Behind the Scenes

The Walt Disney Company has existed since 1923, where it was founded by Roy and Walt Disney. Since that time, it has had a tremendous growth, from just producing cartoons, to being a large entertainment and media conglomerate, consisting of four main areas; Media Networks, Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, and Consumer Products. These areas cover everything from international radio and TV channels, movie production and distribution, amusement parks and resort, large internet communities, selling brand licenses, a large selection of consumer products etc. Some of their biggest individual business units are: Disney, ABC, ESPN, Buena Vista, Miramax and Touchstone. The company operates in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, with North America as their main market (Datamonitor 2006A). They have 133.000 employees around the world.

The Studio Entertainment area, which is the main focus of this report, distributes and produces live and animated movies, musical recordings, live stage plays, and animated direct-to-video programming. Furthermore it contains the original and oldest operations of the whole Walt Disney Company. The Studio Entertainment supplied 23.8 percent of all revenues in 2005, which corresponds to $7,587 million, a decrease of 13 percent since 2004.

Company mission

“The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.”

Above mission statement is an integrated part of their profiling towards new employees. It gives some main points of focus on how to run their business. This mission statement will be used later on to evaluate their strategies and current performances. Goals and objectives are in the extent possible included in the strategies for each level of the organisation.