Walt Disney

1. Environmental challenges- The major challenges Walt Disney was facing during that time is
the competition that they face from the major competitors like Paramount Park, universal
studio and six flags theme park which is the prominent competitor during that era.
Another problem Walt Disney was facing is in the era of globalisation in which Walt Disney
have to take care of the rules and regulation of the other countries. There is a special taking
care of the rules when the countries are outsourcing their work. In Walt Disney case their
theme park which they are operating should match with the regulation of the countries in
which they are operating so that their international status is maintained. Another problem
they were facing is about the bargaining power of the customer which is also increasing
during that time till present. Another challenge is the upgrading themselves, the logo and
trademark of the Disney is itself a challenge for other company to come up with the
substitute product or services. Disney was constantly upgrading and reviewing his product
line and services to cope up with the rapidly changing environment. At the age of 22 Walt
Disney has faced a bankruptcy after a failure of a cartoon series in Kansas City. He headed to
Los Angeles with 40$in cash and with some clothes. IN 1930 Walt suffered a severe loss
which he called “a heck of a breakdown “.Beyond the being irritable to employees ,he can’t
sleep at night and can’t focus on the story session and cannot contribute to it. In December
7 1941, when the army took over Disney studio as a repair shop for tank and ancillary and
artist in the studio went for the war. Even Walt himself has to get a government id to get his
own property. Walt could not find the money to build Disneyland. The only way he could see
was in doing television. But the major Hollywood studio have put pressure on each other to
not to support television production as it will ruin the television business.

2. Leadership style- According to there are 5 leadership skills that I have learned from
Walt Disney is
I. Have vision-he said that if we don’t have the dream or desire for something
better for ourselves or for other, what it is that gets us out from the bed every
morning . He also said that he test his dream against the belief. In his case he was
making sure that his dreams would stand for everything he stood for, such as belief,
core value and integrity. There were a few times in Waltz life where he would bet
his entire studio on producing an animated film and, due to his vision, charisma, and
leadership style, he repeatedly came out on top.
II. Build partnership-Walt and his brother Roy were the perfect duos. Walt has
the creative ideas and spend most of the time with the studio whereas his brother
Roy took care of the finance and the accountant part. The differences didn’t hinder
the brothers they fought against the problem like a team which made them a
successful company as you know today.
III. Serve others-I also think that Walt Disney as a leader was successful is because
of the good habit to serve the people. There was an incident in which he personally
took co-worker to Disneyland and personally rolled out the red carpet for him and
showed his guest all the attractions as well as front row seats to every show. All this
 just so a disabled friend could enjoy the park without feeling left out in his
wheelchair.
3. Context- Like many creative model, Walt has started his career by working for others .In
1991 he was as a driver for ambulance in World War 1, looking for job of an artist. So he
went to a persmen- Rubin commercial art studio where he met ubbe Iwerks . Iwerks was the
most talented person you can find in the animation business. Walt and Iwerks were out of
job. So they started their own studio which got failed. So they started work in film ad co.
where they work on advertising shorts. In the side project they were working on the laugh –
o-grams which also got ended in 1923 and Walt left for the Hollywood. Walt’s vision defame
in some of the people. He came to his brother for an investment in Disney brother studio
soon he brought up his old friend Iwerks into it. Walt business was not so profitable he has
created Oswald the rabbit .In 1928 Walt company was dealing with universal which led the
animators to work for the universal only and the Oswald the rabbit rights were belonged to
universal .This give the Walt a lesson that always work for yourself. After this incident Iwerks
and Walt has created a new character Mickey Mouse whose two films were fail but the third
one “steam boat wile” was a successful one. Now company was pushing through the
boundaries of animation soon they developed the first colour carton film and the first
animated short film “snow white and seven dwarf”. This is how company started and later
they approach public through IPO and later developed the Disneyland.

4. Strategies-There are many methods through which the Disney has expanded to
international market. Firstly, the Disney has expanded to japan through licencing-the
management of the Disney will provide only the overseeing the Disney park construction
and taking royalty from the partner in japan. It was firstly regretted but later on it has
proven a great success .In France Disney concentrated more on parks ownership and the
profits where they listed with their partner in European stock exchange. Disney have only
49% stake in joint venture despite this French government is also providing the incentive
and assistant to French government to build a Disney park in France. Similarly Disney have a
partnership with the local government of the Hong Kong. In this venture Disney hold the
43% stake only. Overall, it can be seen that Disney is more comfortable to participate on
deeply to global expansion and venture. At first, the company use licensing methods to
expand to Japan, but the company later rely more on equity partnership and some sort of
strategic alliances with the local governments to enter to different countries.
5. Approach to skill- In Disney they make one to one time a priority. Disney set aside
some time each week to sit with cast member one to one. Giving employees an opportunity
to just talk about their relationship or talk about any frustrating thing affecting them.
Empower employees to take decision. Employees often have the best ideas for improving
customer service, because they talk to customers all day long. Empower them to make some
decisions on behalf of customers. The employee will feel like a contributor, and the
customer will be happy that an issue was resolved so quickly. Be there to answer questions
or help where needed, but give employees the space they need to do their jobs.
6. Internal and external factors affecting the business-Disney faced the
competition in international mass media and entertainment industries. Also the external
factor of technological disruption has potential to reduce the profit of the company. For
instance technological changes in online mass media market continues to shift the profit to
online media channels and networks. Moreover digital content piracy also reduces the
company’s potential revenues as especially in the market with weak legal protection against
this type of threats.