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Fortune 500
Kayla Hrobak
December 5, 2014
The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company
I have chosen the Walt Disney Company as the topic for my Fortune 500 company case study. We all know that Disney is an extremely diverse entertainment company that not only focuses much of its attention on children, but rather the family as a whole. Business segments ranging from Studio Entertainment, Amusement Parks, and Consumer products, the Walt Disney Company is no doubt a leading Fortune 500 company. This is most likely due to the unique, imaginative, and exciting content that they have used for close to a hundred years. The company is not only a key influence in employment for the United States, but World Wide as well. Its top three industry competitors are Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS. The company reported revenues of $42.3 billion in 2012 and ranked 66th on the Fortune 500 list that year (Walt Disney Co. 2013). Just ask around, I can guarantee that almost everyone that you run into has seen, bought, or experienced something that Disney has to offer. Within this paper, I will evaluate the leadership strategies that the Walt Disney Company possesses through its use of Global Strategies in family entertainment. Founded on October 16, 1923, the Walt Disney World Company initially was named the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Many of us know that Walt Disney founded the company, but it was actually a combined effort by both Walt and his brother Roy. Just as any company, Disney started off with just animation as its basic fundamentals. Several years later, with the introduction of Mickey Mouse, it started to thrive. The success of their animation industry only made Walt and Roy more intrigued to create more films such as Fantasia. Success usually leads to a person wanting more, and this was certainly not an exception to Roy and Walt. In 1955, the world became enthralled by the brother’s newest creation, Disneyland. With the motto, “the Happiest Place



Cited: Annual Report (2013). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from Walt Disney Company: http://cdn.media.ir.thewaltdisneycompany.com/2012/annual/10kwrap-2012.pdf Churchwell, D. (2012). A SWOT Analysis of Walt Disney. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from The Motley Fool: http://beta.fool.com/dctotal/2012/12/31/swot-analysis-walt-disneyco/20189/ Company Overview (2013). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from The Walt Disney Company.: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/company-overview Fact Sheet (2008). Walt Disney (2013). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/snapshots/2190.html Tracy, R. (2010). The Business of Magic. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from The Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/11/03/disney-s-powerful-marketingmachine.html Vaughan, K. (2011). Customer Experience: Key to Disney 's Brand Value Success. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from Strategic Marketing Solutions: http://www.strategicdriven.com/marketing-blog/bid/41619/Customer-Experience-Key-toDisney-s-Brand-Value-Success Walt Disney Co/the (DIS: New York) (2013). Retrieved March 10, 2013, from Bloomberg BusinessWeek: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?ticker=

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