Internal and External Factors: Disney Corporation

The Disney Corporation is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. (Disney Corporate, 2009). This company did not become one of the leading corporations in the world without hard work, an extreme dedication to the mission and core values of the organization, and the successful application of the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Many internal and external factors may have a direct impact on the four functions of management like: globalization, ethics, and innovation.

An internal factor has to do with the strengths and weaknesses in an internal organization while an external factor refers to the opportunity or threats presented by the external environment. A multinational corporation like Disney faces many internal weaknesses and strengths. Disney’s main strengths consist of its resources, experience in their line of business, and its low cost strategy. Financial risks for Disney are minimized by sharing initial investment costs with a maximum number of outside participants.

The Disney Corporation has several external opportunities such a positive government attitudes toward its operations, barriers of entry are significant, and the entertainment industry itself. Legal and legislative forces are usually identified as being negative external factors. Oversaturated markets, politics and economic aspects from a global perspective and foreign competition are threats to the Disney Corporation. (Khayat, 2004).

The successful leaders of Disney work with their teams to provide vision and set goals as well as to encourage involvement and accountability. Disney have the benefit of the dynamics from classroom sessions, application exercises, field experiences, and conversations with Disney leaders allows and individual a chance to see firsthand the principles that are at the core of their organizational strengths.

The four functions of management are affected by internal and external factors in an organization. Having the responsibility of knowing the resources available to do each specific job affects the planning function. Having to keep up with Disney’s low cost strategy may be difficult. Organization cannot be done with internal weaknesses but with the main internal resource at Disney being financial stability the organizations can benefit greatly from this. Leading is affected very little because Disney is one of the leading organizations within the entertainment industry. The external factors that can affect Disney are legal forces but overall, Disney seems to be in full control of their industry.

Delegation is the passing on of responsibilities to someone else who is qualified to do the job. Delegation helps the CEO, President, and other management positions to save themselves time and be able to concentrate on other things. For example, if an appointed position in the government can take care of particular campaign tasks, the President should delegate those tasks to the individual with the expertise. Delegation saves time and can save money when the right person is doing the right job.

Globalization becomes a larger part of business every year. Chances are, anyone who takes on the role of manager will be affected in some way by the ever-changing global economy. It is estimated that nearly 15% of all employee transfers are to a location outside of the United States (Bateman & Snell, 2009, chap. 6, p.234). The difficulty of adjustment in this new market is driven home by the statistic that an estimated 20 to 70% of these international assignments are defined as failures, where the worker comes home early (chap 6, p.234). An even larger percentage of managers will end up working with subordinates with a cultural background different from their own.

There are many factors that make an international assignment a difficult one. While planning, the manager must be able to consider and account for cultural differences not only in his new subordinates, but also within the corporate structure. When organizing the new team, it will potentially take more time to communicate a plan, and may require the assistance of an inpatriate, or foreign national that will help to position the plan in a way that will be well received by the group (chap 6, p.239). While managing in a new situation like this will be difficult, many of the same talents that make a manager successful domestically will make them successful internationally as well.

At Disney World, English speaking employees are brought in from all over the world on one-year contracts, and combined together to create the fantasy experience the has made Disney’s theme parks so popular (Global Agenda 2007, p.1). This engineered melting pot creates a unique situation for a manager, as they will be responsible for leading a very diverse group of young men and women, potentially from all over the globe. Leading and controlling this broad based group requires the ability to shift gears quickly and correctly to approach individual team members differently, while continuing to be conscious of the cultural differences and how particular actions could be perceived. With more than 58,000 workers and an annual payroll that exceeds 1.1 billion, Disney World is a shining example of a management formula that has set a standard for getting many different cultures to work together (Global Agenda 2007, p.1). I guess Disney truly is a small world after all.

The Walt Disney Company is successful in part because of operating and enforcing high standards of Ethics into their daily operations. Ethics is a very important role in any organization when planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These factors and behaviors are best enforced when management set a positive example and make sure everybody knows that nothing less will be accepted or tolerated. The Disney Company is very visible and can be seen all over the world. With this much visibility the company has a high responsibility because of the influence and impact it will have in their decision making and how it will affect the communities in the area. If they make the wrong decision or unethical decision they will be blamed for any negative outcomes of it. For example, back in 1990 when the story broke of a penis on the video artwork for the movie The Little Mermaid. Many stores pulled the video immediately. Disney later released a new version of the cover with the same background of the castle, but still slightly different from the original because they removed the offending spire. “Parts of the Disney/Mermaid story are urban legend…there are some elements that are accurate…the castle spire did have a resemblance to a phallus…but the company line was that it was ‘inadvertent’, the artist did not work for Disney directly, and was not upset at a pending lay-off from the cited web site. (Barbara & David P. Mikkelson, 2009).

“Rush(ing) to complete the video artwork (featuring towers that were rather phallic to begin with), the artist hurried through the background detail (at “about four in the morning”) and inadvertently drew one spire that bore a rather close resemblance to a penis. The artist himself did not notice the resemblance until a member of his youth church group heard about the controversy on talk radio and called him at his studio with the news ” (Barbara & David P. Mikkelson, 2009).

The Disney Company has been around for over 50 years. If a company did not have a successful organizational responsibility it would not have lasted as long or have the positive reputation that Disney does. Unfortunately, there will always be that person or people who, for some unknown reason, must start rumors about any company or product because that is what happen in this world. After talking with employees at Disneyland in California several times while on visits there with my family, the employees love their jobs and the way they are treated from Disney. The Disney Company has successfully managed the skills of leading and controlling their employees and continue to ensure every employee is aware of being appreciated.

The employees whether at one the Disney Parks or one of the many Disney Stores in the world are always happy and creating a positive environment for the visitors. One way to make sure management leading and controlling is successful is by having a fair dealing policy. “Fair Dealing; Directors must deal fairly with the Company’s employees, customers, suppliers and competitors. No Director may take unfair advantage of the Company’s employees, customers, suppliers, or competitors through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of material facts, or any other unfair-dealing practice.” (Disney, 2009).

According to Robert W. Rasberry “Today’s businesses consist of diverse employees, many of whom are in a state of cognitive moral confusion. Some have trouble distinguishing right from wrong. Others question whether such standards even exist. Many businesses need a constant presence that reminds everyone to do the right thing. The name of that ethical conscience is the “ethics office.” Some companies have moved beyond compliance to an integrity-based approach to ethics management, building a culture that embraces core values and an uncompromising implementation of legal and ethical principles. These guiding principles are embodied in the strategic planning process and evidenced in the daily decision making and actions of the firm. In integrity-based companies, the ethics office truly serves as the organizational conscience, gently reminding management and employees alike to remember their ethical compass” (Rasberry, 2000).

The Disney Company realizes that its organizational responsibility in all areas of organizational management must rely on and practice good planning, organizing, leading, and controlling every day. The managers used these factors to solve the problem/issue with the movie cover successfully and as fast as possible and continue to use them today.

The Vice President of Technology and Innovation for Disney Consumer Products, Chris Heatherly defines innovation simply as “making a great product.” And that is what Disney tries to do every time they release a product. Disney tries to make every product meet their organizational high standards and if they feel a certain product is something they cannot put their name on Disney will start over. This occurred before the release of Toy Story 2 a Pixar film. After finishing the movie both Pixar and Disney did not believe that the movie was something they could stand by as a company so all the years of hard work and started all over in order to make a product that people would undoubtedly love. Disney wants the consumers that purchase their products to experience something different every time. If this means that the consumers are experiencing something new, then they have done their job and made a product better than their competitors and it will continue to live up to the Disney name. Disney innovation deals with the heart of the company and the people who work there. It’s not only the technology that changes Disney innovation but also the experience and the products produced.

In closing, the Disney Company did not become one of the leading corporations in the world without hard work, an extreme dedication to the mission and core values of the organization, and the successful application of the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Many internal and external factors may have a direct impact on the four functions of management like globalization, ethics, and innovation but as a corporation, Disney has continued to overcome any obstacle set in its path. The Disney Company has proved it has and always will deserve its place as one of the leaders within the entertainment industry.

References

Barbara & David P. Mikkelson, 2009. Urban Legends Reference Pages on Snopes.com,Retrieved from on 5/28/09http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snopes.com%2Fdisney%2Ffilms%2Fmermaid.htm.

Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2009). Management: Leading & collaborating in acompetitive world (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Available from theUniversity of Phoenix eBook Collection databaseDisney, March 2009. Corporate Responsibility Report, Retrieved from on 5/28/09http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/cr_business_standards.html.

Disney Corporate. (2009). Disney Corporate. Retrieved May Day, 2009, fromhttp://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2009/2009_0310_shareholders_re- elect_all_12_directors.htmlKhayat, Sammy. (2004). Researching Nanotechnology. Retrieved May Day, 2009, from http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbk142/disney.htm.

Leberecht, Tim. (2008). Innovation 1-on-1: Chris Heatherly of Walt Disney Co.. CNETNews. Retrieved May Day, 2009, fromhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-13641_3-9890672-44.htmlRasberry, Robert W., 2000. Journal: Strategy & Leadership (volume 28 issue: 3, p 17-21), Title: The Conscience of An Organization: The Ethics Office. Publisher:MCB UP Ltd. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=872781Where even Grumpy is Happy. (2007, April). Global Agenda, Retrieved May 29, 2009,from MasterFILE Premier database.