Once upon a time at Disney

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Table of Contents

Introduction
How skills for a successful manager at Disney have changed over the decades
Disney as a learning organization
Important Management skills that Michael Eisner brought to Disney
Reference

Introduction

The most successful business organizations in today’s business world started small. It is normally the hope of the visionary founders of any business organization that, their venture will continue to realize improved financial performance and expand in terms of increasing its capital base and winning new business deals.

Even though, a prolonged monopoly in a relatively new market can give a new business entrant an upper hand, leadership and management play a critical role in determining how well and quick an organization manages to realize sustainable growth and expansion especially in a market with well-established competitors. This task is a case analysis of Michael Eisner’s management success story, which positioned Walt Disney Co. as a competitive force in the dynamic American and global entertainment industry.

How skills for a successful manager at Disney have changed over the decades

Two brothers, Walter Disney and Roy Disney in 1923, founded Walt Disney Corporation, popularly known as Disney. In terms of revenue generation, Disney is currently the largest media corporation in the world (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). Disney has managed to establish itself as a leader in the American animation industry. The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group is a common household name and this popularizes the Walt Disney Corporation. It is presently one of the biggest and well-known studios in Hollywood.

Disney’s fortunes and the emergence as a giant entertainment company are attributed to the leadership of Michael Eisner. According to Draft & Marcic (2005, p. 593), Michael Eisner’s management of the loved Disney brand is one the great management stories of the twentieth century. Even though, changing times in business bring up need for new skills in doing things, viable corporate values should be preserved.

For instance, with Disney’s expansion into new global markets such as Asia, Australia and New Zealand, a successful manager at Disney must have proven international business management skills. Such skills would enable a successful manager at Disney guide branch managers in winning the loyalty of customers in new global markets. A proficient manager should for instance, be able to know how to deal with foreign customer’s reaction to foreign products introduced by Disney.

In addition, given the firm foundation established by Walt and his brother, a successful manager over the decades have had be flexible in his or her personal managerial approach and leadership style. Such flexibility would enable him or her adjust successfully to all manners of changes taking place in the industry in order to sustain the Disney’s enormous market niche.

In particular, a successful manager at Disney over the decades has had to be sensitive to technological changes touching on Disney’s line of business. It is important to note that technology changes so fast such that it can be challenging at times to keep pace with it. Therefore, a successful manager over the decades at Disney decades had to be able to influence all relevant stakeholders in to keeping on the look out for changes.

For instance, Eisner brought in a hands-on managerial approach in to the company’s management and managed to turn around its fortunes in less than a decade. He was able to push virtually every employee to the company’s shop floor where new ideas and products were being created. He, however, preserved Disney’s corporate culture and values (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). He was also skillful in influencing the company to sustain creativity, quality, entrepreneurship, and teamwork.

Disney as a learning organization

Well-established business organizations are players in industries with diverse features due to the differing nature of different kinds of business activities. Disney is a player in an industry that is ever changing and one in which consumers’ tastes and preferences keep on changing, along with the surge of new information and communication technologies. In addition, there is an unprecedented globalization of all forms of business activities, thanks to information and communication technologies (ICT).

It is therefore, critical for Disney to be a learning organization so that, first, it can keep abreast with the relevant technological changes in the industry. Keeping pace with technological changes and even taking part in revolutionizing technological application in its line of business, by inventing new technological applications, has enabled Disney to leverage its competitive advantages.

This has in turn enabled Disney to come up with unique and original products that are naturally attractive to consumers thereby giving it an upper hand in the industry at the domestic and international levels (Draft & Marcic, 2005, p.593).

For example, it was not until Walt added a new technological feature to their newly developed character known as Mickey Mouse that it received notice from the target audience (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). Second, since Disney’s line of business relies heavily on creativity and innovation of its employees, learning ensures that the employees’ imagination is alert and always on the look out for new ways of satisfying changing needs of their customers.

It is also critical for Disney to be a learning organization in order to ensure that, its new employees learn the company’s unique ways of doing business coupled with adapting Disney’s organizational cultures. Doing so ensures that new employees are introduced to opportunities of exploiting their potentials for the benefit of the company on top of getting a chance to learn new things.

Positioning Disney as a learning organization reduces costs of research and development for the company. Moreover, such a move can even earn the company revenue from other players who seek learning services from the organization. Furthermore, learning enables Disney to acquire knowledge on how globalization of business affects the company and identify opportunities in new global markets beyond America where it has already established itself as an icon of ingenuity and creativity (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593).

Concisely, failure to sustain high levels of creativity and innovation and keep pace with other changes occurring in the entertainment industry where Disney is a player is the surest way of getting out of the market. Disney founders, Walt and Roy, as well as Michael Eisner who turned around its fortunes after the death of Walt Disney, knew this fact very well.

Important Management skills that Michael Eisner brought to Disney

Michael Eisner took over as the new chairperson of Disney in 1984 at a time when the company was experiencing a serious financial deterioration. However, irrespective of Disney’s poor financial performance during his entrance, Eisner managed to turn around its fortunes.

After fifteen years of his leadership, the company’s revenues increased drastically from $1.65 to a staggering $25 billion with a net income of $1.2 billion from $0.2 (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). First and most importantly, Eisner sought to build a refreshed Disney brand while at the same time preserving the company’s values of teamwork, entrepreneurship, quality and creativity (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593).

Furthermore, his managerial style ensured that every employee participated in the company’s ground for innovative ideas and products. Just like Walt, Eisner believed that the worth of an individual employee, in terms of bringing on board new ideas, mattered more than titles. He also brought in new skilled talents from his former company (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). He initiated a three-day coaching program to ensure that all employees understood and became part of Disney’s history and legacy.

Moreover, he introduced new ways of doing things while at the same time safeguarding Disney’s organizational culture. Eisner brought in a transformative leadership that positioned Disney as a learning organization committed to creativity (Draft & Marcic 2005, p.593). This enabled Disney to come up with not only unique innovations, but also to read the public and respond to its ever-changing tastes and preferences.

In a recap, Eisner’s managerial skills are still relevant in today’s world of business. Managers, just like Eisner and Walt, should be able to manage creativity and improve the quality of their products due to the increasing competitiveness in virtually all industries.

They should also preserve viable corporate values and cultures; create an environment that is conducive to teamwork, communication, and cooperation. Most importantly, their management and leadership should bring in transformative elements that can steer up an organization to great heights of success from where they initially found them.

Reference

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D., 2005. Understanding management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

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