The external assessment of the company can be done in the following manner with help of Porter’s Five Force Analysis:

Threats of New Entrants: Walt Disney Company does not face severe risk from new entrants due to the existence of high industry obstacles. Walt Disney confronts competition mainly from the media and entertainment companies, and it does not have much consequences. The company supplies many services dealing with family amusement and theme parks. The extreme high cost of investment in advertising and promotion costs make it impossible for other companies to think about entering in competition with this company.

Bargaining Power of Buyers: Customers play a significant part in the industry in which Disney is operating. Customer’s needs and preferences affect the quality and prices of the product. The company can make use of effective advertising decreasing the effect of bargaining power of customer.

Threat of Substitute Products: The threat of substitute is really low for the industry in which Walt Disney operates, as there are a small number of organizations in the industry that are producing similar products. The extensive efforts that Walt Disney Company put in distinguishing their products and services from others has aided it securing a great share of market. The customers of the company are very faithful and do not want to change to other companies.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The unique nature of the company’s products has assisted in stressing good relations with its suppliers making the bargaining power of suppliers in the industry very low.

Competitor’s Rivalry: In the entertainment and media industry the competitor rivalry is very high. The company faces high competition due to the alterations in the strategies of media companies for getting the greater piece of the pie.

Companies use intensive strategy as a strategy to develop their market and product for expansion. It is recognized as a growth strategy that involves various strategies like market penetration, market development and product development strategy. The company makes extensive use of these growth intensive strategies in concern to its expansion in different markets. The company uses various intensive strategies like market penetration and product development depending on the need of customers and their own needs. In some countries it attained immense success, whereas in some, it confronted severe problems due to inappropriate management of its intensive strategy. The intensive strategy can be used efficiently with the proper application or it can lead to mismanagement and failure.

Company’s S.W.O.T Analysis

There are four things a business should consider that are crucial to keep up with the competition and to give an accurate point of view on where they stand. The four things are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats referred to as SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis provides information that is useful in matching the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates (QuickMBA, 1999-2010). When doing a SWOT analysis it is imperative to know that the Strengths and Weaknesses are internal reflections, while the Opportunities and Threats are external reflections.

The Walt-Disney’s strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for explicating a competitive advantage. Some company’s strengths are that Walt-Disney is one of the main Media and Entertainment Company in the world. It owns eleven theme parks and a few channels; the company has one of the highest employment rates, employing 150,000 people; the company has global standardization; Walt-Disney is among the most popular brand names all over the world; and the company has well established divisions.

Some of the weaknesses that Walt-Disney faces are high operating costs; frequent changes in top management; poor working conditions in factories that develop merchandise for the company; poor management; high risk involved with high investment; and the target audience of the company is limited to children mainly.

Some of the opportunities that Walt Disney has are that it has the opportunity to move into different segments; the company can get major advantages by accepting techniques; the company is able to get market development in unexploited countries; the company can increase profit by reducing operating cost and the company can develop more attraction for theme parks.

Threat that the Walt-Disney Company confront are threat due to terrorism; high competition in the media industry; severe competition from other theme parks; different social and ethnic groups present important threat to the company’s different locations; threat due to different government policies; and high demanding market in terms of innovation.

After discussing the aspects of Walt-Disney it can be concluded that for the next years of operation the company needs a new strategy with appropriate management. This strategy will help the company to be able to deal easily with frequent criticisms. The functioning of the company and its inappropriate management it is always criticized, this can be simply and successfully resolved with the help of innovative strategy and appropriate management.  

This strategy can help the company become able in dealing with the need of constant innovative ideas that are necessary in retaining the attention of customers and challenging market in terms of innovation. Present weaknesses and threats of the company can possibly be resolved with the help of this corporate strategy, this in turn will aid the company in securing an effective representation in the minds of its customers in coming years.