Answer

The Walt Disney Company

            The Walt Disney Company is an American public multinational media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at Disney Studios, California. The organization comprises four strategic business units (SUBs): Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products, and Media Networks.  In this assignment, we analyzed the company’s current vision and mission statements and proposed new ones to drive the company forward.  

Company Overview

Business Type

Disney, as the company is commonly known, is a mass media and entertainment company. Even though the company started and established itself as the American animation leader, it has diversified into film production, mass media, resorts, and parks, in response to dynamic and changing global market, technology, and customer demands. For instance, the firm is known for its film studio that comprises of its stories and pictures. Therefore, Disney’s business units can be classified as theme parks, consumer products, publishing, television and broadcasting, stream media, theme parks, resorts, and international operations. 

History

The company was incorporated in October 1923 by two brothers: Roy and Walt Disney. Since its inception, the company has operated under different names. Initially, it was known as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, before being renamed Walt Disney Studio later. After Walt’s death, the company was renamed Walt Disney Productions in his honor.  In the wake of new leadership, the corporation adopted its current name, The Walt Disney Company, in 1986 (World Disney Archives, 2020). Before world war II, Disney produced a series of movies and movies, including Alice’s Wonderland, and Oswald. However, Disney’s distributor, Universal Pictures, owned Oswald without the brother’s knowledge, leading to a fallout between them, marking a significant turning point in the company’s life. 

Between 1928 and 1934, the company created different movies and animations, among them Mickey Mouse, which helped recover the loss that resulted from losing Oswald sales (World Disney Archives, 2020). During this period, they also began producing feature-length animated films like Snow White, which pushed their company forward financially and in terms of market share. Post-world war II came with challenges characterized by technological advancement and leadership struggles due to the brother’s deaths. Nevertheless, the company has managed to reshape its leadership and strategies and embrace diversification to become one of the world’s largest media and entertainment organizations.

Organization’s Strategy

The company’s organizational strategies are oriented towards achieving its mission and vision statements. Disney strives to gain competitive advantages over its competitors through diversification and the creation of new consumer products. Part of its expansion strategies includes buyouts and acquisitions such as the acquisition of Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, which Iger, the CEO, described as customer-oriented and building trust (Denning, 2019). The firm is customer-oriented and develops products and services that are wanted and loved by the consumers. The company grows through creativity and innovation, supported by its horizontal and decentralized management approach. The company is divided into divisions or units that focus on specific consumer products and industries (Williams, 2019). Different divisions are responsible for bringing new ideas for verification and approval by the top management. 

Business Model

Disney operates through four main segments, the SBUs. Each of these units has independent operating income and generates revenues that contribute to the company’s total income. The firm’s customer base is diverse and includes children, families, and adults.

Vision

The Disney’s corporate vision is to become a global leader in producing and providing information and entertainment.

Mission

The company’s mission is to inform, entertain, and inspire people through the power of creative minds, its rich brand history, storytelling, and technological innovations that distinguish it as the world’s premier entertainment company.

Mission and Vision Statements Analysis

Strengths

The vision has three key factors: global, leading position in provision and production, and information and entertainment. Therefore, the statement describes the company’s market place as international and its aspiration to achieve global recognition and a leading position in the media and entertainment industry. It clear and future-oriented in terms of the development and implementation of the strategic plans. Attaining these goals requires effective leadership and management in developing competitive products and services to address the competitive threat.

On the other hand, the mission statement provides sufficient information needed to guide strategy formulation, product development, marketing, and intensive growth plans. The product listings represent the conglomerate’s offerings and attempt to classify and determine its divisions and subsidiaries like Pixar. The use of a series of adjectives, such as the “most creative” to describe the company’s products, implies great leadership and focus. For example, the mission signifies its commitment to develop creative and innovative competitive and growth strategies. The statements thus satisfy some of the requirements in developing corporate visions and missions.

Weaknesses

The vision statement is outdated because Disney is already one of the world leaders in the industry and does not give any purpose or direction other than retaining their position. Moreover, among the SBUs, Disney’s Media Networks accounts for the largest revenue generator, contributing to 40% of the total revenues in 2020 (Johnston, 2020). This is an indicator of how the company has cemented its position in the global market.

Though adequate, the mission statement does not clearly communicate the type of the business, products, or services the company offers. It neither separates what is critical from what is not nor explains how the different markets will be served. Besides, it does not reflect the four SBUs that form the primary pillars of the firm. It is worth noting that Disney’s diversity prohibits creating mission statements for all four divisions, thus reducing the possibility of having a vision and mission statements that align with the various activities.  

Proposed Company Vision and Mission

The improved vision statement is to become the global leader and most trusted producer and provider of information and entertainment.

The improved mission statement is to inform, entertain, and inspire generations through our portfolio of brands, innovative and creative minds, while maintaining our integrity, trust, and core values as a global industrial leader.

Benefits of the Proposals

The proposed vision and mission statements are generally better than the current ones in many ways. First, it recognizes the company’s role and contributions as one of the global leaders in the media and entertainment industry. The vision characteristics are clear, coherent, and reflect the organization’s values and ethics. How customers interact with a brand depends on the brand’s expression (Pace, 2017). These statements’ specificity can help boost the business advantages and strengths to develop competitive products and services that will give them an edge over their competitors. Unlike the current statements, the proposals are better positioned to align the company’s role in addressing emerging global issues such as climate change through is corporate social responsibility.

Conclusion

The Walt Disney Company has operated under the guidance of fairly good vision and mission statements that has enabled it to achieve its current status as a premier leading global brand. However, due to stiff competition and emerging trends, it would be good for the organization to revise its vision and mission to fit its current status in the global market and align its future goals with industrial dynamics. Therefore, the proposed vision and mission statements are better positioned to drive the forward than the current ones.

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