Walt Disney

The Walt Disney Company is currently a leading multinational entertainment and media enterprise in the world. It was founded in 1923 as a movie studio and has established itself as a leader of animation industry in America. It has later diversified into live-action production, travel, and television. Upon its launch in 1923, it operated a Disneyland resort in Anaheim, California, and managed to go public after two years (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.). As an account of its current name, Walt Disney has extended its dominant operations as well as started divisions with the main focus on theater, radio, music, publishing, and online media-related activities. Over time, the company has managed to record continued growth including acquisitions of film distributors and perfection of its media products merchandising model.

As a part of its expansion, in 1996, Disney managed to acquire ABC, and in the year 2006 it finally purchased Pixar Animation Studios, its longtime partner in the market, although a distribution agreement had existed prior to the Pixar acquisition (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.). In addition, Disney has managed to create new company divisions as a way of marketing much more mature content than just involvement in a typical association with its flagship family-oriented brands. During its startup period, Disney was characterized by its iconic Mickey Mouse that appeared after five years of operations. Currently, the company is best known for its film studio production. Disney also owns and operates the ABC television broadcast network and holds successful music and theater divisions.

The company’s size has increased significantly from a single movie studio. There has been a lot of work done in terms of the company’s expansion, so now it enjoys its benefits. Some of the expansion steps include acquisitions of other companies such as Pixar and ABC. Since then, the company has managed to divide its operations into different principal segments. These segments are: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Disney Consumer Products, Disney Interactive, and The Walt Disney Studios that include Pixar (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.). As a way of expansion, Disney has emphasized on its core strategy of creating as well as distributing attractive children contents through various channels. In line with maximizing its value strategy, Disney has begun contributing its contents in a new way such as video-on-demand online. It has also invested $350 million for its own in-house video game development capabilities (Walt Disney Company, n.d.).

Operating in more than 40 countries with approximately 149,000 employees around the world, Disney sets standards for the future of entertainment (Disney Careers, n.d.). Disney has managed to create a successful culture in terms of its employees. The company expects its leaders to be coaches as well as provides feedback that can help them grow. In order for the organization to be competent in the market, managers are normally evaluated on financial or qualitative skills grounds as far as the aim of leading people is concerned. In addition, Disney seeks out employees who are service-minded as well as people-oriented. It helps the company eliminate employees with negative attitudes towards work. Various seminars and employee training programs are also organized by the company. These programs focus on introducing new employees to the company’s culture. New hires acquire company’s views from other employees, and they are able to know what their job entails. In turn, the program reinforces the Disney’s culture in trainers.

It is clear that in all business aspects – financial, customer service, quality, innovation, and employee retention – Disney has remained on top. Disney has managed to retain its employees due to its long-standing culture, recognition, and motivation. In order to accentuate positive attitudes within the company, Disney has more than 180 recognition programs awarded to its employees on certain laid down procedures (Nelson, 1999).

In the process of increasing its size, Disney purchased comic book company Marvel in 2009. This gave the company the rights to 5000 Marvel characters, including Spider Man and X-men among others. All expansion activities have enabled the company to enjoy economies of scale hence a general reduction in costs (Walt Disney Company, n.d.).

Another major area of Disney operations are the sources of its revenues. The company has been able to increase revenue in a number of ways including advertising, driven by the availability of large-scale TV events like the Olympics. Its success in earning advertising money and fees depends on programming and the size of the audience it attracts. It has been able to raise revenue from affiliate fees paid from cable and satellite companies for advertising. The affiliate fee is used as a source of revenue that is expected to grow independently of the economic conditions. It is clear that Disney gains the highest affiliate fees due to popularity of its ESPN programming. Film and DVD merchandising and syndication remain volatile sources of revenue. In order to increase sales in this area, it has plans of producing more hit movies. The company collects revenue from its domestic theme parks. The amount of revenue collected is determined by the number of visitors related to the strength of the dollar (Walt Disney Company, n.d.).

In terms of a global footprint, Disney has been able to achieve its goals through employees. It has been geared by the power managers have gained due to globalization. It is clear that globalization, innovation, diversity, and ethics are some of the factors that affect the management of the Walt Disney Company. The company leverages its global footprint as one way in strengthening its resources, knowledge of technology, and increasing innovation in order to continue being a diverse company. Due to the availability of a variety of diversified business segments as well as distinctive brands, Disney has emerged to be the world’s leader in high quality family entertainment (Disney Careers, n.d.). The production is focused on making sure that its brands are culturally relevant. It has also been able to put value in unique prospects that come from different regions. To put more emphasis on its global footprint, the company has plans of expanding Disneycareers.com in support of specific employment for a number of international locations.