For such a massive company like Disney, one would stop and think “well I wonder how things work over there? Who’s calling the shots?” Being a company on such a massive scale, critical thinking for any decision within the company is important. In order to continuously improve, and provide that classic Disney experience, but with even better promotion and technology, critical thinking is paramount. In order to improve upon themselves and continue to grow, we now dive into the world of diversification. “We are strategically positioning our business for the future, creating more effective, global framework to serve consumers worldwide, increase growth, and maximize shareholder value,” said Robert A Iger, chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company. This company has been around for what seems like forever, how did they do it? Great planning, diversification and a lot of critical thinking along the way.
Critical thinking and how did it play a role in Disney?
Critical thinking is utilized to help identify problems, create new plans for new growth opportunities, weigh options for new business venture, its in everything within a company. A huge priority for Disney is to bring about an unparalleled entertainment experience for its consumers, so how can they maintain that? Critical thinking, what do consumers today really want? Most want their entertainment directly, with the best quality available. One of the initiatives seems to be this direct-to-consumer model for present and future.
Analysis of Disney’s Diversification
It is clear that The Walt Disney Company has grown eons compared to its founding days, but in what way? They have used diversification to launch their direct-to-consumer model into the hands of their consumers in the best way possible. They utilized rational thinking, they merged some operations to create more compelling products and experiences, for example they merged their Consumer Products and Parks segment under one segment. The point behind this was to better the experience for their consumers, to bring the stories of their characters to life and create and experience that only Disney can. Another one, direct-to-consumer and their International segment. This is how Disney+ was born. I believe the company decided to diversify so much because it was capitalizing on itself, trying to consolidate segments together in order to provide an experience that only Disney could.
To conclude
The Walt Disney Company made the decision to diversify its segments and expand its services, and it was very successful. Its new restructuring involved operations spanning over four business segments; Media Networks, Studio Entertainment, Direct-To-Consumer & International and Parks, Experiences & Consumer Products. The new restructure had the purpose of becoming a single, worldwide business to capitalize on growth opportunities and for parks and resorts & consumer products operations to consolidate into a new hub where the stories of Disney’s characters can come to life. The push behind this all was to consolidate operations for the sake of consumer experience in order to capitalize on future growth.
References
The Walt Disney Company. (2018). The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization. Retrieved from https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/walt-disney-company-announces-strategic-reorganization/
Soomo Learning. (2020). Critical business skills for success. https://www.webtexts.com
Sabrinarosecorson Blog 