Walt Disney Strategy Case free essay sample

What is Walt Disney Company’s corporate generic strategy? Explain the reason for your answer. Broad Differentiation because its products are in media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive media. Thus, it attracts a wide base of consumers through differentiating its products by superior dedication to creating high quality content, technological innovations in entertainment and international expansion. 2. What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in Walt Disney Company’s business portfolio? See p. 234 in test. Attractive (from most to least) : Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products, Parks/Resorts, Media Networks Profitability, Growth, Competition are most important to diversified strategies. It is also a healthy sign that most of Disney’s profits come from attractive industries. Disney should reexamine the potential of Interactive Media line. 3. What is your assessment of the competitive strength of Walt Disney Company’s different business units? See p. 237 in text. We will write a custom essay sample on Walt Disney Strategy Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Consistent with the industry attractiveness, the weakest business unit is interactive media. The rest are in strong, competitive positions. 4. What does a 9-cell industry attractiveness/business strength matrix displaying Walt Disney Company’s business units look like? See p. 239 in text. Below is the nine-cell industry attractiveness-competitive strength matrix. The x-axis is labeled as competitive strength/market position and the y-axis represents industry attractiveness. The way I determined the relative size and position of each of Disney’s five main business lines mentioned in the case was by first completing a weighted competitive strength score for each of the business lines. Additionally, figures provided in the case showed the revenues of each business line, which directly contributed to how big each circle was. It is evident from the matrix below that the parks/resorts business line generates the most revenue, followed closely by media networks. Interactive media and studio entertainment are currently generating the least revenue. This is due to the high cost to produce films for studio entertainment and the fact that interactive media is a relatively new business channel for Disney. However, out of all business lines, these two have the most potential in their industry and are therefore very attractive. Interactive media is a hot trend that Disney will be able to capitalize on due to its acquisition of Playdom. While films are very expensive to produce and distribute, the profit potential from Marvel and Pixar make the industry very attractive overall. 5. Does Disney’s portfolio exhibit good strategic fit? What value chain match-ups do you see? What opportunities for skills transfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing do you see? Please be specific and explain why. Brand sharing is extremely relevant across all brands except for Media Networks (because it covers ESPN and other adult audience channels). 6. What is your assessment of Walt Disney Company’s financial and operating performance in fiscal years 2010-2011? What is your assessment of the relative contribution of the Disney SBUs to the financial strength of Disney, based on the 2011 fiscal year financial data? Numbers please! Your recommended actions must be supported with a convincing, analysis- based argument. Reevaluate the competencies of Interactive Media engineering team. This SBU has consistently been performing at a loss because the products produced are simply not competitive enough in the marketplace. The other low performing SBU is Studio Entertainment—alongside a strategic release of 2 movies a year, consider the channels in which they are being offered as more people are opting to stream on Netflix instead of DVDs or cable TV. Moreover, focus on stronger marketing campaigns to raise views 8. How has Disney done since 2011? Refer to Disney website. Continued leveraging content of Marvel (ex: Star Wars VII and Avengers) New video game platform, Disney Interactive (mobile games too) WatchESPN (24/7) Focus on technology for operational efficiency at parks (MyMagic+) China and Russia have now joined Japan and the UK as the biggest international markets for movies Management: Appoint Jack Dorsey (Twitter chairman and Square CEO) as independent Director