Organisational processes in the Walt Disney Company

According to De Wit and Meyer (2010) Organisational processes refer to the arrangements, procedures and routines used to control and coordinate the various people and units within the organisation”. This can be both formalized processes that span the entire organisation, or more informal organisational processes. The first category can be processes such as business planning and control procedures, final budgeting and reporting. Other control and coordination processes are more limited in scope, such as new product development meetings, yearly sales conferences, weekly quality circles, web based expert panels and quarterly meetings with the board of directors. Informal organisational processes are more about personal networking and influencing decision-making through factors such as informal negotiation.

The case of Walt Disney:

Control and coordination mechanisms:

Corporate governance guidelines:

One of the internally control mechanisms in the Walt Disney Company is the supervision done by the board of directors.

According to the Walt Disney Company web site, the responsibility of the board of directors is to supervise and direct the management of the company in the interest and the benefit of the company’s stakeholders. The board act directly through committees and have the following duties:

Overseeing the conduct of the company’s business to evaluate whether the business being properly managed

Reviewing/approving the company’s major financial objectives, plans and actions

Reviewing/approving major changes in, and determination of other major issues respecting the appropriate auditing and accounting principles and practices to be used in the preparation of the financial statements

Assessing the major risk factors

Regularly evaluate the performance and approving the compensation to the CEO. And with the advice of the CEO, evaluate the performance of principal senior executives

Planning for succession with respect to the position of CEO and monitor management succession planning for other executives

Delegate the authority and responsibility for managing the business in relation to guidelines (Disney Web page).

The corporate administration of the company:

Another control and coordination mechanism is The Walt Disney Company corporate team, who support services to the business units and affiliates of the Walt Disney Company. The individual responsibilities in this group can be strategic, tactical, diverse and specialized. It can span the whole organisation or focus more on the corporate division. This team work collectively to analyze potential opportunities, assess results and recommend future direction.

The corporate planning and control group of the administration is divided into five units:

– Corporate controllership: This unit is responsible for overseeing the financial statements of the company and also other finance reporting and control functions. Tasks included for this group is developing presentations to senior management and the Audit committee of the board of directors concerning the financial performance of the company, as well as update of significant accounting standards. In addition to this, they work closely with investor relations and corporate communications departments with respect to financial communication.

– Management audit: The Partners with financial, operational and IT executives to understand their internal control environment, risk and risk mitigation activities. They develop and execute a plan to address key risks and also promote an overall risk and control awareness in the company.

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– Enterprise Finance Processes: Is responsible for optimizing the company’s finance and accounting operations. This is done through process improvement, finance system sustainability controls and data governance. As a result, they partner with controllership, planning and financial system support teams to maintain the ongoing efficiency of the financial systems and reliability of data. They also support the finance processes, reporting and system improvements for the company.

– Operations Planning: The focus and responsibility is on company-wide operating, long-range and capital planning, quarterly and annual earnings and cash flow forecasting. Furthermore all major capital projects and monitoring and assessment of all segment/business unit operating performance. Moreover they are evaluating the financial impact on key business decisions and alternatives, and projects aimed at improving the financial performance of the company. They also make proposals to the board of directors concerning these matters.

– Accounting Shared Services: Their mission is to provide exceptional service, low cost processing and value added information/consulting for enterprise vide accounting and HR functions. The group work with all the business units to consolidate and optimize transaction oriented processes.

– Corporate synergy and special projects: This unit under corporate administration of the company develops plans and strategies to foster collaboration across all business units. This department work with identifying, communicating and supporting the annual company-wide marketing and synergy initiatives and partners with the different divisions in order to drive those priorities into their business.

– Corporate Strategy business Planning and Technology: Work with business units to optimize their strategies at the segment level.

One can also say that the end result of an organisational process is an organisation. In other words a whole consisting of unified parts acting in harmony to execute tasks to achieve the goals both effectively and efficiently (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/The-Organizational-Process.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8875.html).

It can be said to be the process of the “product life cycle”. In The Walt Disney Company and its Media and Broadcasting segment, the company has established a culture were innovation is encouraged. As stated, “Since our brand is innovative, entertaining and inviting, we create a similar learning environment that encourages employees to learn and develop in engaging and developing ways” (http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/learning.html). As a result of this, the company offer a variety of training programs and learning opportunities. In addition to this the company recognize and reward their employees both individually and in teams (http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/rewards_and_recognition.html). This can also be said to be part of the organisational processes of the company.