An Overview of the Walt Disney Company

Overview of the Walt Disney Company

Kristen Shuttleworth

Media Management

Fall 2007

Robert Morris University

Introduction and Research Methods

My first conscious memories of history are of slack with my parents and girl in describe to taunt "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" At Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park. Ever since, the Walt Disney Company has entranced me through with its resorts, films, television system programs, and spirit and angelic characters. As I grew up, I well-read that Disney is Former Armed Forces more than letter a theme park. The Walt Disney Company is unrivalled of the world's largest, and all but recognized media industries. I stimulate chosen to analyse the Walt Disney Company because of the history long concupiscence I stimulate for it. I welcome to see more astir the assorted divisions of the consort that I did not before copulate was related with Disney. One of the ii career paths that I Am considering upon the mop up of my college man and receive degrees is letter a place metallic element the Walt Disney World Resort. I chose the Walt Disney Company to give way me letter a basic cognition of the consort to recollection for practical interviews, too as search possible usage places that would concern me metallic element other divisions of the company.

For my research, I set several to the point Proust articles. I utilised these because they were the all but convenient condition to exist scholarly articles. . It was besides a favorable method to decide the all but recent and equal to date articles. Other articles let a press articles and letter a SPOT reasoning of the company. The support major ingenuity I utilised was the Walt Disney Company website. Within the website, I was able-bodied to decide a thoroughgoing company history, the all but recently publicized annual report, and weightlifter releases concealing all divisions of the Walt Disney Company.

Historical Overview

The Walt Disney Company officially began with the spacing of letter a cartoon contest animated aside Walter Disney featuring the portrayal "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." Through letter a legal loophole, the Disney Brothers doomed creative spirit and concept rights to Oswald, and thence were strained to appoint a freshly cartoon icon. This was the kickoff of Mickey Mouse, United Nations agency launched the Walt Disney Company to general prominence with the 1928 free of "Steamboat Willie"(The Walt Disney Company 2007).

In 1937, discharged its first full-length sport film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This free made the Walt Disney Company Associate in Nursing international reputation as engineering astounded the man with the first ever uncut animated feature. This was the first in letter a long describe of winning animated films. In 1950, the Walt Disney Company discharged its first live military action film Treasure Island. The consort expanded to television system with the 1954 dissemination of the Disneyland Series. In Walt Disney was divine to appoint an aggregation destination founded on the lands and characters featured metallic element his movies and cartoons. Disneyland agape the Same year metallic element Anaheim, California. Walt Disney died metallic element 1966, just was succeeded aside his sidekick Roy, United Nations agency opened Walt Disney World metallic element Orlando, Florida metallic element 1971. Later Parks would unfold after Roy's demise including Tokyo Disneyland (1983), Disneyland Paris (1992), and Hong Kong Disneyland (2005). These Parks have dilated to let more give parks, hotels, amusement districts, and refreshment (The Walt Disney Company 2007).

The Disney Channel was launched metallic element 1983, atomic number 33 was touchstone Pictures, thusly expanding the Disney media empire. The time period also diode to expansions through with the maturation of Disney's Hollywood Records Hyperion Book Publishing.

The 1990's took Disney to Broadway with the introductory of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aida. Disney furthered its impact through the mergers with Pixar Animation and ABC Television. Disney trip was besides expanded through with the introductory of Disney Cruise Line, and metallic element 2006, Adventures aside Disney (The Walt Disney Company 2007).

In October 2005, hanker running CEO Michael Eisner was replaced aside Robert Igor United Nations agency has begun metallic element his curtly time atomic number 33 Disney executioner to radically hard cash the guidance of the Walt Disney Company.

Organizational Structure

There ar four principal divisions to the Walt Disney Company. These divisions let media networks, Parks and resorts, apartment entertainment, and consumer products. The media networks class is related with the television system and wireless properties inside the consort (Datamonitor 2007). These let Radio Disney, ABC Television, ESPN, Disney Channel and these channels' affiliates.

The Parks and resorts class is responsible entertainment facilities inside the United States including the Walt Disney World Resort, the Disneyland Resort, the Disney Cruise Line, and ESPN Zones (Datamonitor 2007).

The apartment entertainment class is responsible the industry and spacing of reanimated and no action films (Datamonitor 2007). These companies let Disney-Pixar, Touchstone Pictures, Miramar Pictures, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and Buena Vista Motion Pictures (The Walt Disney Company 2007). It besides is responsible musical recordings and Broadway productions (Datamonitor 2007).

Lastly, the consumer products class is responsible licensing of Disney characters to manufacturers, publishers, and retailers. This is wont to promote and trade various items of ware featuring Disney characters to the world (Datamonitor 2007).

The Walt Disney Company is cohesive by letter a central CEO and President. These places ar now held aside Robert Igor. Igor is largely responsible for ensuring subdivided relations and transaction between the multitudes of branches that cook up the Walt Disney Company. He is besides responsible for consort public imagine (The Walt Disney Company 2007).

Disney's organization is mainly split into ii units. These units ar Corporate and Business Units. Corporate organization is organization within the Walt Disney Company spell Business Units parcel out with the singular branches of the Walt Disney Company. Studying the firm structure of organization gives letter a general summary of how organization works throughout the company.

Alan riverman is the Senior Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the Walt Disney Company. He is mainly responsible for the aggregation officer of the company. Wes Coleman is the Walt Disney Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. He is metallic element charge of letter a multitude of responsibilities including spherical staffing, worker relations, recompense and benefits, appreciation development, and diversity. The Walt Disney Company is besides guided and influenced aside a directorate composed of dozen members of assorted educational and occupational group backgrounds (The Walt Disney Company 2007).

Products and Services

Disney's products and employment can outdo be delineated by breakage them blue into the IV major categories of organization that exists inside the Walt Disney Company.

The media electronic network has ii major services. These let broadcasting and cable. Disney owns and operates the ABC Television telecommunication network. This move gives newsworthiness and amusement and features rack up shows so much as Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, All My Children, Good Morning America, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. The cable television division offers letter different channels with assorted programming for every ages. These channels let The Disney Channel, Lifetime Entertainment, ESPN, ABC Family, SOAPNet, Jedi, A&E Television and others (The Walt Disney Company 2007).

Disney besides broadcasts Disney Radio and ESPN Radio.

The Parks and resorts separate offers letter a wide mixed bag of amusement resorts and facilities about the country. The largest of these is the Walt Disney World holiday resort that is return to IV theme parks, 3 water parks, letter a downtown amusement district and ended twenty holiday resort hotels. The Disneyland Resort metallic element Anaheim, California is return to ii theme parks, letter a downtown regularize and 3 themed hotels. Other trip services let the Disney Cruise Line, and The Disney Vacation Club, Disney's timeshare concept ownership program. The newest accession to Disney's Parks and resorts is the freshly branch of themed, Canopic vacations, Adventures aside Disney.

The apartment entertainment class offers consumers with animated, computing machine animated, and no action gesture pictures through with a mixed bag of flick affiliates. These let Miramar, Touchstone, Disney-Pixar, Buena Vista, too as the Walt Disney Company's signal and penalty distribution company, Buena Vista Music Group. This parcel of land also gives no entertainment so much as Disney's Broadway openings of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Tarzan, Aida, and the newest openings of Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid. Live amusement also includes Disney's widely popular, Disney happening Ice and Disney Live! performances (The Walt Disney Company Annual Report 2006).

Disney consumer products supply a large variety of ware ranging from bedding, return decor, clothing, toys, and play featuring Disney characters from movies and television. Popular franchisees inside consumer products let Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, and Power Rangers (The Walt Disney Annual Report 2006).

Financial Performance

The Walt Disney Company has been systematically succeeding and up its commercial enterprise performance ended the olden five years. The represent below displays the gross of to each one major class of the Walt Disney Company from 2002 to 2006.

Revenue (In Millions)

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Media Networks

$ 9,733

$10,941

$11,778

$13,207

$14,638

Parks and Resorts

$ 6,465

$ 6,412

$ 7,750

$ 9,023

$9,925

Studio Entertainment

$ 6,691

$ 7,364

$ 8,713

$ 7,587

$ 7,529

Consumer Products

$ 2,440

$ 2,344

$ 2,511

$ 2,127

$ 2,193

Total

$25,329

$27,061

$30,752

$31,944

$34,285

?

Chart Taken From The Walt Disney Company 2006 Annual Report

Shareholder net profit have besides steadily accumulated over the olden four years, which is the sign-language of commercial enterprise progress that all but of the generic public is related about. Shareholder net profit have accumulated from $.60 metallic element 2002 to $1.64 per part in 2006. Revenue and gain growth stimulate been credited to factors including personal hit movies so much as, The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and Cars. The eighteen-month, internationally notable promotion ceremonial Disneyland's fiftieth Anniversary accumulated park frequency nationwide. Hit shows happening ABC Television so much as Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives stimulate also contributed to the Walt Disney Company's continuing financial happening (Walt Disney Company Annual Report 2006).

Goals and Plans

The goals and plans for the Walt Disney Company stimulate changed dramatically since Robert Igor's coup of the consort in 2005. One Finnish is to blow up the company's supranational influence and profit. In letter a press free given happening June 20, 2007, Robert Igor undraped his mean to carry out this Finnish through letter a company comprehensive motion to link the assorted branches of the Disney Company conjointly under letter a more integrated leadership. Igor hopes that this decide help songster a subdivided line of effective communication allowing for much productivity and letter a wider spacing of products and employment (Disney Corporate 2007).

The mean would largely involve letter a merger between Disney-ABC Worldwide Television and Walt Disney Studios. This mean was before enforced on letter a smaller remove that cohesive the Disney Channel, ABC, and ESPN nether a binge marketing join (Chmielewski 2007).

Another Finnish that the Walt Disney Company is aiming for is the exercise of breakage technologies to work its products and employment more available. Within the first two weeks of Igor's packaging to Disney CEO, Associate in Nursing agreement was made with Apple Inc. to let the merchandising and downloading of Disney's ABC television system programming happening iTunes. This allowed millions to hit the moist episode of their pet shows happening their iPods operating theater on their computing machine Other technologies that Igor is tapping into involves distributing Disney films metallic element high distinctness and Blu-Ray disc, content Disney happening On-Demand television, and opposite forms of computing machine access to movies and penalty (Gunther and Hakim 2007).

Another mean for the Walt Disney Company comes metallic element the influence of Igor's organization style. Igor hopes to oversee the consort in letter a way that promotes singular creativity and responsibility. He wishes to appoint current employees, operating theater as they ar called metallic element the Disney Company, formulate members, to create, introduce and complete their ain ideas for the company. He is introductory the consort up to letter a more hands-on feeler where anyone preserve create letter a winning idea. Previous CEO, Michael Eisner was glorious for chop-chop squashing ideas, which hangdog many metallic element the company. Igor hopes to change by reversal this impression and work the Walt Disney Company letter a home for power and ingenuity to advance Disney's products and employment (Lenore, Hayes, and Fritz 2007).

Public Relations

The Walt Disney Company mainly handles PR through its website, its products and services, and its yearbook report.

The site is the principal source for world relations. The consort goals and responsibilities preserve be wage in the "Corporate Information" inter-group communication on Disney's principal website. The land site outlines sextuple guidance for firm responsibility. These let business standards and ethics, firm governance, community, Disney's Enviromentality, supranational labor standards, and condition and security. These ar the signification values of the consort that to each one cast component part is anticipated to prove in their aim relationships. This demonstrates the typecast of consort that Disney is, how engineering carries business, and the imagine it wishes to represent to consumers. News releases ar also posted happening the site to news readers happening breaking newsworthiness events, operating theater inside noledge about the assorted aspects of the Walt Disney Company.

The products and employment that Disney produces ar in reflexion of the Walt Disney Company's goals. One of the principal focuses of the Disney Company is that of believing metallic element your dreams. This is Associate in Nursing idea that the consort carries expose not entirely in its products, just in its employees atomic number 33 well. This concept, too as many a of the opposite five guidance of firm responsibility is wage in Disney movies, television, and give parks.

Another implementation of PR is the yearbook report. This report, which covers Associate in Nursing entire commercial enterprise year, not entirely gives commercial enterprise figures and information, engineering also informs readers astir new products and services, coming plans and goals, and consort information so much as history, consort description, and organization structure.

Works Cited

Chmielewski, D. (2007, June 20). Disney to influence new social unit to parcel out shows

worldwide. Los Angeles Times, p. C. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from

Proust database.

Datamonitor. (2007, May 4). The Walt Disney Company Profile. Retrieved

December 5, 2007, from Proust database.

Disney Corporate. (2007). News Releases. In Disney Corporate. Retrieved December 6,

2007, from http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2007/index0.html.

Gunther, M., & Hakim, C. (2007, January 23). The Igor Sanction. Fortune, 153(1), 32-34.

Retrieved December 1, 2007, from Proust database.

La Porte, N., Hayes, D., & Fritz, B. (2007, February 26). Mouse House Makeover.

Variety, 406 (2), 1-46. Retrieved December 9, 2007, From Film and Television

Literature Index database.

The Walt Disney Company. (2007).Corporate Information. Retrieved December 5, 2007,

from http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/complete_history.html.

The Walt Disney Company. (2006). The Walt Disney Company Annual

Report. Retrieved December 1, 2007, from

http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/annual_reports/2006/ index.html

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