Disney Case

Corporate Strategy at Walt Disney Company

0620661, Lee Jin Yong (이진용)

1. What is Disney's core competence(s)? Why?

Disney's core competence is obviously its unmatched tradition of character creation in the motion picture industry. For one reason, it is hardly possible for competitors to imitate Disney's nearly century-long fascinating cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. In order to replace these classic characters by occupying the childhood fantasies of future generation, competitors should promote a number of successful animation movies for the next few decades, which is seemingly a very costly process in terms of time and money.

Another reason is that the characters of Disney are the very source of profit in most of the company's business segments. The Disney theme parks, media networks, and consumer product licensing segments are no doubt gaining profits by functioning as distribution channels of the company's character contents. Without the characters, Disney would not have been able to expand their business so widely and aggressive without obscuring their mission of "providing fun and fantasy to the public".

2. Are there any potential problems you see with Disney's way of making profits? If so, what?

In the mid-1900s, through the release of its animation films, Disney offered many attractive cartoon characters to customers in not only the United States, but throughout the world.

As time passed, entering the new millennia, people started to demand new characters that are more round and complex. However, because Disney was so preoccupied to its extended businesses, it failed to adequately respond to the changing demand of its customers. Consequently, its core competency of character creation started to weaken, allowing