Case Study Disney Corporation

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The Global Business Environment: Meeting the Challenges 3rd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan Janet Morrison www.palgrave.com/business/morrisongbe3 Disney Corporation: It all started with a mouse Case taken from The International Business Environment, second edition (Palgrave, 2006), by Janet Morrison Walt Disney, the founder of the Walt Disney Company in 1923, is famously quoted as saying to his successors in the company: ‘I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it all started with a mouse.’ The business was started by Walt Disney and his brother, who rented a small studio to produce animated films, introducing its most famous character, Mickey Mouse, in 1928. It was in animated films that the studio excelled, and on which its reputation and brand are based. The company has grown into a $28‐billion‐a‐year media and entertainment empire, consisting of film studios, theme parks and resorts, a television network and consumer products divisions. Much of this development has taken place under the leadership of Michael Eisner, who took over as chief executive in 1984. He is credited with the huge expansion of the theme parks and resorts. However, from the late 1990s, the company’s performance took a downturn (see figure). New competitors in the theme park business, combined with the downturn in tourism following the World Trade Center attacks of 11 September 2001, affected theme park attendance. Wavering consumer confidence has affected the consumer products division, which needs new characters beyond Mickey Mouse – now in his seventies – to reinvigorate the Disney brand. The loss‐making television network, ABC, having been a leading network in the 1970s and 80s, noted for nurturing creative ideas, fell behind the other major networks in the US. There

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