The Walt Disney Company’s mission and vision, along with its business purpose, form the basis for the company’s operations and strategic goals. The corporate mission statement determines what the business organization does, while the corporate vision statement sets the direction of growth and development toward a desired future business condition. This business analysis case involves Walt Disney’s mission statement that focuses on industry leadership, which is also specified in the company’s vision statement. Both the mission and vision address the current business needs and the trends in the entertainment industry. However, improving these statements can contribute to better strategic management at Disney. This improvement can make the mission statement and vision statement direct the company toward new opportunities for its entertainment, media, Disneyland parks and resorts, travel and tourism, and beyond.
With its corporate mission and vision statements, Disney pushes for high performance and leadership in its industries. In direct-to-consumer media streaming, for example, adopting the corporate vision and mission statements requires strategies that make business operations highly competitive against other streaming service companies. As Walt Disney develops new products, its competitive landscape becomes increasingly complex and creates new challenges to fulfilling the corporate mission and vision statements. Disney competes with Comcast (parent company of Universal Studios) and Sony in the entertainment market, and with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, and Apple TV Plus in the video streaming market. The strategic factors related to Disney’s business diversification necessitate that the corporate vision and mission statements align to support diversification.
Disney’s Mission Statement
Walt Disney’s mission is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.” This mission statement describes the main aspects of Disney’s business, as follows:
- Entertainment, information, inspiration
- Global market reach
- Unparalleled and premier status
- Storytelling, branding, creativity, and innovative technologies
The first aspect of the corporate mission statement defines the kinds of activities in Disney’s business operations. The company provides entertainment (e.g., Disney amusement/theme parks and resorts, Pixar movies), information (e.g., National Geographic documentaries), and inspiration (e.g., inspiring individuals and events through ESPN and other programs). This aspect influences Walt Disney’s marketing mix or 4Ps, particularly its product mix. The mission statement also specifies that the company targets the global market for entertainment and information products. In addition, the unparalleled and premier status stated in the corporate mission refers to world leadership, which affects the formulation of Walt Disney’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies. On the other hand, the fourth aspect pertains to the processes used to create and deliver value to customers, such as storytelling to deliver a rewarding entertainment experience. This aspect of the corporate mission statement helps define Walt Disney’s organizational structure (company structure) in terms of business functional grouping. These factors of the corporate mission statement are also reflected in the company’s vision statement’s specification on entertainment and information.
Disney’s Vision Statement
Walt Disney’s vision is “to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.” This vision statement shows industry leadership as a target for strategic management and provides an overview of the nature of the business. Disney’s corporate vision statement has the following main factors:
- World market
- Leadership as a producer and provider
- Entertainment and information
This corporate vision statement’s first factor is a specification of the entertainment company’s global market scope. On the other hand, similar to the corporate mission statement, the second factor of the vision statement shows that Walt Disney focuses on being a top player in the global market for amusement parks, entertainment, and mass media products. Attainment of this goal requires effective competitive advantages and management to address the level of competition determined in the Five Forces analysis of Walt Disney. The company needs to strategically develop competitive products that suit new trends in the media industry. In addition, the third factor of the corporate vision focuses on the types of business outputs, such as entertainment products, like movies and TV series. Therefore, Disney’s corporate vision statement is a reflection of the corporate mission statement.
Summary & Recommendations – Walt Disney’s Mission & Vision
Corporate Mission Statement. This company analysis case of Disney shows that the business is focused on achieving a leading position in its international industries. The corporate mission contains sufficient information to guide the media and entertainment company’s management and strategies in the aspects of product development, organizational structure, and marketing. The specificity of this corporate mission statement helps in boosting the business advantages and strengths shown in the SWOT analysis of Walt Disney, to address competition in the global market. With its alignment with the corporate vision statement, the corporate mission can be used as an effective tool to guide strategic decision-making processes among the managers of the media and entertainment business. Nonetheless, a relevant recommendation is to improve the mission statement by adding portions pertaining to such business aspects as Disney’s human resources and its connection to storytelling, branding, and innovative technologies.
Corporate Vision Statement. The Walt Disney Company’s vision statement complements the mission statement. The corporate vision is future-oriented and clear in terms of the media company’s strategic aspirations. For example, Disney aims for leadership in the global market for entertainment products. The characteristics of the vision satisfy some of the conventions in writing corporate vision statements and help focus Disney’s managerial endeavors. However, this vision statement does not specify the kind of “information” that the company provides. Thus, to improve this corporate vision statement, it is recommended that Walt Disney include a more specific description of the “information” that it aims to provide as one of the leading businesses in the global industry.
References
- About The Walt Disney Company.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger Addresses Future Plans on Q3 2023 Earnings Call.
- Jaworski, B., & Cheung, V. (2023). Getting Started on the Journey: Mission, Vision, and Purpose. In Creating the Organization of the Future (pp. 55-64). Emerald Publishing Limited.
- Kunze, P. C. (2023). Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance. Rutgers University Press.
- The Walt Disney Company – Form 10-K.