Company Background and History Walt Disney Company is identified as the world’s largest media conglomerate and it was started on October 16 th 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney. Back then, it was known as the Disney brothers cartoon studio, but later, after establishing itself as one of the major players in the American animation industry, moved on to television, live-action film and travel industries. In 1986 it took on its current name The Walt Disney Company, and went ahead to focus on radio, theater, online media and publishing. It also took up flagship projects aimed at marketing more adult content other than its original family based content (Sehlinger, Ridge & Testa, 2011). Company Executives The company has enjoyed some stable leadership for many decades, though in recent years there were issues of poor management that led to financial woes. Among the presidents that they have had are:   * Walt Disney: 1923–1966   * Roy O. Disney:1966–1971   * Donn Tatum: 1968–1972   * Card Walker: 1971–1977   * Ron W. Miller: 1980–1984   * Frank Wells: 1984–1994   * Michael Ovitz: 1995–1997   * Robert Iger: 2000 – to date. The Chief Executive Officers at Walt Disney Company over the years are:   * Roy O. Disney: 1929–1971   * Donn Tatum: 1971–1976   * Card Walker: 1976–1983   * Ron W. Miller: 1983–1984   * Michael Eisner: 1984–2005   * Robert Iger: 2005 – to date. The board was chaired by Walt and Roy Disney who shared the role from 1945 to 1960, but Walt stepped down in 1960 to concentrate on the innovative and creative aspects of the company (Cullen & Parboteeah, 2003). Company Organizational Structure It has been identified to have a rigid and conservative structure that leaves very little room for diversification as far as culture is concerned. Their adoption of bureaucracies in their culture has been the subject of great criticism over the last few years especially with the reduced productivity of the studio business that has been depending on few successful projects per year (Gupta, 2010). International Branches and International Structure The company has operations in over 40 countries globally that are managed under one global culture with specific customizations to the specific organizational and market needs in the particular country (Cullen & Parboteeah, 2007). Most of their subsidiaries do not enjoy much autonomy as they have adopted a closed culture where bureaucracies are key and flow from the mother company to the particular departmental managers in the different countries they operate in. This has been the subject of great criticism over the last few years especially with the reduced productivity of the studio business in countries outside America (Miller, 2010). Multinational Methodology and Practices The Walt Disney Company has for some time identified high value customers as their main market, where they can charge high prices as they seek to exploit their differentiated experience and high brand value. They are investing in the capturing of customer’s attention through their huge portfolio of products so as to gain a competitive edge over the other players in the same industry. With the huge size of the company, the management can concentrate on a global strategy which will in turn develop and improve their cost efficiency (Shapiro, 2009). The