One of the oldest companies of multinational mass media entertainment and information, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) stands at the net value of 74.9 billion US dollars making it the world’s second largest media company after Comcast. Set up in 1928, by Walt Disney, this company has come far off in terms of developments and expansions operating through four different business sections divided into many further divisions to ensure efficiency in functioning and success in long term goals.
The company’s four primary “business segments” are;
- The Walt Disney Studio entertainment,
- Disney parks and Resorts,
- Media networks and
- Consumer Products and Interactive Media,
All of these departments are lead and managed by an efficient team of members and employees responsible for the success of this corporate giant. Following a distinct pattern of functional division through decentralization of power, they can be classified in the following manner;
-
Apex level
At the apex of the managing team is the CEO of the company who holds the office of chairman as well. He is the centre of all authority, overseeing the overall functioning of all primary divisions together with the help of a board of directors consisting 12 members who directly report to him.
-
Secondary level
At the secondary level, there are total of 13 departments each headed by presidents or chairpersons who are directly accountable to the CEO for the output from their respective departments. Some of them are Finance, Operations, human resources, television group, strategy and business development, communications, etc. These also include the chairpersons of their primary business segments.
One of the major functions of this level is planning, strategizing and overseeing the functioning of all departments coming under it. Acting as the link between the lower and top levels, this level acts an effective mediatory for the company.
-
Managerial level
Each member from the secondary level holds a separate huge department with a wide range of people working specifically according to the needs of that department. This is prime base level which has on ground work and deals with the day to day base working of the company. It functions through 5 sub-units out of which the departments under the first sub unit are located geographically and do the basic functional jobs at the ground level. The other four departments work as support services to the first sub unit.
This is the strongest level of hierarchy that has had a major part in strengthening the company’s position in diversification, responsiveness, recognition of brand and creative processing.
Although considered by some to be an unorganized manner of running such a huge company, Disney has been able to function as smoothly as any other corporate giant with amazing results. Not only has the company diversified and expanded to be the most recognized in the world but has also been able to double its growth in terms of production and profit in the past few years thereby proving is mettle and efficiency at all hierarchical levels.