Walt Disney World: Strategy, SWOT, and Growth Analysis
This paper examines Walt Disney World from a strategic business perspective, tracing the resort's origins from the 1955 Disneyland opening through the multi-decade expansion of the Florida property. The paper conducts a SWOT analysis identifying Disney's brand strength, character portfolio, and global expansion as key assets, while flagging aging infrastructure, summer weather, and economic sensitivity as vulnerabilities. It then explores Disney's core differentiation strategy, its tight employee control systems, and how these elements align to protect competitive advantage. The paper concludes with three strategic recommendations: leveraging classic characters in new media, expanding into untapped geographic markets, and developing revenue streams that reduce dependence on travel-dependent theme park visits.
- History and Expansion of Walt Disney World: Origins, land acquisition, and resort growth over decades
- SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats: Brand strengths, aging facilities, global opportunities, economic threats
- Corporate and Competitive Strategy: Differentiation strategy and cross-media character leveraging
- Control Systems and Organizational Structure: Employee control, training, and financial oversight systems
- Strategic Recommendations for Future Growth: Media, geography, and revenue diversification recommendations
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates historical context with strategic analysis, grounding abstract business concepts in concrete timelines and examples.
- Applies a clear SWOT framework before moving into strategy, giving the analysis logical scaffolding that is easy to follow.
- Connects control systems directly to strategy execution, demonstrating an understanding of organizational alignment rather than treating them as separate topics.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of strategic alignment analysis — showing how Disney's differentiation strategy, control mechanisms, and employee training are mutually reinforcing systems rather than isolated elements. This moves the argument beyond description into genuine analytical territory, appropriate for an undergraduate business course.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with historical background, transitions into a SWOT analysis, then examines corporate strategy and operational control systems, and closes with forward-looking recommendations. Each section builds on the last, creating a logical progression from context to diagnosis to prescription. The recommendations section is notably actionable, addressing both media strategy and geographic diversification before tackling the longer-term challenge of reducing travel dependency.
History and Expansion of Walt Disney World
The first Walt Disney theme park was Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which opened in 1955. The company had been subject to financial constraints that limited the size of the park, but with the concept proving popular, Walt Disney began to search for a site where the company could build a much larger theme park. By the mid-1960s, the concept for what would become Walt Disney World was tested at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. The concept was a success, and the company began secretly acquiring land in central Florida. Construction began shortly after Walt Disney died, and the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971.
The original Walt Disney World configuration consisted primarily of the theme park, but the vision was grander. Over the years, additional properties and businesses were added to the complex. Walt Disney World added Epcot Center (now simply Epcot) in 1982 — an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Later additions included Disney-MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios) in 1989, Animal Kingdom in 1998, multiple hotels, water parks, the Boardwalk, the Wide World of Sports Complex, and several golf courses (Bennett, 2011).
SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
The company has a number of strengths: its brand name, its history in the industry, the multitude of popular characters supported by Disney's entertainment properties, and its internal expertise in hiring and training. Disney World has few weaknesses, but the age of the property is becoming one, with the flagship Magic Kingdom reaching 40 years of age. The age of recreational properties becomes an issue when potential customers have already seen most of the attractions — gaining repeat customers is a growing challenge. The weather in central Florida can also be unreasonable in the summer, a problem the Anaheim property does not face.
There remain many opportunities for Disney World. The parks can be reinvigorated with new rides, attractions, and characters, as Disney has continued to build an impressive roster of entertainment properties. The Disney World franchise can also be expanded globally — parks in Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong are already open, and ground has been broken on a new Shanghai park to extend the Disney theme internationally (CNN, 2011). Brand extension is another opportunity; Disney has already launched a cruise ship line.
There are also significant threats to Disney World. The state of the economy is a threat, as reduced consumer spending often means discretionary expenditures such as vacations are among the first cuts (Sherman, 2011). Increasing competition is a further threat — families can often enjoy theme parks closer to home, reducing the appeal of traveling to central Florida.
Corporate and Competitive Strategy
Disney has always pursued differentiation as the core of its corporate strategy. The company believes that its characters have superior appeal to children in particular, and this constitutes a source of sustainable competitive advantage that allows it to earn premium returns on its products and services. The company-level strategy begins with creating and leveraging popular characters and other intellectual properties. Disney has long used characters to sell its theme parks, but also worked in reverse — taking the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and transforming it into a movie, book, and video game franchise. Leveraging properties across multiple media forms is the core of Disney's strategy today.
References
Bennett, B. (2011). A brief history of the Disney parks. Mouse Planet. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from
CNN. (2011). Shanghai Disney Resort breaks ground in China. CNN. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from
Free, M. (2007). Walt Disney World: A model for precise manufacturing. Production Machining. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from http://www.productionmachining.com/articles/walt-disney-world-a-model-for-precision-manufacturing
Sherman, A. (2011). Disney falls most since 2008 on consumer spending concerns. Bloomberg. Retrieved November 6, 2011 from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-10/disney-stock-falls-most-since-2001-on-consumer-spending-concerns.html
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