The Walt Disney Co.: The Entertainment King
1. Conduct a Value Chain Analysis of The Walt Disney Company. Identify, categorize, and explain at least three activities that are important to Disney. Make sure to choose at least one primary and at least one secondary activity. (50 points)
2. Consider Walt Disney’s core industry to be the film industry. Based on that, describe which business units describe each category of diversification (related and unrelated) and why. Identify two business units for each category: (50 points)
3. Evaluate Walt Disney’s diversification strategy. (50 points)
a. Identify two business units that add value to Disney as a corporation, and explain how they add value regarding Disney’s core competencies. Analyze at the corporate-level strategy, not at the business-level.
b. Identify two business units that Walt Disney should divest, and provide your reasoning for each. Again, discuss Disney’s core competencies and analyze at the corporate-level strategy level, not at the business-level.
c. Have they gone too far in their diversification efforts, or are they on track? Why? What would you recommend Disney do? Provide one recommendation with reasoning. Refer to the Southwest Airlines case questions for examples of weak & strong recommendations.