A. The main facts about the activities of the company.
Since its founding in 1923, The Walt Disney Company and its affiliated companies have remained faithful to their commitment to produce unparalleled entertainment experiences based on the rich legacy of quality creative content and exceptional storytelling.
The Disneyland idea came to Walt Disney one day that he thought there should be a place for parents and children to have fun together. The first Disneyland opened to the public on July 18, 1955 in US.
As an integrated entertainment giant, The Walt Disney Company owns the world’s first branded entertainment and Disney Television (Disney), a television and
entertainment (the largest U.S. distributor of the film), theme parks and resorts (the world’s largest theme park group), the media network (with one of the three major U.S. broadcasters ABC, sports brand ESPN), consumer goods (the world’s largest children’s consumer brands, the world’s largest group of children’s books) and so on.
The most famous Disney cartoon characters: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan and etc.
Disney is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of children and families, by supporting charitable organizations that align with the Company’s philanthropic focus areas: Compassion, Conservation and Creativity.
B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.
Disney believes being a good corporate citizen is the right thing to do: for their consumers and guests, their employees and their businesses.
Their goal is to achieve exceptional performance by embedding citizenship into all of their daily decisions and actions, guided by three core principles:
• Act and create in an ethical manner and consider the consequences of their decisions on people and the planet.
For example, Disney’s environmental footprint is to minimize their environmental footprint and to achieve zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions. As well as Disney has a long-term vision of achieving zero waste.
• Champion the well-being and happiness of kids and families in their endeavors.
For example, Disney is committed to the total well-being — physical, emotional and financial — of their employees. They provide a range of wellness resources to meet the diverse needs of their employees. With approximately 156,000 employees, Disney’s profitability is substantially affected by costs of pension benefits and current and postretirement medical benefits.
• Inspire kids and families to make a lasting, positive change in the world
For example, Disney is focused on ensuring that future generations have experiences and opportunities that help them develop lifelong conservation values through nature exploration. Disney is also harness the power of creativity and imagination to improve the lives of kids and the communities they live in.
C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?
We are the generation that deeply affected by Disney’s cartoon characters and movies. For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. Disneyland seems like a fairy-tale world not only for children but also for adults. The core culture of Disney is dream and faith.
• The company has put in place a comprehensive, integrated approach to corporate responsibility, building on their established infrastructure for addressing crucial issues related to the environment, community, workplaces and product development. Disney was started on Walt Disney’s dream and is still working on his dream. Disney has committed to incorporate best-in-class business and Ethics standards and to be a good corporate citizen of the planet.
Since 2009, Disney has invested in carbon-offset projects around the world. During 2011, Disney completed investments in reforestation projects in the Angeles National Forest, Cuyamaca State Park, and in Sichuan province in China.
• Children and families are at the heart of The Walt Disney Company. Their support for the well-being of children and families is deeply rooted in Disney’s history. They are focused on offering high-quality entertainment and create safe environment for children.
In 2011, DWCF granted over $2.7M to 75 nonprofit organizations working in 42 countries. Disney VoluntEARS gave over 560,000 hours of service to nonprofit organizations around the world.
• Disney received a lot of awards not just on business but wins universal praise of consumers.
Boston College’s Carroll School of Management list Disney as the top
company among 50 recognized as leaders in corporate social
responsibility.
The Walt Disney Company received one of the highest possible honors:
the Jane Goodall Institute Global Leadership Award in 2011 Which honors a corporation or business that has taken significant steps to better our world through responsible business practices.
The Walt Disney Company has been selected as a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes recognize the top companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria and provide solid benchmarks for sustainability-driven portfolios.
D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.
1.Disney’s purchaseofMarvelisstillinquestion.
On December 31, 2009, the Company completed an acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (Marvel). The Comic characters of Marvel are more adult and masculine with violence. But the cartoon characters of Disney are kind and gentle. After the acquisition, the Disney television network began play Marvel’s cartoon. We think this acquisition must give a bad influence on children who has no judgment and will confuse Disney’s consumers. Can you image that Fantastic Four stand together with Mickey?
We think that Disney must insist the policy and attitude towards young children. Maintain clear, age-appropriate and respectful guidelines for marketing to kids and make some limitation on the contact with Marvel’s cartoon.
2.Establisha“zero-pollution”shanghaiDisneylandpark.
Although shanghai Disneyland asserted that they will use leading environmental cleaning standards to ensure “zero-pollution”. Do you think is this practical? Of course not. One of the greatest lessons we can ever learn is that 90% fish of Changsha Bay was dead because the pollution of hongkong Disneyland park.
So how to protect this huge land resources? One hand is Disney do their best to minimize their environmental footprint. Achieve zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions, educe indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption, send zero waste to landfills, and minimize water use. The other hand is a supervisory role of government. Only after that can we ensure the least pollution.
3.MakeShanghaiDisneymoreacceptable.
Whether Chinese even Shanghaies would like the American recreation? We can see the failure of Disneyland in Paris that its defense against American culture invasion. There is also huge culture difference between Chinese and American.
So how can shanghai Disney more acceptable? Make Chinese Disney more Chinese. For instance, make service and price more Chinese.
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