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Walt Disney Company Essay

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Disney Corporation The Walt Disney Company started as a small entertainment company in 1923 (Disney.com, 2011). Since that time the company has used various strategies enabling them to grow into a global entertainment company.
Strategy
The Walt Disney Company is known throughout the world as a leader in entertainment. The strategies that the Walt Disney Company have used include competitive advantage, a growth strategy, and a renewal strategy. When a person mentions a theme park, Disney is the first park that comes to mind. They were not the first theme park, but they have mastered the art of creating memories for adults and children alike. As a former employee of Disney I can vouch for the amount of effort that goes into …show more content…

Under his leadership the company went from two theme parks to nine located throughout the world. Disney now consists of the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, California Adventure, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios, Euro Disney, Tokyo Disney, and Hong Kong Disneyland. In addition to the theme parks Walt Disney has acquired several companies to increase their television and movie presence. Some recent examples include the acquisition of Pixar Entertainment, Marvel Comics, and the ABC television networks (Goldman, 2009). Eisner is also credited with the creation of the Walt Disney Cruise Line that is made up of four ships; the Wonder, Magic, Dream, and Fantasy (Disneycruise.com, 2011). Disney.com said "Making dreams come true every day is central to our global growth strategy" (2011, p.2). The third strategy that Walt Disney Company utilized was a renewal strategy. After Walt Disney died the company lost its direction. They hadn't made a successful movie in years, the theme parks were suffering from little growth, and the attendance had not increased in several years. In 1984 Disney was underperforming and was fighting off takeover bids. Roy Disney, Walt's brother, recruited Michael Eisner to save the company. The end result was that Eisner took the company from a 1.3 billion dollar company to a 30 billion dollar company (ABCnews.com, 2011). He accomplished this by renewing the company's focus on entertainment. Under his

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