Challenges to The Walt Disney Company

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company Strategic Issues First Strategic Issue Walt Disney has experienced various strategic issues, and their strategic approaches have led to success. Its strategic management has identified the fact that their competitors could take advantage of the strategic weaknesses and pull the company behind in terms of market position. Although the issues are limited in such a successful company, they deserve maximum attention, as it is possible for them to act as threats towards the future welfare of the entire business. From a quick SWOT analysis, Disneys strengths are diversity and the surplus cash it attains from its business operations. Its weaknesses include the two strategic issues it is recently facing, its opportunities are expansion possibilities, and its threats include stiff competition. One of these strategic issues that Walt Disney has been facing is the loss of a good number of subscribers in the ESPN. Recently, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network of Disney is holding fewer consumers as compared to the past years when the company began. The major reason leading to this shift of customers to other internet programs that offer similar services is the fact that watching sports with Disney has turned out to be more expensive as compared to watching the same sports in other internet platforms. Its historical market position, which was high at that time, had been attained through appealing to customers regarding prices. When it is specifically about sports, there are different ty pes of customers. Both adults and youths across the globe have high interests in sports. However, the youths appear to have more time to invest in the sports as compared to the time adults invest. Therefore, the larger portion of customers consists of young people, who in most cases are jobless or flexible in terms their jobs. It is a fact that with their flexibility regarding careers, the youth does not earn a lot of money, meaning they will always take advantage of companies that deliver services at the least cost possible. When Disney was affordable, it appealed to the two categories of customers successfully by ensuring that it is the most affordable platform in the world. However, when the internet-based competitors found a way of broadcasting sports at lower prices and others free, Disney did not pay attention to the matching of these standards. For this reason, it lost the youths mostly to other companies. Losing its portion of youths to the competitors is a great issue, whic h, were it not for other strengths that exist in the business, would have caused the downfall of Disney as an international company. Second Strategic Issue The second strategic challenge that Disney is facing in the presence of its competitors is vitality in the market. Disney is dealing with entertainment, which is all about the preferences and tastes of customers. This dealing is capable of easily leading to its downfall if the companys management does not focus on the strategic approaches of satisfying the customers thirst in terms of what they have a passion for but does not exist in the market. In case the product exists already, it is the duty of the company to modify it and make it more interesting to the customers without altering the likes but scraping the dislikes. With this sensitivity, Disney has faced criticism every time it has a new release in the market as much as it faces motivating response. Bearing in mind that the two types of responses are from customers that the company takes as a duty to please, making changes to attract a larger portion of motivating customers than critics has been an all-time operational goal th at may or may never be achieved. It becomes worse when during its evaluation, Disney realizes a loss of positive claims having turned to critics. This is always a clear message from the public that the company has made an unpleasant release and if they take it for a trend, their market position will be at stake. This is how hard it is for Disney to maintain a good market position having concentrated on the customers taste and preferences alone. Other factors such as the cost of services make the situation worse than it already is. These two strategic issues only need to be attended to with the right approach in order to make the companys future bright (Rukstad Collis, 2009). Alternative Causes of Action Reduced Quality To address the above strategic issues and realize the best course of action, it is important that attention is afforded to the nature of the issues. This can be achieved through a value chain analysis that helps to indicate the companys operational strategy and goals. The loss of Entertainment Sports Program Network subscribers must have been brought about by a faulty strategy in the organizations way of setting its standards. To solve this, the company can buy the cheaper systems adopted by competitors. When other internet service providers decided to engage in innovative ways of lowering their prices, the company did not embrace this idea, as it looked out for maintenance of quality. As a matter of fact, the internet services providers decided to adopt new and cheaper facilities that enhanced this reduction of prices to reach out to the customers whom in their opinion, watching sports had become expensive. While doing this, the first and most essential side effect they were likely to experience is the reduction of quality. Reduced Prices The company can as well alter their operations in a way to slightly reduce their prices and maintain quality at the same time. As much these services were to be availed to customers at a reduced cost, they were also to be displayed at lower qualities as compared to those displayed by Disney. In this case, the market of the ESPN was split into two. There is the lower quality of services available for those that prioritize the amount of money spent on entertainment, and the other sector of the market generates high quality of services for people who do not mind spending a fortune for the sake of quality. With this division, it means that Disney is not ready to compromise its quality of output in order to lower prices and accommodate more customers. This is how it ended up with a limited number of customers as compared to its competitors providing services through various internet platforms. Reducing prices with maintained quality will help to maintain the current customers and to bring back those that it lost to competitors. Stable Products Thirdly, the fact that Disney deals with mainly entertaining products is the main cause of the fact that it is faced with a strategic issue of dealing with customers tastes and preferences. In its market, Disney has a chance of securing its competitive advantage through dealing with motivational and educative films more than the entertaining movies. An educative product is easier to deal with in the sense that it will have nothing to do with the judgment of the customers, and the success will all depend on the effort of the company towards gathering as much knowledge in its products as possible. This way, it is possible to predict the responses of customers to its new releases. Additionally, these types of products will maintain the types of customers that the company is appealing to, bearing in mind that the youths would embrace guidance and the adults too will help respond positively to pieces of advice offered concerning their business and social lives. Just to make the point clea r, it is for a fact that Disney has invested partly in these sectors, but the entertainment has taken a better part of its products. This has not only subjected it to the risk of customers responses based on their personal tastes and interests but also on the parental force against time wastage. Their cartoon products, for instance, are found to be excessively attractive to the children to the extent that they fail to attend to other demands such as academic works. This creates a force between the cartoon products and parents as they push the children to balance all aspects of life. On the contrary, parents also utilize the products in making promises and rewarding children whenever they want them to engage in or maintain good conduct. An example is a case where the children are motivated to work harder and perform better in class in order to be allowed to watch cartoon during their holidays. All it needs to do is buy facilities that will accommodate this type of production. This wo uld make their output stable, predictable and more profiting. All the above alternatives can be implemented in Disney to stimulate its line of business (Rukstad Collis, 2009). Recommendations Evaluation The alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services is a possible approach for the ESPN issue. This will allow them to avail the same quality of services to customers at an affordable price. This means that they will be appealing to both the customers that value quality more than cost and those that are out there negotiating for lower prices. In this situation, they will have attained competition perfection in the sense that competitors that offer services at lower prices as Disney does will not be providing as high quality as that of Disney. On this note, Disney can be boosted by other secondary factors such as making sure that there is a constant flow of game displays throughout the season. This means that they will be displaying sports events even when the companies with the poor quality of facilities will be facing breakdowns for one reason or another. Disney will be the home for custome rs who are not ready for interrupted sessions while watching matches. However, if Disney decides to follow suit as its competitors and produce low-quality products, it will be faced with the con of losing customers who value quality. These qualities of attraction will not only help Disney to retain its current customers but also bring back the youth it has lost as potential customers. This way, the current position of the company in the market will be maintained, and the opportunity to expand will have been utilized to make Disneys future more promising. As its only con, Disney will experience an added cost of operating. This is why, on a personal level, I would recommend the alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services as an approach for the ESPN issue. If the cartoons and other entertainment films do not appear to be interesting to customers as the company expects it, there will be a d ecline of the income, as the customers will not purchase the product. The worst con of it is the fact that previews that are displayed before the release of the product may lead to customers shying away from the product early enough. The advantageous purpose of these previews is to help the company predict the performance of the product in the market before it is released. The response of customers may help to detect the problem awaiting the release of a new product, but it will not help in offering a solution for the problem. Therefore, although the company will avoid tampering with its good historic reputation, it will not have evaded losses as the product has already been produced, making this alternative not good enough. This is an indication that there is not short cut towards evading this instability other than engaging in more products that will promote positional security in the market. Hence, to curb the second strategic issue, I would recommend that Disney takes advantage of its stability in the market to seize the opportunity of expansion through dealing with the products that it has not dealt with before. Feasibility On the other hand, if Disney decides to embrace the cheap facilities like competitors have one to tamper with quality only for the sake of prices, they will end up losing customers that value quality, which is the major con of this alternative. Secondly, they will have performed below their operational standards of consistently maintaining the high quality of its products. The only advantage of this alternative is the fact that it will earn back its lost customers who value cheap products. The fact that the disadvantages exceed the advantages, in this case, makes this alternative not feasible. The alternative of displaying previews does not help to find solutions for the instability of products. This means that the act will not have delivered the major expectation, thus, making it not feasible. Implementation Disney should make plans to reduce the cost of running and lower the prices of their high-quality goods. This will help the company to reach out to the customers who do not watch Disney sports because of the high prices. Secondly, it should begin to take steps towards embracing other types of products in the market in order to attain stability. Since one of the strengths of Disney Company is that it always has a substantial flow of capital, this means it has the capability to indulge in the line of other products as heftily as it has done with entertainment. Therefore, all that Disneys management requires is to make decisions based on the expansion strategies that concentrate on this mission as an operational goal. Offering other genres of films and movies will allow the company to attain stability in terms of its market position. Attracting the entire market with motivational and educative products is easier than the entertainment form of attraction. References Rukstad, M. G. Collis, D. (2009). The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King. Brighton: Harvard Business School.

Structural Engineering Mishaps and Disasters :: essays research papers

Structural Engineering Mishaps and Disasters Hindenburg: An Unnecessary Disaster   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the 1930s airships, better known today as â€Å"blimps†, were the main source of air travel. During this time, the airships were used for various different reasons such as: bombing enemy targets, patrolling coastal areas, escorting naval ships during the night or through unsafe bodies of water, or used to make luxury flights across the Atlantic. The Hindenburg was believed to be the biggest and most sophisticated aircraft ever built.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hindenburg was built with metal framework and balloon like covering. It was as long as three football fields and weighed more than 240 tons. This airship looked ravishing, however, it possessed a significant flaw that eventually caused it to ruin. The outer skin of the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, which is extremely flammable. Passengers preparing to board the aircraft had to remove all lighters, matches, and/or any other objects that would cause it to catch fire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Traveling all the way from Europe, the Hindenburg was expected to arrive in the United States and land in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Max Pruss was commander, there were thirteen passengers, and twenty-two crew members on board . Hundreds of people waited for the Hindenburg, including: relatives of the passengers, news reporters, photographers, New Jersey citizens, and ninety-two ground crew members.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The flight’s landing was slightly delayed due to thunderstorms and aggressive winds. Finally, the weather calmed and the Hindenburg airship began to land in Jersey. One of the spectators noticed a pale pink glow in the lower center of the ship. Everyone began to become intense because they had a feeling that the glow was not suppose to be there. A few seconds later that section of the airship exploded! All the onlookers, of course, backed away rapidly, but were still close as the entire Hindenburg airship, and mostly all of its passengers caught fire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some parts of the Hindenburg did, in fact, remain together, but they are only preserved today for research. One of the passengers aboard the flight, a fourteen year old, climbed through a window trying to escape the fires of the airship. To his advance, one of the water tanks burst and the flames on his clothes and his body were extinguished.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S Bureau of Air Commerce gave the following statement as an explanation of the explosion. â€Å"A small amount of explosive mixture (hydrogen) in the upper part of the ship could have been ignited by†¦{an} electric phenomenon like a ball of lightning.

Byzantine and the Impact of Islam

Byzantine is a Roman empire or the empire of Greeks in the Middle East. The history of Byzantine is a continuous line from the latter centuries of Rome to the very beginning of the modern time. It’s about the culture of the Greece and Rome that has a unique cultural history based on synthesis of Roman, European and Islamic elements when it suffered three crisis of external invasion, internal civil war and economy that later made the administrative center less important. (Bury, J. B. 1989).The emperor of Byzantine Empire was Justinian who occupied territories by the Goths and the main occupants of the empire were Christians, but after the fall of Rome; Christians who were horribly persecuted by the Byzantines welcomed the Muslims conquerors with open arms just to tolerate their religion. (Barker, J. W. 1966) By the time justinian resigned Byzantine was in a financial crisis. Later Heraculius succeeded him. When the throne was assumed, a forty-year old Arab named Muhammad swept the streets with messages of Islam across the entire empire.At the end of his regime Muhammad’s message came to pass and Muslims armies emerged and started making raids into Byzantine territory in Syria and began to conquer the Persian territories. (Bury, J. B. 1989) Because of the disaffected populations of Christians and Jews who had been persecuted earlier, the Muslim quickly conquered Byzantine territories in the ninth century. Their victory did not last long because of the Islamic government under Caliph deteriorated and Byzantines started to dominate the Asia Minor and by the tenth century they reconquered most of Syria and became more powerful and influential again.The crusaders The Byzantines however saught help from the Europe against the Muslims conquerors. Europe decided to assist them despite their cultural differences as they shared a common religion with the Byzantines. In 1204 the crusaders attacked the city of Constantinople a goal that the Muslims had been tr ying to conquer for centuries and conquered the Muslims. In 1261 the Byzantine Empire ceased to be an empire and was known as a small kingdom that later in 1453, the Constantinople city was permanently conquered by the Ottoman Turks and was renamed Istanbul.(Diehl, C. (1957) Byzantine Christianity Byzantine Christianity was a different religion from the Latin Christianity, what made it look different was the role of the emperor in matters regarding the faith. While for the Latin Christians the pope in matters of faith was almost solidified. Later the Byzantines inherited the roman idea and practiced a form of Christianity whereby theological authority was vested in the emperor. Through this theological authority it created a permanent breach in the world of Christianity between the west and the east.The breach was to produce iconoclastic controversy that the worship of images and icons was a sign of pagan belief. Only Christ and God should be worshiped this was angulated by Leo the saurian who had turned the tide against the Muslim in 717. The collapse of the Byzantine empire in 1453 saw the Russians believe that they were inheritors of the Byzantine empire and later began the roman empire. (Amis, R1995).Byzantium Empire and impact of IslamThe Byzantine Empire was able to survive for a period of time though not easily achieved through Heraculius some of the empires were kept together despite confrontation on the three sides of empire, and was able to save the empire from the Muslim. (Diehl, C. (1957) His effort worked but his 200,000 troops were killed and a lot of wealth lost during the war with the Persians. After the fight with the Persian he thought of rebuilding the empire but this was not to be as the empire was again attacked by another threat of Islam. The Muslims again got the opportunity to invade Persia and the Byzantine and this surprised both of them.The Persia and the Byzantine Empire did not have strength to fight back the Muslims attacks and th is paved way for Muslims to conquer the eastern provinces of the Byzantines. (Bury, J. B. 1989) The Muslims invasion in the empire weakened the internal division and many Christians wanted to keep their faith and always looked upon religious sects as heretics. Most of them who were persecuted to them life under Islam was good compared to Byzantines because Muslims did not look down upon other religion and this resulted to Muslims being welcomed to Byzantine Empire.Finally when Heraculius died the Muslim got opportunity to conquer the eastern provinces of Byzantine Empire. In the 14th and 15th centuries Islam was already being accepted by the Albanians and later it was in quick acceptance by other nations. . (Diehl, C. (1957) After the death of Mohammed Islam spread very fast and outside Arabia its spread was aided by various political upheavals. The long series of wars between the Byzantine and Persian empires is always credited for this fast spread in the near east especially after the triumph of the Muslims.The Byzantine Empire had the character of imposing Christianity on the population it conquered, for this reason the Syrians and the Egyptians resented and resisted the attempts made by the Byzantine Empire to impose Christianity on them. (Diehl, C 1957) Therefore when the Muslims came to these particular areas they were readily accepted to forestall any attempts that the Byzantine were trying to make, this led to the fall of Syria to the Arab armies to be followed soon by the fall of Iraq and Persia with Egypt falling in 640 AD with very little resistance.With this conquest Islam soon spread to most territories of the Near East and Africa. (Diehl, C. 1957) In the Byzantine Empire there was fierce fanaticism that included interdenominational strife and religious persecution amongst the Christians themselves, compared with the practice and the doctrine of the Islamic faith that tolerated other religions it endeared itself to others. For example the Byzantin es brutally attempted to suppress Christian sects who questioned the established Church.Also there was oppression of the peasants who were heavily taxed. The Empire also suppressed non-orthodox Christian teachings. Opposition to Islam after the conquest was weakened by the fact that under the Muslims, taxes were not very heavy like before and the non-orthodox Christian sects could now operate comfortably. (Diehl, C 1957) The spread of Islam in the better part of Middle East was made possible by Arab victories over Byzantine armies. The Byzantines were the major enemies to be encountered by the Aryans from the Arabian Desert.The encounter with the Byzantines was the first of many major battles between Muslims and Christians. It was Omar who acted as Caliph or head of the Moslem community in 634-44AD that initiated the fast expansion of the Arabs and Islam. Omar achieved the first great successes of Arab armies outside of the Arabian Peninsula when he conquered the Byzantine Empire ru led by the Emperor Heraclius. Omar's armies attacked Syria, seizing large areas. In 636AD at the Battle of Yarmuk the Byzantine Army were greatly humiliated by the Arabs when they defeated them.This saw the Arabs entering Jerusalem and Damascus in 638. It was during these period that it is believed Christianity replaced Christianity in this particular area as a result of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire. Arab rulers imposed a personal tax on all non-Muslims, which encouraged many to convert to the Muslim Faith. In the new Caliphate there was no forced conversions but happened later. At first the Arabs did not consider converting anyone because of the taxes they collected which provided great incomes.(Diehl, C 1957) Cultural and intellectual factor Islam as a religion does not recognize superstitions but is a simple and rational religion that emphasize on knowledge and learning. Through learning as the foremost priority to humankind the Islamic civilization spread through many co untries. The Muslim never destroyed things in middle east as the Christians in Spain what they did was to defend what was positive and eventually embrace it.Political and economic impactIslam was seen as a religion without any political and economic principles. However Islam preached a new concept of human relations avoiding nationalism and class divisions. Islam main concern and interest was humankind’s relations with God. Politically Islam perception was that the supreme power rests with God and equality before the law is a major principle of the political system. (Diehl, C. (1957) In Balkan nations, emergence of Islam was very important compared to the Byzantines Empire.Islam also emphasized on the economic aspect of life and this was clearly shown through justified ways of making profits, possession of property and not overspending and everybody must earn a living in an honest way. Islam came up with obligatory and voluntary laws that have played important roles in the ec onomic system of Islam. Before Islam spread to Balkan nation and Byzantine Empire people who lived there had some kind of social chaos but Muslims brought a new approach to the social lives of the Balkans.For example: Muslim women played a crucial part in the institution of family and were always considered equal in every aspect to her male counterpart. A woman is always the first to show kindness, love, and sincerity and educate. While for Christians, women are seen as devils instrument to harm or hurt people. (Diehl, C. (1957) When they conquered Byzantine Islam played a role in regulating the slavery and sanctioned better conditions for the slaves and even encouraged the prohibition of slavery.Islam also brought together the Middle East and came up with a common language known as Arabic and a common religion known as Islam. After all this positive impact of Islam in Byzantine Empire some of the rules set up are not applicable in the 21st century. At one time there were most power ful, rich and advanced people and today they have created four empires, which include Umayyad, Abbasid, Mogul and Ottoman Empire. Their decline can be traced to about 1700 when the west caught up with the Ottoman the great Muslim empire and started misinterpreting the Koran.(Amin, H. A. 1989).REFERENCESAmin, Hussein Ahmad (1989).The present state of the Muslim umma. Muslim World Amis, Robin (1995).A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought. Albany: Suny Press, Barker, John W. (1966).Justinian and the Later Roman Empire. The University of Wisconsin Press, Bury, J. B. (1989).â€Å"Roman Emperor from Basil II to Isaac Komnenos,† English Historical Review. 41-64 & 251-286. Diehl, Charles. (1957).Byzantium: Greatness and Decline. Rutgers University Press.

Cohabitation – Blessing or Destroy the Relationship

Cohabitation – Blessing or Destroy the relationship? One of the most dramatic trends of recent years has been the tremendous increase in male-female couples who choose to live together without marrying, a practice called cohabitation. According to the 2000 Census, there are eleven million unmarried people living with an unmarried partner in the United States today, and this number has grown 72% in the last decade alone. While many people like David Popenoe, a Professor of Sociology, on his essay Sociological Reasons Not to Live Together suggests that living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage or to avoid divorce. There is another point of view like an organization called The Alternatives to Marriage Project (AtMP)†¦show more content†¦David maintains, only the people who make a commitment and accept total responsibility are more likely to develop self-respect, personal pride, and integrity. And these commitments can carry over into a marriage only. AtMP thinks that even when studies find differences between married and unmarried people; these differences are usually quite small, based on averages from large groups. Similar differences appear when compare people of different races, religions, etc. They also argue that most of the studies have major flaws related to causality. They try to give an example to explain it. â€Å"Marriage is strongly tied to financial issues. It has been shown repeatedly that when finances improve, marriage rates rise. On average, unmarried people are much poorer than married people, because most unmarried people want to marry and may do so when finances improve. Most of the studies that purport to find married people happier and healthier do not control for economics. What they are really finding is that wealthier people are happier and healthier than poorer people.† Perhaps more people today value marriage. So they take it seriously. That s why they re more likely to cohabit. They only want to make sure before they take the ultimate step. Many people like David will find many studies or statistic to support that cohabitation does more harms than goods. Although there