Task 1

Walt Disney is considered as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. Not only did
he create a unique business venture but it was first of its kind. Born in the year 1901 he
was of a modest upbringing. He founded the Disney Brothers in 1920’s and in 1928 he
developed the now infamous “Mickey Mouse” character. It is conjectured that he drew
inspiration from an actual mouse who lived in his studio.

Walt Disney produced the “Mickey Mouse” cartoon series in an era where silent
movies / cartoons were still the norm. Even though there were other cartoons which had
a sound track connected to the visualization, it was not well in par with the action
throughout the movie. Disney used a then innovative technology called a “Click track”
which kept the musicians in precise timing. As a result the character’s actions were an
exact match with the music, and helped with the cartoons comedic timings. And thus the
“Mickey Mouse” cartoon became Walt Disney’s first success.

Disney then ventured into full length feature animations, which were Technicolor and
advanced in technology. He was also the first to introduce synchronized sound. As a
result he released many animations such as “Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs”,
“Pinochio”, “Bambi” etc which were all successful and helped in gain a massive
popularity. He then followed up on his success by introducing live action films such as
the crucially claimed animated movie “Cinderella” and the film “Mary Poppins”, which
was a book story book adaption, where he fought and won over the rights by its author.
The latter earned him several awards including five academy awards.

We can see that Walt Disney, through his company Disney Brothers Studio gained a
competitive advantage by using modern technology that was not in use by his
competition at that time and used to gain a successful entrants to the market. His
barriers for entry in the animation industry was minimum as his competition could not
compete with his products because of his superior technology. It is said that he created
a “Golden Era” for animation, therefore making his studio truly the pioneer in the
industry.

Furthermore, Disney used the popularity he received from the animations to diversify his
portfolio by opening up a theme park, which was truly one of its kind. Thus, he opened
the first ever amusement park and named it “Disneyland” in 1955. He used the
differentiation strategy to diversify his company’s product range thus earning him a
more diversified and widespread consumer base. He also ventured into other projects
such as planning the “Winter Olympics”, “Moscow Fair” etc.

He further solidified his popularity and the company’s success through entering into
television. He produced shows such the “Mickey Mouse Club” and the “Walt Disney’s
Disneyland” which also provided the funding for Disneyland.

Today the Walt Disney Company is a multinational conglomerate with a net worth of an
estimated 130 billion USD. The Walt Disney Studios is its primary operating studio, but
it includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios
(which is presently a huge success), 20th Century Studios, etc. The company also has
other media outlets such as the Disney Media Networks. Disney also owns and
operates the ABC broadcast network, cable television networks such as the Disney
Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic. Thus catering to a massive
media viewing population.

Other ventures include the theme parks (14 in total around the world), publishing,
merchandizing entities, music and theatre ventures as well. Thus the company has truly
ensured that it caters almost all the segments of the market.

The Walt Disney Company utilizes a strategy led by its founder Walt Disney himself that
ensures competitive advantage over its rival companies by capitalizing on the
uniqueness of products offered in the entertainment, mass media, and amusement park
industries. He uses product differentiation to gain the upper hand in the market.

Even though the company’s competitive strategy is based on making its products
different from those of competitors, its intensive strategies for growth are focused on
developing new products that suit global market trends. Therefore the company focuses
and devote extensive capital on research and development i.e. to keep ahead of its
competitor’s technology, to keep up with the consumer demands, to examine market
trends etc. The company grows through innovation and creativity, which enable the
business to compete against large firms. For example, the company competes against
Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc., Sony Corporation, CBS Corporation, and Comcast
Corporation, which owns Universal Pictures and has formulated a strategy which
consist of a rigorous growth strategy to address such competitive landscape through
corresponding strategic objectives and competitive advantages; thus this entertainment
conglomerate manages to stay ahead of the challenges in its industry environment. One
such example is the growth by introducing technologically enhanced products, such as
movies for customers in the international market. In the context of Michael Porter’s
model, The Walt Disney Company’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth
strategies are aligned for product-focused development

Another relevant strategic objective used by the Disney Company is to strengthen the
competitive advantages through marketing strategies that reinforce the uniqueness of
the company’s brand. These marketing strategies are part of Disney’s marketing mix or
4Ps. Also, related managerial efforts contribute to the achievement of Disney’s
corporate mission and vision statements in the global market for entertainment, mass
media, and theme park products. Brand uniqueness helps in achieving industry
leadership. Considering the differentiation generic competitive strategy in Porter’s
model, intensive strategies must involve differentiation to grow the business.

According to the Ansoff Matrix, which describes the strategies that could be used for
product-market relationships and trends (Ansoffmatrix.com, 2015), Walt Disney
Company uses the Product Development Strategy as the primary intensive growth
strategy.
This strategy involves offering new products in the company’s current or existing
markets. For example, the company releases new movies with corresponding
merchandise to generate more profits from its target customers worldwide. This
company analysis also sheds light on the importance of Disney’s organizational
structure, which provides the organizational design to effectively manage product
development. This intensive strategy links to the differentiation generic competitive
strategy in emphasizing uniqueness in product development. A related strategic
objective is to achieve business growth by effectively persuading customers to purchase
Disney’s products on the basis of their unique attributes, such as in entertainment
experience.

Market Penetration (Secondary). The Walt Disney Company achieves growth partly
through market penetration. As a secondary intensive strategy, market penetration
enables growth by increasing sales of existing products in the company’s current
markets. For example, one of the corporation’s strategic objectives is to use aggressive
advertising to increase its revenues from products released in the global entertainment
industry. The business strengths shown in the SWOT analysis of Disney contribute to
success in implementing this intensive growth strategy. A strong brand based on the
differentiation generic strategy creates competitive advantage to attract customers to
the company’s products, and to manage customers’ expectations.

Market Development. Market development is an intensive growth strategy that is less

frequently used in The Walt Disney Company’s business. In growing the business, this
intensive strategy requires the company to introduce its existing products to new
markets or market segments. For example, growth is achieved by establishing
operations in new markets, such as through a new Disneyland amusement park to
capture a regional market. Even with competitive challenges, entry into new markets
can increase the company strengths to manage the industry’s competitive forces shown
in the Porter’s Five Forces analysis of Disney. A key strategic objective in market
development is to use the differentiation generic competitive strategy to successfully
introduce the company’s products into new markets.

Diversification. The Walt Disney Company uses diversification as a supporting intensive

strategy for business growth. Developing or acquiring new businesses is the typical
approach in this intensive growth strategy. For example, through the establishment of
the Disney Cruise Line, the company grew by entering the cruise line market of the
tourism and hospitality industries. The differentiation generic strategy develops the
competitive advantage of new business operations that use the company’s brand.
Under diversification, a strategic objective is to manage competitive challenges by
developing new businesses that grow the company’s presence and brand popularity in
the international market.
Task 2

Competition is the core of the success or failure of firms (Porter, M. E.,1985), therefore
formulating competitive strategies ensures a profitable and successful position in the
market. Strategies such as new product development, product differentiation, market
penetration or market development have been the main focus for many firms to be
successful in the late 1980’s to beginnings of the 2000’s. And they have been rightly
focused too, as their strategies have been proven to be successful throughout.

However during the last decade or so, we have been witnessing a gradually increasing
focus on sustainability and environmentalism. This has been a global change in the
socio economy as a direct result of the increasing awareness and publications of global
warming, climate change, animal extinction, natural disasters etc. People are being
more focused on environmental protection, conservation and sustainability, therefore
making the company’s shift their strategies which encompasses these core values as
well.

As a result companies these days have been shifting their core strategies according to
the triple bottom line. The triple bottom line can be defined as an accounting framework
that incorporates three dimensions of performance: social, environmental and financial.
This differs from traditional reporting frameworks as it includes ecological (or
environmental) and social measures that can be difficult to assign appropriate means of
measurement. The TBL dimensions are also commonly called the three Ps: people,
planet and profits (Andrew Savitz,2006).

As for describing more details on the triple P’s. The first P indicates “People”. It
considers the human factor in the company in an internal and external framework. The
internal environment consisting of the employees. The labour involved or Human
resources involved in the company or business entity. The external environment
includes all other humans in the interacting market or its surrounding which is being
affected by the company.i.e the wider community where a corporation does business.
Another way to look at “people” is, how much does a company benefit society? A triple
bottom line company pays fair wages and takes steps to ensure humane working
conditions at supplier factories.

The business that follow the triple bottom strategy instead of following the traditional
competitive advantage strategy and focus on only their customers, always makes it their
principle to operate in a manner which advantages the society at large. Triple bottom
line companies make an effort to “give back” to the community. We can also see that
these companies have more interest in welfare programs and sustainability initiatives.
For example, 3M partners with United Way to fund STEM education across the world
(Company website). This initiative is an instance of “enlightened self-interest”—acting to
further the interests of others, ultimately, to serve one’s own self-interest. The
community benefits, and 3M provides itself a well-educated source of scientists and
innovators for generations to come.

The second P is of course the “Planet”. A 2016 Gallup poll revealed that 64 percent of
Americans are worried about global warming. Public opinion has dictated that
enterprises that harm the environment should also bear the cost, and you can bet
businesses are taking notice. The “planet” piece of the triple bottom line indicates that
an organization tries to reduce its ecological footprint as much as possible. These
efforts can include reducing waste, investing in renewable energy, managing natural
resources more efficiently, and improving logistics.

For example, Apple has invested heavily in environmental sustainability. Its massive
U.S. data centers are LEED certified. In 2016, the company announced that 93 percent
of its energy comes from renewables. These actions have nudged other tech giants like
Facebook and Google toward using more renewable energy sources to power facilities.

The third and last P is “Profit”. While every business pursues financial profitability, triple
bottom line businesses see it as one part of a business plan. Sustainable organizations
also recognize that “profit” isn’t diametrically opposed to “people” or “planet.” Swedish
furniture giant IKEA reported sales of $37.6 billion in 2016. The same year, the
company turned a profit by recycling waste into some of its best-selling products.
Before, this waste had cost the company more than $1 million per year. And the
company is well on its way to “zero waste to landfill” worldwide. According to Joanna
Yarrow, IKEA’s head of sustainability for the UK, “We don’t do this because we’re tree
huggers, we do this because it’s very cost effective.”

Therefore the sole objecting of introducing the triple bottom concept has been to shift
the focus on being more environmental friendly. Therefore we can illustrate that the idea
behind the triple bottom line or 3BL paradigm is that a corporation's ultimate success or
health can and should be measured not just by the traditional financial bottom line, but
also by its social/ethical and environmental performance (Norman and MacDonald,
2004)

Several methods for the development of indicators of sustainable development that can
be used in projects or geographical areas at different levels have been described
(Mitchell, et al., 1995; Pinter et al., 1995; Kuik and Verbruggen, 1991). Other initiatives
have had similar aims, such as the concept of 'triple bottom line'-accounting (Elkington,
1997), which is also designed for making small scale analyses, emphasizing the need
for businesses to include social and environmental dimensions in their performance
reporting and in implementation of corporate business strategies (Movat, 2002).

Task 3
Forbes magazine once described that “Culture is Currency” (Forbes.com.(2020), and
accurately so, as a company cannot survive without the proper functioning of its’ human
resources, and in turn the humans will not be functioning at their maximum capacity if
the environment that they are working in not viable. Basically all employees and
external parties want a “work friendly” environment.

With globalization and increased access to more communities, people of different

nationalities, ethnicities, racial back ground etc. have merged together in work place.
This is inevitable with the growing technology and other socio economic factors.
Therefore it is crucial that the company makes effort to keep the working place a
harmony in the work place