is intended to be in future; this is well taken care of by Disney company mission statements that state that the company wishes to be a global leader in providing entertainment services. Besides, the statement shows the company’s concern for its consumers by noting that it seeks to develop the most innovative and creative products apparently designed to

meet the consumer’s specifications. It also indicates its strategy for expansion by noting that the company seeks to develop products that will lead in the whole world (Thomas, 1998).

Like in any other business, Disney’s mission statements outline its desire for profitability in its endeavor to serve the entire world. Any good mission statement should clearly state the function of the organization, which is clearly done by Disney’s by noting that the purpose of the company is to provide entertainment services to the whole world. On the same note, the statements describe the company’s target region by implying that it will serve the entire world. However, Disney’s mission statement would have been made better by incorporating how the company intends to be socially responsible and more importantly how it intends to participate in environmental conservation. Moreover, it would have been important to incorporate how technology will impact the functioning of the company as technology is a paramount aspect of any business strategy. Nevertheless, Disney’s mission statement almost met the criteria of a good mission statement, which is apparently a major reason behind its success.

On the other hand, the company’s vision statement is precise or else clear. It is simply to be one of the world’s leading industries in entertainment. More importantly, it is future focused, in that in future, the company desires to be one of the leading entertainment providers in the whole world. This way, it answers the important question of what the organization will be looking like in the future. In essence, it is of great importance that a vision statement of any company provides a clear picture of what is intended for the organization in future (Capodagli & Jackson, 1999). Disney’s vision statement is not only future-oriented but also directional. In other words, it is clear and broad enough to allow the laid down strategies for realizing the vision to be carried out. Another crucial characteristic found in Disney’s vision statement is relevancy.

Its statement is of relevance meaning in relation to the company’s functions. Ideally, for a multinational company like Disney, it would be possible to serve consumers from all parts of the world with the necessary efforts (Barrier, 2008). Another important aspect of Disney’s vision statement is that it is both purpose driven and value based. This implies that it provides a broad sense of purpose for its people and its organization and stakeholders. This purpose is more meaningful since it is explained in few and simple words that are easily understood by all the stakeholders. More precisely, it defines the aim of the company which causes the stakeholders to be more focused in achieving the set objectives. In other words, it influences the stakeholder’s behavior towards achieving the business purpose. Furthermore, Disney’s vision statement is particular to its functions, which further distinguishes it from the other companies in the same industry.

External assessment of Walt Disney

External Factor Evaluation Matrix

Disney’s External Factor Evaluation Matrix
External strategic factors	Weight	Rating	Weighted Score
Opportunities
Opportunity to expand and enhance	13%	4	0.52
Appropriate inventory management	7%	2	0.14
establishment of market in the under development countries	3%	1	0.09

Attaining more interest of the people	18%	1	0.08
increase in demand for the Disneyland	14%	2	0.28
Threats
Security Issues	5%	3	0.2
Diversity of Social and Ethnic Groups	10%	3	0.3
changes in technology	1%	2	0.28
increasing cost of operations	16%	2	0.12
changes in peoples preferences	5%	3	0.15
reduced profitability	3%	2	0.04
increase in levels of competition	5%	4	0.2
Total	100%		2.4

Competitive profile matrix

Critical Success Factors Global expansion	Disney	Universal Studios Six Flags
	Weight 0.05	Rating 4	Score 0.20	Rating 1	Score 0.05	Rating 4	Score 0.20
Competitive advantage	0.10	3	0.30	2	0.20	2	0.20
product demand	0.25	4	0.80	2	0.40	4	0.80
Management and administration	0.	2	0.20	2	0.20	2	0.20
Resource management	0.20	4	0.40	3	0.30	3	0.30
Customer Loyalty	0.20	4	0.40	3	0.30	3	0.30
Profitability	0.05	4	0.20	1	0.05	4	0.20
Employee motivation	0.15	3	0.45	2	0.30	3	0.45
Total	1.00	5.7		2.55	2.65

From the EFE Disney’s most effective environmental factors include the potential for global expansion, appropriate management together with increased demand for its products that apparently results in increased profitability. More importantly, its opportunity to establish new markets in developing countries will lead to its market expansion and further profitability.

However, Disney faces threats such as increased level of competition together with constantly changing technology that consequently forces it to upgrade implying extra cost. Furthermore, the increased globalization has led to increased costs of operation particularly in acquisition and maintenance of human resource. On the same note, its massive recruitment has led to challenges due to diversity of the employees involved

Arguably, Disney’s opportunities for success outweigh its threat as evidenced by the weighted score of 2.4. Similarly, the CPM reviews an advantage of 5.7 over that of Six Flags which is 2.65. Obviously, this is an outstanding evidence for Disney potential for future success.

Internal assessment

Internal factor evaluation matrix (IFE)

Strengths	Weight	Rating	Weighted score
Increase in profitability	0.06	3	0.9
Strong management team	0.05	4	0.2
Employee motivation	0.1	3	0.3
Increase in market share	0.11	2	0.26
management	0.09	4	0.36
Offers a variety of Products	0.05	3	0.15
Acquisition of Lucas film	0.1	4	40
Weaknesses
High operational costs	0.12	3	0.57
Wavering consumer preferences	0.09	2	0.14
Limited room for expansion	0.08	2	o.16
P/E ratio below the industry average	0.08	1	0.08
Limited range of target audience.	0.07	2	0.12
Total	1		3.64

Financial Ratios for Disney's Parks

Ratio
Current ration	111%
Cash ratio	56%
Debt equity ratio	87%
Return on investment	11%
Total debt ratio	46%
Gross margin	18%
Profit margin	11%

From the analysis of Disney’s IFE and financial ratios, it is evident that it is at a good financial stand particularly due to its strength of increased profitability. Other strengths include diversified markets, provision of quality products, high employee motivation and a strong management team. However, it also has weaknesses such as constantly changing consumer preferences, limited target audience as well as limited room for expansion. Disney also has favorable financial ratios such as a current ratio of 111% that implies that its liquid assets are more than its current liabilities. Besides, a profit margin of 11% indicates that Disney retains some profit even after tax and other operational expenses

Reference

Barrier, J. M. (2008). The animated man: A life of Walt Disney. Berkeley, Calif. [u.a.: Univ. of California Press.

Capodagli, B., & Jackson, L. (1999). The Disney way: Harnessing the management secrets of Disney in your company. New York: McGraw Hill.

David, F. (2015). Business Resources. (Custom Ed). Pearson-Prentice Hall Custom: Upper Saddle River, N.J.

Thomas, B. (1998). Building a company: Roy O. Disney and the creation of an entertainment empire. New York: Hyperion.