A strategic view on: “Why has Disney been successful for so long?”

Disney, from the foundation to the early 2000s, kept its core values and strategy for its business. Their diversification of business was always around their core, which can be defined as entertainment for all family (including kids to grown kids). They expanded their business from cartoons to films than to music copyrights, to entertainment parks.

Their competitive advantage has always been lower-cost production balanced with additional spending that gives room for innovation. The management was open to taking calculated risks and was fully aware of the failures are part of the nature of the business. They developed financial systems such as ‘financial box” to balance their cost base and keep their probability in sectors such as movies over the market average. They leveraged their existing unique content and created synergies around those assets through their enterprise.

They kept their brand clean from any risks by forming new companies that carry risks such as the touchstone label that is designed for comedy films and productions as complementary to the existing business.

The areas that they expanded their business always helped their existing businesses, e.g., hotels and resorts, and Live shows helped the theme parks. TV business helped its in-house production.

In the late 80’s they start to consolidate their business services such as marketing, media buying to benefit from the size of the overall business. Disney has also leveraged international partnerships and opportunities to grow its business.

Moreover, their unique company culture and inspiration kept them together, although they were working in the different fields of the entertainment sector. Their management continued the sustainability of the corporate culture even by expanding the cultural programs until the sudden changes in the management and ABC purchase.

Finally, I think their most significant advantage was unique and beloved characters that have been created in the early 1900s become the trademark of the company, and continued to reach the hearts of billions of people through generations.

Reference: Rukstad, M., Collis, D. and Levine, T. “The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King”, Harvard Business Publishing, January 2009.