The Walt Disney Company is a leading family entertainment and media enterprise. For more than nine decades the name Walt Disney has been distinguished in the field of family entertainment. From their humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to the global corporation they are today, The Walt Disney Company continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family across America and around the world. It consists of five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. The subsidiaries within these segments of the Disney Corporation include ESPN, ABC, Marvel, Touchstone, Pixar, numerous theme parks and resorts, and a variety of consumer product lines.
The company believes that acting in an ethical manner and with respect for human rights is core to being a good corporate citizen. They strive to conduct business with honesty, integrity, and in compliance with the law everywhere they operate. Through reporting and stakeholder engagement, they strive to increase transparency and accountability. And internally, educating and informing employees about the importance of citizenship, they are able to leverage the intelligence, integrity, and passion of our workforce towards achieving their greater citizenship goals.
The following are goals for ethical conduct: disclose relevant citizenship information in a timely manner; integrate citizenship into the day-to-day decision making of leadership; engage with stakeholders on a regular basis; integrate citizenship into the responsibilities of every Disney employee; respect human rights within operations.
However, the company faces three possible ethical challenges in the future. The challenges they face are Disney’s purchase of Marvel, establishing a “zero-pollution” Shanghai Disneyland Park, and make Shanghai Disney more acceptable. On December 31, 2009, the Company completed an acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. 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. This acquisition may give a bad influence on children who have no judgment and will confuse Disney’s consumers. Also, shanghai Disneyland asserted that they will use leading environmental cleaning standards to ensure “zero-pollution”. But 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. Lastly, due to the huge culture difference between Chinese and America; making Shanghai more acceptable to American culture will be challenging. The failure of Disneyland in Paris can be an example of what can possibly happen.
The Key Communicator 