Concept Example Change Disney founding date: 1923 - Los Angeles, California Mickey Mouse Clubhouse introduction: 1928 Production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: 1934 Disneyland opening: 1955 Disney world opening: 1971 Disney Channel broadcasting: 1983 Disney’s first non-white princess (Jasmine): 1992 Disney purchased pixar: 2006 DisneyXD: 2009 Disney Junior: 2010 Disney+: 2019 Culture Corporate culture: the set of beliefs and values held by the management and employees - Nature of business - Structure - Rewards - Management style - Policies Geert Hofstede on Walt Disney 1. Low power distance - Disney has loose hierarchical structure - Low power distance - Allows more informal communication and participation from employees - Democratic organisation → employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas - Enhances collaboration 2. Individualistic - USA scores high on the individualism scale, implying that Disney’s culture is also individualistic - The organisation has loosely knit social relationships with minimal expectations from ingroups - Disney expects employees to be self-reliant and take initiative - Value independence and self-expression - Increases drive for achievement focusing on personal goals 3. Masculinity - Employees are highly competitive and motivated to outperform their counterparts - Driven by success - Competitive organisational culture 4. Low uncertainty avoidance - Drives innovation - Does not limit creativity 5. Short-term orientation - Seen through Disney’s frequent changes Culture: dynamic set of beliefs, rules, attitudes, behaviours and symbols shared and exhibited by a group of people distinguishing them from other groups. - Migration increased - A wider variety of races arrived in America - Created multicultural society Disney’s change: encouraging diversity in the workforce - Disney’s workforce has 60% ethnically and gender diversity as of 2020 - 40% directors are women and 30% are ethnically diverse. - This can be categorised into both ethics in their resourcing policies and external issues as it shows lack of discrimination, an external issue, in their resourcing policies. Disadvantage: conflict Ethics Ethical concern: paper consumption - Paper consumption became a concern around 2010 - Increased by 400% in the last 40 years - Paper production → involves deforestation - Deforestation → causes global warming and climate change - Another global concern - Experts encouraged cautious paper usage Disney ethical considerations: paper consumption policies - Disney paper use: merchandise, tickets, packaging, food service - Paper is only sourced from certified forest conservation schemes - Impacts supply chain as suppliers change - Increased recycling of paper waste - In printer paper, toilet and tissue papers, stationery, publishing cover pages, magazines, primary packaging, and transport packaging - Increases efficiency (less waste) - Process and product incremental innovation - Minimise paper usage - Stopped using paper for tickets - Incremental process innovation Globalisation Globalisation: the interaction and interdependence of world economies Global change : technological development - American films became popular internationally - Disney’s films became popular - 2020 - #BlackLivesMatter Disney change : Increasing representation in content - Disney is based in the USA, and hence had many characters with western backgrounds - Mickey mouse (American), Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (German) - Pocahontas, Mulan (east asian), Tiana (African american), Jasmine, Moana - Allows a wider variety of viewers to relate and seek comfort in characters - Acts as an initiative against external discriminatory issues by creating content that shows support for minority communities - Disney has re-conceptualised their production assistant program by partnering with several community organisations such as Academy Gold, Ghetto Film School, Los Angeles City College to provide more opportunities for diverse storytellers to input their ideas for Disney’s content. Disadvantage: backlash - The improper portrayal of non-caucasian characters caused uproar among international audiences - Stereotypical portrayal of cultures - Princess Tiana’s storyline revolves around her financial struggles - Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel come from wealthy families and live in castles - Pocohantas is depicted as “savage-like”, Moana is known for her rebellion and Jasmine wears pants - Non-white characters do not exhibit the same feminine features as caucasian princesses → implies that the white are beautiful and civilised Innovation Innovation: the process of commercially pioneering new ideas and creations in the production process - Disney is well known for their innovative practices, beginning with their innovative and groundbreaking animations that changed the entertainment industry forever in 1928. Process innovation: disability-accessible movie screenings - Allows people of various cognitive and physical disabilities to enjoy movie screenings - Provision of sensory bags, fidget toys, noise-cancelling headphones, etc. - Disney is the first entertainment company to provide sensory inclusive movie screenings - Serves as a unique selling points - Inclusion of disabilities makes those with disabilities feel recognised as valuable customers - Increases customer satisfaction, encourages customer loyalty - Changes marketing strategy → process changes - Different range of foods, items and experiences for the specific needs of the customer niche Disadvantage: media/customer backlash - The only difference in the disability-inclusive screenings are the items provided upon request, such as fidget toys and sensory bags - The isolation and separation between the disabled and non-disabled may be seen as controversial by the general public. - Strategy It can be seen as a form of discrimination assuming that people with disabilities are unable to watch movies in the same way as people without disabilities. Disney has faced backlash and even lawsuits with their approach to disability-inclusiveness in their theme parks and movie screenings, showing how sensitive this topic is to the general public. Strategy: medium to long term plans of action to achieve the strategic objectives of an organisation Growth strategy: using Ansoff’s matrix (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification). - Disney’s introduction of Disney+ is a market development strategy - Disney+ → paid streaming platform introduced in november 2019 - Gained mass popularity in three years Pricing strategy: Disney+ competitive pricing - Disney: 7.99USD - Netflix: 9.99USD - IMBD: 19.99USD - Youtube: 11.99USD - Lower price attracts customers Marketing strategy: strategies used to address people’s wants and needs through the development and delivery of an appropriate product Operations management strategy: strategies guiding the organisation’s production
