The Walt Disney Company operates in a wide variety of entertainment areas including parks, accommodation, streaming and others. The company is already a successful brand and continues to grow, but it has a number of strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. People are the strategic resource of the company, and their attitude and support in relation to the vision, mission and goals of the company are important for further development.
SWOT Analysis
Walt Disney is already a strong market player with a high market share in each of the industries in which it operates. However, its target audience is largely limited to children and adolescents. In addition, the level of staff turnover is high, which can negatively affect financial and time costs, since training, internships, and other processes are needed to adapt new employees (Boguszewicz-Kreft 25). This also increases the cost of recruiting and selecting new employees. Moreover, the high level of staff turnover has an effect on the overall performance of the company. In order for the Walt Disney Company to function effectively in the marketplace of the future, it needs to continue to prove leadership in its operations. This is possible by evading threats and exploiting opportunities through their resources with the one being people.
Mission, Vision and Values
“The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company” (About the Walt Disney Company). The mission statement of the company is well articulated as it includes all the main elements required for a mission statement. Examples of the elements are products and services, customers, market, philosophy and self-concept.
The company’s vision is absent on the official website and in official sources. This is immediately a disadvantage for the company, as neither employees nor customers can share and be aware of the company’s vision. Thus, the vision of the owners and management of the company can be completely different from that of the employees, leading to behavior that does not correspond to the desired results.
The company values its ability to bring happiness and joy through their products and services. In addition, Disney’s values include social responsibility as a core value (Wisneski 1). Other values such as reducing the impact on the environment and helping people are also included within the social responsibility concept.
Plans of The Walt Disney Company for strategic reorganization include:
- Creative engines focus on the content production for Legacy Platforms and focus on the content distribution;
- Design of a new structure that will be resulting in further acceleration of the direct-to-customer strategy;
- Content management employees allocation from the company management (The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization);
In addition, there are other presented strategies and plans of the company on the official website and within the reports. All are aimed at improving the sustainability of the company, including social and environmental. In improving the company’s performance, Disney uses employees as one of the core values of the company.
Required Trainings
In order for the company to achieve its goals, it is necessary to involve employees as those people who participate in the life of the company, are interested in its promotion and development, and share its mission and vision. In the case of Disney, the vision is completely lacking and needs to be introduced. The vision of the company should motivate employees and set the trajectory for further development. On the basis of the vision further steps should be built to achieve it.
Once a vision is introduced it needs to be communicated to employees and customers. It is required that the vision is ambitious and ambiguous, short and reflecting the company’s plans and directing the employees. Moreover, as the company strives for technological development and innovation, it is necessary to conduct trainings for employees. In order for employees to stay with the company for an extended period of time, it is important that their skills match the modern technologies used in the company. It is also important that each of the employees shares the values, and for this, separate meetings and briefings should be held.
In The Walt Disney Company case, training of both hard and soft skills is applicable. Since communication with customers is important for the company, employees must be able to communicate and convey information in a matching way with the company’s vision. Moreover, employees must acquire skills to deal with emerging modern technologies. Trainings should be targeted at both learning and motivation, in order to decrease employee turnover. In addition, managerial trainings are important to promote leadership within the company and achieve its objectives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Walt Disney is a strong and successful entertainment company. Implementing the vision could help the company communicate its plans for the future to its target audience and employees. Furthermore, trainings are important to help develop the skills of employees, motivate them and promote leadership.
Works Cited
Boguszewicz-Kreft, Monika et al. “Myth and Storytelling: The Case of the Walt Disney Company.” Myth in Modern Media Management and Marketing, 2019, pp. 22-49. IGI Global.
“About the Walt Disney Company.” The Walt Disney Company, Web.
“The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization.” The Walt Disney Company, 2018, Web.
Wisneski, Kristen. “The Walt Disney Company and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Honors Projects, 2020, p.1-66. Web.