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Faculty of Organisation and Management
BSc (Honours) Tourism Management
Title The Success Factors of Walt Disney Corporation: A Conceptual
Framework
Name Chan Hung Tak, Redness
Student No 91203292
Month Year April 2009
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Sheffield Hallam University
Faculty of Organisation and Management
Title The Success Factors of Walt Disney Corporation: A Conceptual
Framework
Name Chan Hung Tak, Redness
Student No 91203292
Month Year April 2009
Supervisor:
Dr. Connie Mok
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Tourism Management.
Month Year April 2009
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Dr. Mok for her help in selecting the paper topic
and for her patience, support and guidance in the writing of the proposal and
paper.
The author would also like to thank Nicodemus Lo, Lego Chan, Mayumi and
Yan Leung for their support and suggestions related to this paper.
A special thanks to Man Cheung and Ken for his help in improving “A
Conceptual Framework of the Success Factors of Walt Disney Corporation”.
Finally, the author would like to thanks his family for giving much supports for
author’s study.
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The Success Factors of Walt Disney Corporation: A Conceptual Framework.
March 2009, BSc (Honours) Tourism Management., Sheffield Hallam
University & Hong Kong Shape. Supervisor: Dr. Connie Mok
Abstract
This study has investigated the success factors of Walt Disney Corporation
which based on its corporation strategic management. This study aims to
review its strategic management development, identify the successful factors
of Walt Disney Corporation, conceptualize the strategic management practices
and processes and suggest ways to improve the performance of Walt Disney
Corporation.
This study is conducted by a qualitative research methodology with a
conceptual framework based on secondary data. The large number of journal
has been used to underpinning this study such as Journal of Travel Research,
Journal of International Economic Studies and so on.
The researcher has developed “A Conceptual Framework of the Success
Factors of Walt Disney Corporation” to identify the success factors of Walt
Disney Corporation which includes eight factors with five results. Eight
success factors include Disney’s Culture and philosophy, leadership
management, research and development, marketing, human resources, brand
management, quality management and internationalization and localization.
Five results consist of loyalty, Disney’s power, uniqueness, low operation cost
and financial status.
Finally, this study suggested that Walt Disney Corporation should stop the
frequently changing of top leader. Also, the company should produce, sell and
market their product or service to earn more profit rather than relied on
licensing, control the liquidity ratio well, decrease the overhead cost and
establish good partnership with local community and local privacy sector.
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Table of Contents Page
Title Page……………………………………………………………………. i
Declaration………………………………………………………………… ii
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………... iii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………… iv
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………... v-vii
List of Tables………………………………………………………………... viii
List of Figures………………………………………………………………. viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 The focus of the study……………………………………………… 1-4
1.2 Aim and Objective………………………………………………….. 5
1.3 Background information of Walt Disney Corporation
1.3.1 The Short History of Walt Disney Corporation……………… 6-10
1.3.2 Mission Statement……………………………………………... 11
1.3.3 Mission………………………………………………………….. 11
1.3.4 Objective………………………………………………………... 12
1.3.5 Common Goal………………………………………………….. 12
1.3.6 Spirituality………………………………………………………. 12
1.3.7 Disney Traditions………………………………………………. 13
1.3.8 Core Value……………………………………………………... 13
1.3.9 Corporate Responsibility……………………………………… 13
1.4 Summary of Chapters……………………………………………… 14
CHAPTER TWO: LITERTURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………..... 15
2.2 The Core Competency of Walt Disney Corporation
2.2.1 Disney Culture………………………………………………..... 15-17
2.2.2 The philosophy of Walt Disney Corporation………………… 17-18
2.2.3 Brand Name……………………………………………………. 18-19
2.2.4 Loyalty Building………………………………………………… 19-20
2.2.5 The Disney Way……………………………………………….. 20
2.2.6 Disney’s Power………………………………………………… 20-21
2.2.7 Disney’s Uniqueness………………………………………...... 21
2.2.8 Transfer a vision……………………………………………….. 21
2.2.9 Legal and Legislative forces………………………………….. 22
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2.3 The Corporation Strategies of Walt Disney
2.3.1 Market Diversification and Product Diversification…………. 22-23
2.3.2 Brand Expansion………………………………………………. 24
2.3.3 Ownership Strategy……………………………………………. 24-25
2.3.4 Leadership Strategy…………………………………………… 25-26
2.3.5 Decentralization Strategy……………………………………... 26-27
2.3.6 Human Resources Strategy………………………………...... 27-28
2.3.7 Marketing Policy and Strategy……………………………….. 28-30
2.3.8 Theming Strategy……………………………………………… 31
2.3.9 Low cost strategy……………………………………………… 31
2.3.10 Internationalization Strategy………………………………… 32
2.4 Walt Disney Corporation’s Business Approaches
2.4.1 The Disney Approach to People Management……………... 32-36
2.4.2 The Disney Approach to Organizational Creativity and
Innovation………………………………………………………
36-37
2.4.3 The Disney Approach to Quality Service……………………. 37-38
2.4.4 The Disney Approach to Team Building……………………... 38-39
2.4.5 The Disney Approach to Financial Control........................... 39-40
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………..... 41
3.2 Secondary Research……………………………………………..... 41-45
3.3 Advantage…………………………………………………………… 45
3.4 Limitations…………………………………………………………… 46
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction and A Conceptual Framework………………………. 47
4.2 The Source of References………………………………………… 48
4.3 Culture and Philosophy……………………………………………. 49-50
4.4 Leadership Management………………………………………….. 50-51
4.5 Research and Development………………………………………. 51-53
4.6 Marketing……………………………………………………………. 53-57
4.7 Human Resources………………………………………………….. 57-59
4.8 Brand Management………………………………………………… 59-61
4.9 Quality Management of Product and Services…………………... 61-62
4.10 Internationalization and Localization……………………………. 62-63
A Loyalty…………………………………………………………………. 64
B Disney Power……………………………………………………….... 65
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C Uniqueness…………………………………………………………… 65
D Low Cost………………………………………………………………. 66
E Financial Status…………………………………………………….. 66-67
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusions…………………………………………………………. 68-69
5.2 Recommendations…………………………………………………. 70-71
References…………………………………………………………………... 72-77
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List of Tables
Table Page
1. Walt Disney Corporation Overview-2008………………………….. 1
2. Top 25 World Theme Parks-2007………………………………….. 2
3. Disney’s Important Dates…………………………………………… 6
4. Walt Disney’s Core Value…………………………………………… 13
5. The Source of Reference…………………………………………… 48
List of Figures
Figure Page
1. Financial Review in 2007……………………………………………… 39
2. A Conceptual Framework of the Success Factors of Walt Disney
Corporation……………………………………………………………..
47
3. Marketing Mix Structure……………………………………………….. 53
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 The focus of the study
Walt Disney Corporation is a top leader in theme park and resort industry,
studio entertainment, family entertainment, company branded consumer good
and service as well as media networks in the world (Executive Summary
Disney Company 2005). Nowadays, the company has different kinds of
multinational business with over 137,000 employees (The Walt Disney
Company 2008), a one year growth of 2.6 percentage and 189,000
shareholders in the world (The Walt Disney Company-a case study 1996).
Table 1: Walt Disney Corporation Overview-2008
Head Office The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank
California 91521
USA
Phone 1 181 560 1000
Fax 1 181 560 1930
Web Address http://www.disney.com
Revenue/Turnover (USD Mn) 35,510.0
Financial Year End September
Employees 137,000
New York Stock Exchange Ticker DIS
Source: The Walt Disney Company (2008)
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Table 2: Top 25 World Theme Parks-2007
Rank Park and Location 2007 Attendance
1 Magic Kingdom 17,060,000
2 Disneyland 14,870,000
3 Tokyo Disneyland 13,906,000
4 Tokyo Disney Sea 12,413,000
5 Disneyland Paris 12,000,000
6 Epcot 10,930,000
7 Disney Hollywood Studios 9,510,000
8 Disney's Animal Kingdom 9,490,000
9 Universal Studios Japan 8,713,000
10 Everland 7,200,000
11 Universal Studios Orlando 6,200,000
12 SeaWorld Orlando 5,800,000
13 Disney's California Adventure 5,680,000
14 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 5,500,000
15 Islands of Adventure 5,430,000
16 Ocean Park Hong Kong 4,920,000
17 Hakkeijima Sea Paradise Yokohama 4,770,000
18 Universal Studios Hollywood 4,700,000
19 Busch Gardens Africa 4,400,000
20 SeaWorld California 4,260,000
21 Hong Kong Disneyland 4,150,000
22 Tivoli Gardens 4,110,000
23 Europe Park 4,000,000
24 Nagashima Spaland 3,910,000
25 Port Aventura 3,700,000
Source: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com (2007)
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O’Brien (1995) pointed that Walt Disney has dominated the theme park
industry over forty years and the leader position of theme park industry will not
possible be changed in the future. According to the statistic of The top 25
theme park companies 2007 (Table 2) indicated that Walt Disney Corporation
has captured large amount of visitors compared with other twenty theme park
company. Also, the company has shared for thirty percent of the total visitation
to the top fifty parks in the USA. Besides, Walt Disney Corporation has enjoyed
about seventy percent of repeat visitors because of the company’s success of
building the customer loyalty through by the high customer satisfaction in
terms of high quality of service and product (Allerton 1997).
Andrews (1987) described that corporate level strategy was determined by the
top management that helped them to decide company’s objectives, goals,
purposes; construct the principal policy and specify the extent of business as
well as plan all actions to achieve those goals. In addition, he believed that
corporate strategy could be applied to all enterprises in different industries.
Walt Disney Corporation had been practicing their own corporate strategies
and management much differently from the management of the other firms
operating the theme park industry (O’Brien 1995).
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It is no doubt that Walt Disney Corporation is one of the most influence
corporations in the world in terms of the corporate business expansion (Walt
Disney Company SWOT analysis 2008), financial performance (The Walt
Disney Company-a case study 1996), brand image (Francoeur 2004) and
management practice (Capodagli and Jackson 2000), they said that Walt
Disney Corporation is a master of both creativity and disciplined teamwork. It
stimulated the researcher interested in the following questions. What are the
success factors of Walt Disney Corporation? How did Walt Disney Corporation
formulate the corporate strategies and how did they deliver those strategies to
accomplish company objectives? All of these questions support the researcher
to explore the success factors of Walt Disney Corporation.
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1.2 Aim and Objective
The aim of this research was to investigate the success factors of Walt Disney
Corporation with its corporation strategic management. Overall, a number of
studies regard with the solid underlying structure of Walt Disney Corporation
was found out in various aspects. Missions, goals, objectives, spirituality and
tradition of Walt Disney Corporation were also reported. But the most striking
finding was that the Walt Disney Corporation’s success appears to have the
most important influence on strategic management practice as factors with
different successful factors-specific characteristics were handled through
different strategic management practices and processes. More specifically, this
study aims to achieve the following objectives:
1) To review the strategic management development of Walt Disney
Corporation;
2) To identify the successful factors of Walt Disney Corporation;
3) To conceptualize the strategic management practices and processes of Walt
Disney Corporation; and
4) To recommend ways to improve the performance of Walt Disney
Corporation.
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1.3 Background information of Walt Disney Corporation
1.3.1 A Short History of Walt Disney Corporation
Table 3: Disney’s Important Dates
12/05/1901 Birth of Walter Elias Disney
10/16/1923 Establishment of The Disney Brothers Studios in Hollywood,
California
11/18/1928 Release of Steamboat Willie
07/30/1932 Release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (first full-length
animated feature)
07/19/1950 Release of Treasure Island, first completely live-action film
07/17/1955 Opening of Disneyland, Disneyland Resort
10/01/1971 Opening of Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort
10/01/1982 Opening of EPCOT, Walt Disney World Resort
04/05/1983 Opening of Tokyo Disneylend, Tokyo Disney Resort
09/23/1984 Michael Eisner and Frank Wells became Chairman and President
of Walt Disney Productions respectively
05/01/1989 Opening of Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World Resort
04/12/1992 Opening of Disneyland Paris, Disneyland Resort Paris
04/22/1998 Opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort
02/08/2001 Opening of Disney’s California Adventure, Disneyland Resort
09/04/2001 Opening of Tokyo DisneySea, Tokyo Disney Resort
03/16/2002 Opening of Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Resort Paris
09/12/2005 Opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Source: The Disney University (no date)
Before introducing the history of Walt Disney Corporation, the researcher
would like to remind the key point as following. “I only hope that we never lose
sight of one thing that it was all started by a mouse” (Walt Disney no date).
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The researcher reported the entire history of Walt Disney Corporation based
on (Smith & Clark 1999), (Company History no date). It was all started from the
birth of Walter Elias Disney that the first hundred years of Disney had begun. In
1923, Walt Disney had found someone interested in animation and arrived to
California in July. He had pursued the idea of selling his series of Alice
Comedies to distributor. On October 16, 1923, Walt was signed the contract
with Miss Winkler and this day has become the date of the formal beginning of
The Walt Disney company. Also, Walt Disney established the Disney Brother
Studios in that year.
In 1928, Walt Disney faced the problem about negotiating a contract with the
Oswalds’s distributor and he has continued the Oswald cartoons. However, the
distributor had the copyright of Oswald cartoons so Walt Disney had lost the
control of Oswald which stimulating Walt Disney move to other cartoon series.
Mickey Mouse was "born” in 1928, he originally designed by Ub Iwerks and
named the mouse as Mortimer, but Disney’s wife Lilly suggested changing the
name to Mickey. On 18th November, 1928, the first film with synchronized
sound “Steamboat Willie” was premiered. After that, Mickey Mouse
immediately made a hit around the world. Also, Walt Disney launched an entire
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Mickey Mouse series. The first colour cartoon Silly Symphony, Flowers and
Trees was showed on 30th June, 1932. The innovative full length animated
feature was first premiered “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” which was
released to significant praise and worldwide success.
From 1950 to 1955, Walt Disney Company made three key achievements;
Disney studio's first completed and launched into the production of live action
features in 1950. Also, the company launched the Disneyland anthology series
in the first television mini series in 1954. Finally, Walt Disney designed to build
a theme park that should be a place where parents and children could have a
fun and happy together. Therefore, Walt Disney started to plan and
construction Disneyland first located in Anaheim, California. Disneyland
opened for its first guests on 17th July, 1955. Regarding the first theme park’s
success, Walt Disney felt that Disneyland cannot accommodate his further
dreams so he started to plan another theme park in Florida. Unfortunately, Walt
Disney died 15th December, 1966. After the six years efforts, Walt Disney
World and resort was opened on 1st October, 1971.
In 1982, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) was
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opened in the Disney World. In 1983, Walt Disney Company attempts to
expand their business that initiated the Disney Channel and established
touchstone Television to produce network TV shows and Disney Sunday
Movie. The successful examples of two Disney theme parks in the United
States stimulated Walt Disney Company to expand its theme business to other
oversea region. As the result, the first Disney theme outside the United States
was the Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort, which opened on 15th April,
1983.
In 1989, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer (MGM) Studios, Walt Disney World Resort
was opened in Disney World. In addition, Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort
Paris was opened on 12th April, 1992 which was the second oversea Disney
theme park. In 1995, Walt Disney Company has partnership with Pixar
Animation which coordinated to produce the first computer-animated film “Toy
Story”. In 1996, Walt Disney Company intended to expend its media business,
therefore, the company acquisition of Capital ABC and ownership position in
the cable networks A&E, Lifetime, History Channel and the powerhouse sports
network, ESPN.
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In 1998, Walt Disney Company entered into new business as cruise line
business with two cruises Disney Magic and Disney Wonder. In addition,
Disney’s Animal Kingdom was opened in Walt Disney World Resort on 22nd
April, 1998. In 2001, Disney’s California Adventure was opened in Disneyland
Resort and Tokyo DisneySea was also opened in Tokyo Disney Resort.
Besides, Walt Disney Studios Park was opened in Disneyland Resort Paris in
2002. The third oversea Disney theme park was located in Hong Kong that
opened on 11th September, 2005. In January 2006, Walt Disney Company was
acquisition of creative powerhouse Pixar Animation.
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1.3.2 Mission statement
“At the Walt Disney Company we are committed to a standard of excellence in
every aspect of our business and in every corner of the world, ethical and
responsible conduct in all of our operations respect for the rights of all
individuals and respect for the environment. The Walt Disney Company,
together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment
company with operations in four business segments: Media Networks, Parks
and Resorts, Studio Entertainment and Consumer Products (Company History
no date). In 2007, the company’s strategic priorities are “strengthening the
financial results, growing the value of out brands, enhancing the ability to meet
critical challenges and building a soild foundation for future growth.” (Annual
Report 2007).
1.3.3 Mission
“The Walt Disney Company is committed to balance environmental
stewardship with our corporate goals throughout the world.” (Mission and
History no datea). Disney Magic (2004) found that the mission of Walt Disney
Corporation as “To make people happy”.
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1.3.4 Objective
“The Walt Disney Company's objective is to be one of the world's leading
producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of
brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products. The
company's primary financial goals are to maximize earnings and cash flow,
and to allocate capital profitability toward growth initiatives that will drive
long-term shareholder value.” (Mission and History no date).
1.3.5 Common Goal
The common goal was “We create happiness by providing the finest in
entertainment for people of all ages everywhere.” (The Disney University no
date). Also, Mission and History (no date) stated that the company’s financial
goals are to “maximize earnings and cash flow, and to allocate capital
profitability toward growth initiatives that will drive long-term shareholder value”
1.3.6 Spirituality
“You can dream, create, design and build the mist wonderful place in the world
but it requires people to make the dream a reality.” (Walt Disney no date).
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1.3.7 Disney Traditions
“The handing down of customs and beliefs from one generation to another
generation.” (The Disney University no date).
1.3.8 Core Value
Collins and Porras (1996, p1) stated that “Disney’s core values of imagination
and wholesomeness stem from the founder’s belief that these should be
nurtured for their own sake”.
Table 4: Walt Disney’s Core Value
No Cynicism
Nurturing and promulgation of “Wholesome American values”
Creativity, dream, and imagination
Fanatical attention to consistency and detail
Preservation and control of the Disney magic
Source: Harvard Business Review (1996, p5)
1.3.9 Corporate Responsibility
“The Walt Disney Company believed that good corporate citizenship is good
for Disney’s Guests, for its employees and its business.” (Annual Report, 2007,
xxii
p54)
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1.4 Summary of chapters
Chapter one has introduced the topic of this paper and background information
of Walt Disney Corporation was described. Also, the aims and objectives of the
study were reported with limitations of this research.
Chapter two has focused on the academic literature in relation to the
corporation’s strategic management of Walt Disney Corporate.
Chapter three was described the type of research method on this research.
Chapter four has reported the result which formulated by researched data.
Also, this chapter has introduced the theoretical model of the corporation’s
strategic management practices of Walt Disney Corporate.
Chapter five was concluded the study and gave some recommendation to Walt
Disney Corporate to improve the performance on corporation level.
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERTURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter finished based on those relative academic literatures and theories
of Walt Disney Corporation’s management. Formica and Olsen (1998) noted
that the Walt Disney became the top of the entertainment company in the
industry which result from their unique and superior management practices
compared with other firm in the industry. Therefore, this chapter will be mainly
focusing on understand what factors are contributing to the Walt Disney
Corporation’s success.
2.2 The Core Competency of Walt Disney Corporation
2.2.1 Disney Culture
Disney Culture has created a unique and health internal environment which
formed by a rich heritage, tradition, quality standard and value. In other word,
Disney culture is much contributed to the company’s heritage and tradition also
is enhancing and ensuring the service and product quality standards of Walt
Disney (Executive Summary Disney Company 2005). In addition, Disney
culture is contributing to the work atmosphere which enhances the perception
xxv
of all cast members in their workplace and let them feel they are parts of the
company rather than just employees (Hebert 2007).
In addition, Glanville, Kirkbright and Tamasco (2002) defined that one of the
function of Disney culture has be guided the cast member to perform their jobs.
Robbins (1993) and Bryman (1995) noted that Walt Disney has their strongly
owned culture at both the managerial and operational level.
Besides, Glanville et al., (2002) explored that the core culture of Walt Disney
has been combined creating happy, dream, fun-loving and family-oriented.
The Disney language is part of the Disney culture which demonstrated in the
Disney’s own words such as all customers is called guest, employee is called
cast member, all of the place where hold the show or provide ride within theme
park area is called attraction, cast in role is used in stead of employee’s job
and the workplace is named onstage (Robbins 1993). Also, A Cultural
Assessment of the Walt Disney Company (2008) showed that culture is the
key factor contributed to the company’s success. Finally, Croce (2004) stated
that Walt Disney is the first corporation that had strong concern on corporation
culture.
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Executive Summary Disney Company (2005) described that so-called
performance excellence as known as the part of Disney’s culture which has
contributed to the company’s success. It regard with Walt Disney corporation is
willing to take the responsibility towards its clients, its employees, its suppliers,
its shareholder and other businesses.
2.2.2 The philosophy of Walt Disney Corporation
There has much debate about this issue (Allerton 1997, Bryman 1995,
Capodagli and Jackson 1999 and Glanville et al 2002).
The Walt Disney’s philosophy was formed by Mr. Walt who had a great dream
and he encouraged all Disney’s employees to remove the boundary of
imaginations. Walt Disney Corporation’s philosophy has also assisted the
company to develop theories to stand the firm on your beliefs and principles,
enhance manager’s managerial skills, maximize all resources, empower and
support employee to build up their creativity, reinforce the internal strengths,
set up customer oriented, reward your employees and build long-term
relationships with key suppliers and partners and dare to take calculated risks.
xxvii
Besides, Disney World Orlando Blog (2008) noted that Disney’s philosophy is
one of the factors that built his empire and its philosophy is admired and
emulated around the world as it much contributing to the business benefits in
any world-wide industry.
Bashar (no date) pointed that Walt Disney Corporation has established the
four-pillared concept as Dream, Believe, Dare and do which is the main
component of Disney’ philosophy. Also, Disney’ philosophy has much
influenced on trained and empowered its employee, management innovation
and creativity and the company’s behavior.
2.2.3 Brand Name
Francoeur (2004) described that “a brilliant image con strengthen an
organization‘s credibility, increase its sales and help the organization bounce
back from attacks” One of the Walt Disney Corporation main strength and the
key successful factor is their brand name. The Walt Disney Company-a case
study (1996) showed that Disney has clear developed an extraordinarily strong
and well known brand name and the company’s band name has powerfully
distinguished itself with in the industry.
xxviii
The Walt Disney Company (2008) pointed out that Walt Disney is the most
powerful brand within several other brands such as ESPN in the entertainment
business in the world. Also, the company has easily gained the consumer
acceptance of new product and more success to enter new business based on
their strong brand name.
Maanen (1991) stated that Walt Disney Corporation has paid much effort on
trained to project images of helpfulness, sincerity and caring. Gershon (2000)
pointed that Walt Disney Corporation has a great advantage of its brand name
and it able to influence in the entertainment induetry.
2.2.4 Loyalty Building
Loyalty is the best partners that contribute to the company’s success and Walt
Disney Corporation was recognized that the traits of loyalty are the foundation
of on going success. Also, the company has examined the excellent customer
service which is the success factors to create loyalty at the company which
included profit chain, external customer satisfaction, internal customer
satisfaction and business practices (Discover the magic of customer service
2007). Therefore, the company has developed customer loyalty by delivering
xxix
superior value and created a long-term relationship with every single customer
which contributed to the company’s success (Disney institute 2008). Also, the
company has explored a techniques and strategy to retain customers for life
and identify strategies for alignment to deliver their service more effectively. At
the result, the company was gained greater external customer loyalty, internal
customer loyalty and make sure delivering quality every time (The Disney
Institute difference no date).
2.2.5 The Disney Way
Capodagli and Jackson (2000) described that the Disney Way has consisted of
Dream, Believe, Dare and Do. Disney Way as a tool which helped the Walt
Disney Corporation to build a structured approach to evaluating customer
services, developing systematic processes of problem solving and conflict
solving in all unexpected ways, opening the mind of all cast member by
encouraging cast member’s creativity, accepting team rethink ideas and
increasing awareness.
2.2.6 Disney’s Power
Walt Disney Corporation has quite strong bargaining power of suppliers
xxx
because the company is highly differentiating their service and product in the
entertainment industry. In addition, the company has a strong force on many of
the suppliers so the company has created a dependency relationship in the
industry and decrease the input price by ordering large volumes of unique
products from their specific suppliers (The Walt Disney Company-a case study
1996).
2.2.7 Disney’s Uniqueness
Capodagli and Jackson (1999) has found the uniqueness of Disney depended
on their variety of intangibles and capability, success in created wide audience,
established nine-step project management, concerning long-term vision with
short-term actions in emergency situation. In addition, the company’s values,
norms and philosophy which supports the company’s uniqueness.
2.2.8 Transfer a vision
Capodagli and Jackson (1999) explored that Walt Disney Corporation has
created the positive transform dream style between the cast member and their
leader within the organization which facilitate the company effective transform
the company vision to other. As the result, the Disney’s leader is willing to and
xxxi
desiring to share the Disney’s vision to their subordinates and help them to
identify and understand the company vision.
xxxii
2.2.9 Legal and Legislative forces
Although the legal and legislative forces are identified as negative external
factors to a company, in the Disney case, the legal and legislative forces are
one of their success factors because the company has established positive
relationship with the government. For example, the French government has
contributed over USD 1.2 billion in the Euro Disneyworld project (The Walt
Disney Company-a case study 1996).
2.3 The Corporate Strategies of Walt Disney
2.3.1 Market Diversification and Product Diversification
Executive Summary Disney Company (2005), Smith and Clark (1999) and The
Walt Disney Company-a case study (1996) showed that the Walt Disney
Corporation has adopted the market diversification strategy and product
diversification strategy to expand its business, gain the competitive advantage
in the entertainment industry, enjoy economies scale in production and
became market leader. In order to well practice market diversification strategy,
the corporation has covered a wide array of products and service to tape into
different market in the industry.
xxxiii
Regarding the example of market diversification, Disney’s theme park is
attracted from twenty to thirty million visitors every year and over half million
copies of the videocassette “Pinocchio” was sold out within two months.
Concerning the example of product diversification, the Walt Disney company
has provided the film product since 1937 the company premiered “Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs”, provided the entertainment activities and services in
the theme park area when the company opened the Disney Resort in Anaheim
in 1955 and provided the cruise product by launch of the Disney Magic and the
Disney Wonder in 1998. According to the Walt Disney Company fact book
(2004) noted that the Disney’s products has spread through by licensing to
merchandising which vary from toys, books, films, foods, clothes, stationary
and TV games to personal gifts. In addition, product diversification has created
an umbrella effect by increase in the product and service mix as well as
minimized the risk that when one product line fails the other product line will
able to cover up for its losses. The Walt Disney Company (2008) stated that
Walt Disney Corporation has continued expended their product portfolio and
the breadth and depth of product portfolio were contributed to the company’
xxxiv
success.
xxxv
2.3.2 Brand Expansion
Apart from market diversification, the Walt Disney Corporation has also
adopted the related diversification strategy to growth and expands their
business. Also, the company has effectively diversified its operation from USA
to Japan, Europe and Hong Kong. The Walt Disney Corporation is
continuously merging with or acquiring firms in different, but related to the
entertainment industry. For example, the Disney Corporation was acquired the
Capital Cities/ABC in 1996 and acquired Pixar Animation in 2006 (Executive
Summary Disney Company 2005, Smith and Clark 1999 and The Walt Disney
Company-a case study 1996).
2.3.3 Ownership Strategy
According to the Jones and Robinett (1995), Walt Disney Corporation was
successfully adopted the ownership strategy that the firm is building more
attractions in the world in order to continuously increase their ownership and
their force in the industry. For example, developed the MGM Tour, opened
Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 1998, opened the Hong
Kong Disneyland in 2005 and starterd plan the new theme park in Shanghai in
2008.The Walt Disney Corporation’s take on public culture: character right
xxxvi
(2005) found that “Disney has been battling over its rights to the characters in
its cartoons”. In order to protect and maintain the right of its characters that the
company has paid much effort to extension of the character’s copyright.
2.3.4 Leadership Strategy
Leadership is a key success factor of Walt Disney Corporation, refer to the
Leadership excellence (2005) found that the company has adopted the
proactive approach to control and keep all Disney’s employee on a right way to
improvement. In addition, the Disney’s leader from top manager to functional
manager are encouraging all cast member initiative to and get involved in
practicing Disney’s values and sharing practical ways to implement
corporation’s performance.
The Disney Institute Difference (no date) stated that leadership excellence
explores strategy was developed by Walt Disney Corporation for improving
team result. This strategy has enhanced the corporation’s leadership. “The
role of leadership here is servant leadership, it requires leaders to remove
obstacles in a way that enables frontline contributors to be service heroes.”
Refer to the leadership practice of Walt Disney that the company has created
xxxvii
the Ten Commandments which including know your audience, wear your
guest’s shoes, organize the flow of people and ideas, create a come to me,
communicate with visual literacy, avoid overload, tell one story at a time, avoid
contradiction, for every ounce of treatment, provide a ton of fun and keep it up
(Mickey’s Ten Commandments and how they apply to leadership 2008).
Assessment of the Walt Disney Company (2008) pointed that Walt Disney
Corporation has brilliant leaders who maintain the visions alive and the
company’s leadership that effective motivates their cast members who
contribute to the company’s success.
According to the Walt Disney Company SWOT analysis (2008), the leadership
of Bob Iger is a key person of the company success continuously who dose not
influenced conglomerate by using hugely management forces instead of
putting much trust in his associates and creating an incredibly positive
workplace.
2.3.5 Decentralization Strategy
Decentralization referring to the top managements that are willing to and
possible transfer their power of decision making, assignment of accountability
xxxviii
and responsibility for results to individuals or units at all levels within the
organization and give up the centers power of headquarters (Decentralization
2008). Refer to the Walt Disney Company-a case study (1996), it defined the
corporate level strategy of Walt Disney is based on decentralization and
informal management approach which is other success factor because it can
stimulate new ideas, boost group creativity and enhance team work result from
the relatively low hierarchy.
Moreover, one of the success factors of Walt Disney Corporation is a
frontforce ideas and concept which accomplished by frequently refreshing its
top management with new executives as different managers from other
industry such as entertainment business and financial business who could
bring their new ideas and concept and applied it in the Disney Company.
2.3.6 Human Resources Strategy
Walt Disney Corporation has completely show the Disney’s magic as all of the
employee were realized they are part of the company and they are the key
xxxix
person to demonstrate the Disney’s magic through by their personal
commitment on the company’s mission. Besides, Disney company emphasis
on and provide the feel welcome and comfortable working place (Executive
Summary Disney Company 2005).
In order to provide a perfect show every day and make a professional
impression, all employees must follow the Disney look which is a very strict
guideline and rules. The policy is focusing on the personal appearance when
cast member going on-stage which consisting of many rules such as tattoos is
not allow on the descry area, certain hairstyles and cast members must wear
the particular uniform and appropriate undergarments at all time. Also, when
recruiting new employee that Walt Disney Corporation has concern the cultural
fit rather than race, religion, age, gender and any other job-unrelated reason, it
is one of the success reasons that the firm is attracting many potential people
who apply to the Disney’s job (Executive Summary Disney Company 2005).
2.3.7 Marketing Policy and Strategy
xl
Executive Summary Disney Company (2005) found that one of the important
success factors of Walt Disney Corporation is their marketing policy and
strategy. Disney has adopted the same marketing mix and strategy for both
physical goods and services which including product, price, promotion and
place. Also, effective applied the marketing strategy that enhancing the
confidence of Disney company to offer their product and service to oversea
market.
Regarding the product strategy, Walt Disney Corporation is offering wide
range of products and services with an exceptionally high quality which
exceeding their gust’s expectation. For example, Walt Disney Corporation
guarantees to offer a magical experience that the guest will never forget.
Concerning about the pricing strategy, as Walt Disney Corporation has quality
leader positioned in the entertainment business world-wide so it allowed the
company to charge a premium price for their product and service. Also, the
company is not adopted the price cutting strategy to offer discounts in entrance
ticket, merchandise even food and beverage during the low-season. Disney
xli
Company has adopted the high price method to set their prices which
deliberately charge more than competitors and use product differentiation and
emphasizing such factors as quality (Baker 2008). According to the Walt
Disney Company-a case study (1996) found that the price of many of Disney
product lines has been placed on the ceiling in order to compete with the new
competitors.
Regarding the promotion strategy, as Walt Disney Corporation has their own
media channel such as ESPN and Disney Channel, it also has abundant
budgets on advertisement. Therefore, the company has effectively promoted
their products and services. For example, the company has created strong
advertising appeal for families to visit Disney theme parks and purchase
Disney’s products (Gershon 2000).
Finally, the place strategy has focused on the Disney’s theme park, all
Disney’s theme park has high level of accessibility that all theme parks can be
accessed by public transportation such as Disneyland Resort Line, private
shuttles and taxis. Also, the company has increased its marketplace and
xlii
created international brand recognition (The Walt Disney Company-a case
study 1996).
xliii
2.3.8 Theming Strategy
Executive Summary Disney Company (2005) stated that Walt Disney
Corporation was created their own theme and new atmosphere based on the
unique experience which allowed guest to escape the normal life and lives in
dream. Also, Walt Disney is enjoying the advantages of the theme strategy
which creating an initial perception of quality, creating the unique experience to
capture certain market segments, gaining the effect word-of-mouth and noise,
letting people easily to recognize and encouraging customers from both their
park visitors and product consumer as those repeated customers are playing a
major role in successful entertainment industry (John 2004).
2.3.9 Low cost strategy
Refer to the Walt Disney Company-a case study (1996), stated that the Walt
Disney Corporation has effective and fully experience in using resources in
their business which allowed the company to apply low cost strategy and gain
its advantages such as minimized financial risked within the organization,
effective in cost control, maintain product quality goods and services.
xliv
2.3.10 Internationalization Strategy
Brannen (2004) stated that Walt Disney Corporation has fully experience in
internationalization present some curious paradoxes, in the host country
context and institutional. As the company has understood foreignness was an
asset, their experience has been helping them to transfer complex assets
aboard in current situation and the success in Tokyo was stimuli further
internationalization of Disney. Also, Walt Disney Corporation has successfully
adopted the growth strategy. Based on the success of pervious theme park,
the company will continue to develop their property such build new attractions,
new resort hotels and other sort of tourist destinations.
2.4 Walt Disney Corporation’s Business Approaches
2.4.1 The Disney Approach to People Management
Walt Disney Corporation has successfully applied the people management in
order to maintain the Disney’s unique service culture which inspires employee
pride and ownership. In addition, people management was improved the level
of internal communication, let the company select the right employee and help
the company to train them well (The Disney Institute difference no date).
Disney institute (2008) pointed out that Walt Disney Corporation has a leader
xlv
of people management in term of the company’s culture, employee selection
skill and management, training system, communication style and recognize the
workforce. Also, the company recognized the effective people management is
supporting the company’s success.
Waterman and Peters (1982) described Disney has established the employing
two-part system including screening the cultural fit and training of employees
to deliver seamless service which strong formed the company’s success.
Concerning the recruitment aspect, Oberle (1995) viewed that Walt Disney
Corporation has always recruit the right person at the right job who are fits the
company’s vision, culture and acquired relative knowledge and experience.
When recruiting new employee that the company is only concern characters of
the candidates such as creativity, innovation, positive work attitude,
self-confidence, willing to take risks and bilingual in its overseas parks
(Glanville et al. 2002).
Regarding the Training and Development part, Bashar (no date) pointed that
xlvi
Walt Disney Corporation has paid much efforts on training their employees to
be professional, polite, clean and customer oriented. Furthermore, in order to
sustains the Disney’s magical, satisfying image so the company has focused
on the cast member’s training at the very beginning for helping them to view
their work.
Capodagli and Jackson (1999) showed that Walt Disney Corporation believed
providing training is a company’s responsibility and they knew employee’s
capability is a one of the success factor on their business. The company is
encouraging education at all levels and provides different training to all
departments within the organization such as product knowledge training in
order to let cast members to clear understand the company’s culture, vision
and tradition as well as enhance the motivation of cast member. In order to
educate the Disney’s employees so the Disney University was created number
of ideals and methods to the employees (Disney Magic 2004). Almost all
training has hold by Disney University and there are four major objective of
training as follows:
1. To acclimate new cast members to the foundation of the company’s
culture
xlvii
2. To perpetuate the language and sybols, heritage and traditions, quality
standards, values and traits and behaviors of Disney.
3. To create a sense of excitement about working at the working place
and;
4. To introduce new cast member to the core safety regulations.
For the empowerment issue, Although Walt Disney Corporation has a high
level of hierarchy, it is one of the international corporations willing to empower
its employees to perform their job and deal with some non significant problem
(Capodagli and Jackson 1999).
Concern with the communication dimension, Executive Summary Disney
Company (2005) stated that upward communication strategy is one of the
Disney’s Success factor. In order to measure the satisfaction of their guest,
make the business more efficient and to improve the surrounding that Walt
Disney Corporation has paid much attention on recognition for suggestions,
high effort on the job and encourages its employee to participate in local
activities. Furthermore, the company knew that the participation of the cast
xlviii
member is the key success factor on their business. Therefore, the company
has established the Disney Communication principles which including
everyone has valuable information to share, individuals need to know how their
work contributes to the organization’s goal and communication methods and
messages must meet the need of the cast member (Hebert 2007).
Finally, Capodagli and Jackson (1999) stated that Walt Disney Corporation
believed each employee played a significant role so the company is willing to
appreciate the great performance of cast member in order to maintain them
within the organization and contribute to the further improvement. In order to
achieve it that the company has established number of recognition programs,
recognition rewards, performance appraisals and monetary bonuses.
2.4.2 The Disney Approach to Organizational Creativity and Innovation
Disney institute (2008) discovered that team creativity is a critical success
factor of Walt Disney Corporation and innovative thinking by their employees
has been critical to the company’s success. The company has effectively
maximized creative output and put the new ideas into implementation by their
xlix
experience.
Disney institute (2008) found that innovation factor was contributed the
Disney’s success which base on the company has ability to create, manage
good environment for innovating and support employee development.
Furthermore, Walt Disney Corporation was established the creative process
and encouraging everyone provides any new ideas on the product and service
without pressure and threat. For example, the company has hold a semiannual
crazy-invention contest and home room meeting for brainstorming. Also,
Shortsleeve (2004) said that Walt Disney Corporation is the leader of
technological development in fashioning reality from fantasy. For example, the
company has produced the first full-length computer animated film “Toy Story”.
2.4.3 The Disney approach to Quality Service
Disney institute (2008) stated Walt Disney Corporation has long-standing
reputation for incredible service and friendly employees. In addition, the
company knew the positive interaction between customer and employees is
directly influencing customer satisfaction. Therefore, the company has
l
established the Disney model to improve the organization’s quality service and
exceed customer’s expectation.
The Disney Institute difference (no date) defined that Walt Disney Corporation
has created a consistent world-class service culture based on the company
understood the psychographics and demographics of their customer’s need
and want. Also, the company has exceed the expectation of their guest by
providing a sound service infrastructure and service standards. Watermen and
Peters (1982) showed that the company has capability to create the “happiest
place on earth” based on Disney’s ability to provide safe, clean, orderly and
friendly environment.
Boje (2005) found that Walt Disney has ability in storytelling which is a very
successful story manufacturing and story commodification business in the
world. In order to improve and maintain its competitive, the company is doing
the “Disney Work” which routinely documents its own story.
2.4.4 The Disney Approach to Team Building
li
Walt Disney Corporation has successfully created the team building which
collected employees who work in the same place and share the common
purpose to achieve the organization’s goal based on the employee’s overall
unified efforts (Richardson 1992). Capodagli and Jackson (1999) found that
Walt Disney Corporation has regularly invited employees from all levels to hold
the meeting and all managers from all levels has formed a team with their
subordinates to identify the company’s vision and teach them to achieve it
which fostered the team development of the organization.
Disney institute (2008) showed that it is a vital part of Walt Disney
Corporation’s success for them to know teamworks and the company has
many experiences to develop high performing teams.
4.4.5 The Disney Approach to Financial Control
Figure 1: Financial Review in 2007
lii
Source: Annual Report (2007)
Walt Disney Corporation has used three primary financial metrics to control
and measure the financial performance which including earnings per share,
return on invested capital and after-tax cash flow. In the figure 1 by Annual
report (2007, p1) it is showed that the company has increased the earning per
share from continuing operations before the cumulative effect of accounting
changes from $0.59 millions USD in 2003 to $2.24 millions USD in 2007.
Besides, the after-tax cash flow has been improve form $1,727 millions USD in
2003 to $3,832 millions USD in 2007.
liii
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1) Introduction
This chapter aims to describe the qualitative research method that was used in
this study. This study was conducted by a qualitative research methodology
with conceptual framework based on secondary data. As there was difficulties
to set the questions and asked about the success factors of Walt Disney
Corporation by other research method so the case study research methods
has been used. A qualitative research has the features including flexible,
subjective, and speculative and grounded (Silverman 1999). Finally, the
limitation of this study has been elaborated.
3.2) Secondary Research
Existing primary data was collected by someone else or for a purpose other
than the current one (Girolami no date). The chosen data were based on
data’s availability, relevantly, reliability and validity. The researcher has
reviewed those relevant documents and literatures to obtain a valuable view
points on Walt Disney Corporation and its management practices. Most of the
secondary data were colleted by the following sources:
liv
Journals:
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
Economics Research Associates
Journal of Travel Research
Journal of Vacation Marketing
Journal of International Economic Studies
UWL-Journal of Undergraduate Research
Academy of Management Review
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Journal of Consumer Research
Managing Service Quality
CEMS Business Review
The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review
Management Decision
International Marketing Review
The Lion and the Unicorn
Harvard Business Review
The Journal of Media Economics
lv
Book:
Disney and his worlds
The Disney Way-harnessing the management secrets of Disney in
your company
The Disney Touch: how a daring management team revived an
entertainment empire
The Concept of Corporation Strategy
The Disney Way fieldbook-how to implement Walt Disney’s vision of
‘Dream, Believe, Dare, Do’ in your own company
Disney The First 100 Years
Organizational behavior
Magazines:
Primavera Magazine
Websites:
www.emeraldinsight.com
Corporate.disney.go.com
www.geocities.com
www.free-termpapers.com
lvi
www.disneyinstitute.com
Northgravesonthehill.blogspot.com
www.echeat.com
www.everything2.com
www.gwu.edu
Academic.emporia.edu
www.creativityphilly.com
www.theleadershiphub.com
www.cheathouse.com
www.themedattraction.com
www.dwtickets.com
www.pfdf.org
Databases:
Emerald Databases
EBSCO Host Research Databases
Science Direct Databases
University of Hong Kong Libraries
Hosei University
Echeat
lvii
Datamonitor
Google Scholar
lviii
Annual Reports:
The Walt Disney fact book 2004
Attraction Attendance Report 2007
Internal Documents:
Disney Institute Training Forum
Hong Kong Disneyland “Employee Policy Guideline”
Attire for Disney Training
Disney Traditions
3.3) Advantages
The major advantage of the analysis of secondary data was that it has very
rich insight for the research focus. Also, it allowed multiple resources of
information which contain large number of valuable information. The
researcher was easily to find relevant information from different sources such
as electronic databases and international journals. Furthermore, the qualitative
research method was more efficient, effective, reliable and valid than the
quantitative research method in term of the cost, time and personal bias.
Finally, the qualitative research method has assisted us to identify further
research needs.
lix
lx
3.4) Limitation
Although carefully done, this research still has a few limitations. First, with the
large size of information of the Walt Disney Corporation, the research tended
to be narrow in focusing on the corporation level and the business level, rather,
it focused more on the functional level. However, the researcher found that it is
the best to focus more on different levels of business in order to reach more
concrete conclusions. Second, the research and discussion are somewhat
biased as were filtered through huge number of reference which may not
completed conceptualized. Finally, the available research may be inaccurate,
inappropriate, incorrect or biased. Besides, as there is huge number of
information found from various sources that the researcher was spent much
time to scan and select the relevant information.
lxi
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction and A Conceptual Framework
Walt Disney Corporation’s success has stimulated the researcher to find out
and study what are the secrets of Walt Disney. This chapter has focused on
the management level and business level of Walt Disney. The following model
provides a framework of reference for discussing the issue. This model
comprises eight success factors of Walt Disney that were reported in the
literature review. The literature reviews of each success factors is listed below
Figure 2: A Conceptual Framework of the Success Factors of Walt Disney
Corporation
lxii
4.2 The Source of References
Table 5: The Source of References
4.1 Culture and Philosophy
Hebert (2007)
Glanville, Kirkbight and
Tamasco (2002)
Robbins (1993)
Bryman (1995)
Rubis (1998)
Croce (2004)
Allerton (1997)
Bashar (no Date)
4.2 Leadership Management
Leadership excellence
(2005)
The Disney Institute
difference (no date)
Mickey’s Ten
Commandments (2008)
Assessment of the Walt
Disney Company (2008)
Walt Disney Company
SWOT analysis (2008)
Decentralization (2008)
Walt Disney Company- a
case study (1996)
Richardson (1992)
Capodagli and Jackson
(1999)
4.3 Research and
Development
Smith and Clark
(1999)
Excutive summy
Disney company
(2005)
Walt Disney
Company- a case
study (1996)
Walt Disney
Company fact book
(2004)
Disney Institute
(2008)
Bashar (no date)
Shortsleeve (2004)
Wong and Cheung
(1999)
4.4 Marketing
Excutive summy Disney
company (2005)
Walt Disney Company- a
case study (1996)
Jagels (2006)
4.7 Quality Management of
Product and Service
Disney Institute (2008)
The Disney Institute
difference (no date)
Peters and Watterman
(1982)
Boje (2005)
4.5 Human Resources
Excutive summy Disney
company (2005)
The Disney Institute
difference (no date)
Disney Institute (2008)
Peters and Watterman
(1982)
Oberla (1995)
Glanville et al (2002)
Bashar (no date)
Capodagli and Jackson
(1999)
Disney Magic (2004)
Hebert (no date)
4.6 Brand Management
Francoeur (2004)
Walt Disney
Company- a case
study (1996)
The Walt Disney
company (2008)
Maanen (1991)
Gershon (2002)
Smith and Clark
(1999)
4.8 Internationalization
and Localization
Brannen (2004)
lxiii
lxiv
4.3 Culture and Philosophy
The first component was Disney’s culture and philosophy. Culture was one of
the core competencies of Walt Disney Corporation. Culture is a foundation of
company’s success; it has very close relationship between Disney’s heritage
and tradition. The researcher found that Disney has their owned corporation
culture which gained the corporate advantages in terms of the quality standard
of services and products, atmosphere in workplaces and the performance of
cast member. Furthermore, Walt Disney Corporation has established their own
words which made it be distinguishable from its competitors. For example,
employees were called cast members and customer was named guest. Finally,
Disney’s culture has not only influenced itself, but also influenced other
companies. For example, Disney Institute has established the culture transfer
course which assists other companies in developing their corporation culture
based on Disney’s style.
Philosophy was another factor contributed to the Walt Disney Corporation’s
success. Mr. Walt was the one who started to develop Disney’s philosophy.
The Disney’s philosophy was divided into four concepts called “four-pillared,”
which including Dream, Believe, Dare and Do. On the top management side,
lxv
Disney’s philosophy has more influences through their entire corporation, it
assists top manager to set the corporate goals and plans, organizing and
coordinating their business units, exploring internal resources, managing
power, forming leadership and motivation style, shaping teamwork, helping to
communicate with all stakeholders and making the right decision. On the other
hand, Disney’s philosophy has been eliminating boundary of imaginations,
supporting creativity and encouraging all employees to join the discussion and
gain the superior innovation.
4.4 Leadership Management
Walt Disney Corporation believed that the high level of leadership
effectiveness is vital because it directly influences the corporation’s
performance. Therefore, the corporation has used the proactive strategy and
developed the leadership excellence explores strategy as their major
leadership strategy. For the proactive leadership strategy, it identified the
potential problems and threats about the employees. The other goal of this
strategy is to monitor and manage employees to ensure them of being on the
right way. According to the leadership excellence explores strategy, it helped
leader to eliminate any obstacles and enhance the frontline staff’s service
lxvi
quality.
lxvii
In addition, decentralization strategy has been used by Disney in order to
decrease the central power of headquarter and delegate oriented. In other
words, all employees from top management to frontline staff are viewed as
important individuals who are possible to get into the decision making process
and express their views. It decreased the level of corporate boundary and
minimized the bureaucrat. The advantage of this strategy includes stimulating
new ideas, boosting employee’s creativity and enhancing team work spirit.
Also, teamwork spirit has been successfully built. The company has let all of
the employees to know who those important people in the group within the
corporation are. The company has paid many efforts to develop the team spirit
that the regular meeting has been hold to gather employee’s suggestion and
identify the company’s vision as well as emphasize the importance of the team
work to them. After that, the employee has fostered their team work spirit and
they would be respected by the company.
4.5 Research and Development
Creativity and innovation are at the base of everything Walt Disney
Corporation does. Furthermore, the company is using technology to enhance
lxviii
its high-quality products or services, contents and experiences as well as
deliver them to more people and more places. The company has a big source
of that great creative energy that the company is able to develop the new
products or services that have not been provided by its competitors within the
marketplace. For example, Walt Disney has produced the first
computer-animated film “Toy Story in 1995. In order to encourage new ideas,
the company is providing the positive creative environment to all employees
with hazard free. Furthermore, Disney’s culture, philosophy and leadership
style are contributed through Disney’s innovation and creativity. Besides, Walt
Disney Corporation has established the innovation process with series
activities in sequence which including goal settings, observations,
investigations, brainstorming, analyzing, meeting and decision making. For
example, the company has regularly held a semiannual crazy-invention
contest and home room meeting to gather the new ideas and the market trend.
Walt Disney Corporation has successfully adopted the product diversification.
For example, the company has provided the film products since1937 started
with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, provided theme park entertainment
in 1955, provided the cruise product in 1998 and so on. The range of the
lxix
products or services has been distributing widely from entertainment services
to personal gifts. In the past, however, this strategic management decision was
the first-mover action. As the result, the company has been enjoying the
market competitive advantages, economic scale and became a market leader
in the entertainment industry.
4.6 Marketing
Figure 3: Marketing Mix Structure
Source: Google Search Engine
Marketing has much to do with the Walt Disney Corporation’s success as
highly effective marketing engine; it helped them to increase revenue while
affording numerous efficiencies. The company has used the marketing mix for
their products and services. For the products, the company adopted the
lxx
traditional marketing mix which including the four Ps: promotion, product, place
(distribution) and price. For the service, the company has expanded marketing
mix that consists of above four “P” with other three Ps: process, people and
physical evidence. Walt Disney Corporation has performed well in marketing,
the company has clearly identified the market text and made the marketing
plans to satisfy customer’s need and want as well as overcome the market
change based on the four Ps or seven Ps above.
Concerning the product dimension, the company is offering a wide range of
products and services to satisfy the different market segments. For example,
Disney Channel for children, TV game for teenager, theme park entertainment
for family and cruise product for up market customer.
Regarding the price aspect, Walt Disney Corporation has applied the premium
pricing strategy for their products and services as the company is a leader of
the entertainment industry. The advantages of this pricing strategy are:
distinguishing their products and services from its competitors, expanding the
profit, emphasizing the product quality and prevent the potential competitors
enter into the market.
lxxi
For the promotion strategy, Walt Disney Corporation has effectively used their
owned media channel to promote their products and services. The advantages
of this strategy are ensuring the promotion activities match the target market
and cost effective.
Regarding the place strategy, Walt Disney Corporation has effectively
distributed their products and services to their target customers. For example,
all of the Disney’s theme parks are located on the high level of accessible
areas. Also, almost all products and services can be purchases or booked
online so that the Disney’s distribution channel can be so effective.
For the other three Ps that Walt Disney Corporation has trained and
experienced personnel who play a part in service delivery within Disney style.
The cast member appearance has been very strict by Disney look, and the
company has provided many guidelines and trainings for their employees to
improve their work attitudes and behaviors because the company knew that it
lxxii
must influence the customer’s perceptions of the service.
lxxiii
Regard with the physical evidence aspect, the company understood the
importance of environment in which the service is delivered and where the firm
and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate
performance or communication of the services. Given example of the theme
park, each sub-land has particular building, decoration and features which
stands for the theme of sub-land.
Finally, the company has established the actual procedures, mechanisms, and
flow of activities by which the service is delivered and the operating systems.
This process should give customer evidence on which to judge the service. For
example, all of the merchandise needs to follow Disney way for every single
settlement transaction.
Apart from the seven Ps, the company has applied the market diversification
strategy to develop its business and expand product-line as well as strengthen
their market position. The company has successfully got into different product
markets and service markets. For the product markets, the company has
entered the film industry in 1928 and TV industry in 1954. For the service
markets, the company has got into the theme park industry in 1995 and cruise
lxxiv
industry in 1998. The advantage of this strategy is to expand the investment
and minimize the risk of investment. Also, this strategy should help the
company to find other potential markets.
4.7 Human resources
Walt Disney Corporation has good reputation on the people management as
the company has recognized that excellent people management is contributing
to their success. Therefore, the company has paid much resource on the
employee recruitment, training and development and communication.
In regard to the employee recruitment, the company has established their
owned employee selection criteria when they are recruiting new employees;
the cultural fit is mainly concerned and the other characters of the candidates
are also considered, such as funny, attitude and so on, rather than the
employee’s work experience and academe level. The advantage of this
strategy is to attract more potential candidates than suing the traditional
recruitment criteria and may enhance the possible of right employee
recruitment.
lxxv
For the employee’s training and development, the company believed that
training is the major ways to strengthen employee’s capability which towards
the company’s success. In order to train their employees to be professional,
polite, customer oriented and Disney oriented, the company has provided
many training programs and courses from employee’s first working day.
Those training are related to the Disney’s culture, Disney language and
symbols, heritage, tradition and safety as well as work task. For example, the
entire new employee needs to finish the traditional Disney courses which
conducted by Disney University and completed at least three days on job
training and pass the Disney knowledge test.
Concerning the internal communication, the company has adopted the upward
communication strategy because they believed that employee has more
understanding of customer’s need and wants as well as the demand changes.
Therefore, the company is encouraging entire employees, especially lower
level of employee, to give any suggestion about the customer, company and
work place. Also, the company has established the Disney Communication
principles to support the upward communication which focused on information
sharing, understanding Disney’s goal and transferring messages to employee.
lxxvi
In order to maintain the capable employee within the company, the company
believed that empowerment and delegates the work is one of the methods to
maintain excellent employee and enhance the working morale. Also, the
company has established the recognition and reward programs which
appreciating the cast member who has excellent performance.
Finally, in order to provide a perfect show in the theme park, the entire
employees need to follow the Disney’s look which is a very strict rule about the
cast member appearance. For example, the entire cast member is on stage
that a tattoo is prohibited on the descry area and they must wear the particular
costume.
4.8 Brand Management
Walt Disney Corporation has a strong brand name worldwide which developed
by its superior quality, superior innovation, superior efficiency and superior
responsiveness to customers of service and product which distinguished from
its competitor. The company has positioned higher level of services and
product innovation position in the entertainment industry through some
forefront activities such as the company’s partnership with Pixar Animation to
lxxvii
produce the first computer film “toy Story” in 1995. Regard with the quality
aspect, the company has established their owned model to main and improve
the quality of service or product in term of employee training and behavior,
identify the customer’s need and want and sound monitoring system.
Concerning superior efficiency, the company has high level of efficiency in term
of the materials management, R&D Strategy and infrastructure.
Finally, the company is a leader of entertainment industry as the company
done a better job than competitor of identifying and satisfying its customer’
needs. Also, the company has paid much attention on the customers’ response
of the goods to be delivered or service to be performed. For example, the
cruise trip demand is increasing significantly in the last decade so the
company has provided the cruise product by Disney Magic and Disney
Wonder in 1998. At the result, the consumer’s confidence in the service and
product can be maximized and the acceptance of the new service and product
can be enhanced by strengthening Disney brand name. Finally, the company
has gained the large scale of economies, higher visibility about the products or
services and being prestige in the home country by the company was success
developed the brand name.
lxxviii
Walt Disney Corporation has its strong brand name and commitment to global
growth in order to gain advantage. Therefore, the company has desired to
expand their business and focused on creating greater cross-company
integration which improve company’s efficiencies and aligning international
business efforts behind sustainable and meet the long-term growth. Therefore,
the company adopted the market diversification strategy to expand their
business from USA to Japan, Europe and Hong Kong. For example, the
company has acquired the Capital Cities/ABC in 1996.
In order to protect the Disney brand, the company has made an application for
their character’s pattern and the brand logo such as Mickey, Minnie and so on.
This action can avoid other company to encroach on Disney’s copyright and
pattern.
4.9 Quality Management of the Service and Product
Walt Disney Corporation has established the Disney model to provide the
consistent world-class service because the company believed that employee’s
positive attitude, friendly behavior and capability are contributed to success
interaction between customers and employees. Therefore, the company has
lxxix
paid many efforts on the employee’s improvement and development. In
addition, the Disney’s entire product line has been passed the particular
consumer product tests such as ISO 9001 in order to comply with all law of
product manufacture.
Apart from the employee side, the company has paid many efforts to create the
sound environment and happiest place on the earth in term of safety,
cleanness, orderlies, dreams and friendliness. Also, the company has
successful story manufactured and story commodification business based on
the theme strategy. The company has successfully adopted the theme strategy
based on their unique experience and innovation skills. The advantages of the
theme strategy are that it allowed company to develop the superior quality
perception, attract different market segments, gain the positive word-of-mouth,
encourage repeat customer and build customer loyalty. Finally, the company is
continuing develop the new way to showcase its consumer product with
Disney’s characters and stories through quality product that appeal to a wide
range of consumers.
4.10 Internationalization and Localization
Walt Disney Corporation has adopted the internationalization strategy and
lxxx
localization strategy. The company has fully experienced in transferring
complex assets abroad and standardizes the services and products. In regard
to the internationalization strategy, the company has successfully applied this
strategy in Tokyo Disneyland Resort which developed based on the
Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort in term of the theme park
structure, building style, attraction, environment, product and service. Disney’s
success in Tokyo was the catalyst for further internationalization.
Concerning the localization, although the Walt Disney Corporation has
succeeded in Tokyo, failure in Euro Disney Park as the company has
insufficient knowledge of the European culture, buying behavior and
overestimation of the number of visitors that the company is facing the
significant problem. Paris Disneyland Park is a good example of
internationalization with localization. In the opening time of Paris Disneyland
Park, it is not allowed to drink wine in the theme park area, this rule can not
been accepted by French because drinking wine is French’s culture and habit.
After that, the number of visitors has much below the expectation so the
company has identified the culture distance or gap and made some
modification such as drinking wine in Paris Disneyland is allowed. At the result,
lxxxi
Paris Disneyland Park has success contributed profits to Walt Disney
Corporation.
lxxxii
A. Loyalty
The first result when Walt Disney has completely done the above eight
components is loyalty. Loyalty can be divided into two parts with both customer
loyalty and employee loyalty. For the customer loyalty that is built by the
company’s providing sustainable customer satisfaction. The company has
successfully built the customer loyalty. One of the advantages of customer
loyalty build is to increase repeated customer which significant contributed to
the company’s profit.
Concerning the employee loyalty, the company has identified and provided the
motivator’s factors and hygiene factors to build employee loyalty. Motivator’s
factors including achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility,
advancement and growth. Hygiene factors are consists of supervision,
company policy, working conditions, salary, status, security and relationship
with supervisor, peers and subordinates. The advantage of employee loyalty is
decreasing the rate of employee turnover and enhancing service quality.
lxxxiii
B. Disney Power
The second result is Disney’s Power, Walt Disney Corporation is operating in a
highly differentiated and unique industry with high switching costs.
Furthermore, the company has the higher position in the entertainment
industry based on the size of the corporation, corporation’s strategy, core
competency and business approaches. In addition, the company has created a
dependency relationship in the industry by ordering larger volumes of unique
product from unique suppliers. Therefore, the company’s bargaining power of
suppliers is quite strong.
C. Uniqueness
Walt Disney Corporation is unique in the entertainment industry. Disney’s
uniqueness is developed by their intangibles resources and capability which
including management style, innovation skill, great brand name, positive
reputation, company’s culture and philosophy and success to find out the
market trend. Above all factors are enhancing the attractive of their product
and service. Apart from the intangible resources, the company has abundance
of tangible resources which contributed to Disney’s uniqueness such as theme
park’s structure and sound cash flow. Disney’s uniqueness is that the company
lxxxiv
has ability to leverage success across to their different business unit.
D. Low Cost
Walt Disney Corporation is able to use their resources both tangible and
intangible. Therefore, the company has successfully applied the low cost
strategy which refer to the company has distinctive competency to decrease
the cost of manufacturing achieved by effective human resource used, lager
volume of sales and research and development practice. The advantage of low
cost strategy is that the company can earn more profit than its competitors by
lower cost of manufacturing.
D. Financial Status
Profitability statistic indicated how effectively Walt Disney Corporation is being
managed. Walt Disney Corporation has sound financial status which
continuous increased the revenue from 2003 to 2007 that the total revenue
has been increased from $23,480 million USD to $35,510 million USD or
increased 5 percent, $1.8 billion USD. Furthermore, in 2007 the net income
has significantly increased 39 percent compared with 2006 that the net income
increased from $3,374 USD to $4,687 USD. Besides, the company’s Diluted
earning per share has increased 37 percent to $2.25 million USD (Annual
lxxxv
Report 2007). Regard with the operating margin that the company has raised
by approximately 10 percentage points in 2007.
In addition, the company has strong return on invested capital which the ratio
is 10.18 (Annual Report 2007). Also, the company has continued to strengthen
their cash flow that it generated $3.8 billion in free cash flow in 2007. The
sound cash flow indicated the company has high level of financial flexibility
(Annual Report 2007).
lxxxvi
Chapter Five: Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusions
This is no question that the Walt Disney Corporation was the top leader in the
entertainment industry which operating different business in the world such as
theme park and resort business unit, film business unit, toy manufacture
business unit, media channel and cruise business unit.
According to the information provided in this paper which has been extensive
research conducted on the Walt Disney Corporation. However, the previous
research has not been systematically conceptualized and some aspects need
to be further studied. In addition, this study’s objective has found out the
success factors of Walt Disney Corporation and conceptualized it.
Analyzing and synthesizing Walt Disney Corporation’s success factors was
much complex as there is extensive information in different aspects about this
study. Therefore, the researcher spent one month to collect and analyze the
relevant information. At the result, the researcher has developed the
Success Factors of Walt Disney Corporation model which includes eight
lxxxvii
components with five results. For the eight components of Disney’s Secret
model is including Culture and Philosophy, Leadership Management,
Research and Development, Marketing, Human Resources, Brand
Management, Quality Management of Product and Services and
Internationalization and Localization. Regard with the five results of Disney’s
Secret model consists of Loyalty both external customer and internal customer,
Disney Power on the industry, Disney’s Uniqueness, low cost structure and
sound Financial Status.
Future research should investigate the external environment, whether or not
this is viewed as positive information. The external environment can affect the
Walt Disney Corporation’s management practice and its business.
In the end, there is limited research for the strategic corporation management.
Strategic business managements is a broad theory, there are still many
existing theories surrounding it. Previous studies stated that Walt Disney
Corporation has good practice in both corporation level and business level
management, but little is mentioned with regard to its specific practice in
operation. Apart from this limitation, the remaining linked with this research
was discussed in the methodology chapter.
lxxxviii
lxxxix
5.2 Recommendations
First, the researcher focused on the organizational changes that the frequent
changes of corporate officer should be stopped. Although, the new leader
should bring the new ideas or concepts to the company from out side, the
new ideas or concepts may affect Disney’s culture, philosophy and tradition.
In addition, frequent changing of top leader may decrease the effective of
communication, morale and teamwork spirit. Therefore, the company should
maintain the stability of the top management environment.
Second, the researcher suggested that Walt Disney Corporation should
reduce the dependence on licensing. Although, the company has good
market diversification, there is much dependence on licensing which should
decrease the scale of economic and profit. Therefore, the company should
produce; sell and marketing their product or service to earn more profit rather
than relied on licensing.
Third, the company should control the liquidity ratio well because the liquidity
ratio appears to be a bit too low for the corporation. Therefore, the researcher
suggested that the company should increase their current asset requirement
xc
and strictly control their liabilities.
Besides, Walt Disney Corporation should decrease the overhead cost, given
example of theme park that the company has over 111,000 employees work
in the theme park area. The company has high level of fixed assets by a large
number of workforces. Therefore, it is suggested that the company should
rely more on the seasonal workforces because theme park industry is facing
the high level of seasonality problem. In order to overcome the seasonality
problem that the company should develop specific program or activities in the
theme park during the low season. For example, the company has
established the “Star VIP program” that during that period the company
should select specific theme park visitor such as disable person who will
received the star service and special arrangement.
Finally, although the Euro Disneyland is a good example of localization
practice, the company has not completely done in Hong Kong Disneyland. For
example, Hong Kong Disneyland was opened in 2005, in that period the
company has not good communication with the local travel agency. As the
result, there is little number of tickets sold by travel agency. Therefore, it is
suggested that the company should establish the partnership with local
xci
community and local private sector as well we deep consideration of the local
culture in their operations.
xcii
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