Description
Assignment 2: External and Internal Environments
Due Week 4 and worth 350 points
Choose an industry you have not yet written about in this course, and one publicly traded corporation within that industry. Research the company on its own Website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University's online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.
Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:
- Choose the two (2) segments of the general environment that would rank highest in their influence on the corporation you chose. Assess how these segments affect the corporation you chose and the industry in which it operates.
- Considering the five (5) forces of competition, choose the two (2) that you estimate are the most significant for the corporation you chose. Evaluate how well the company has addressed these two (2) forces in the recent past.
- With the same two (2) forces in mind, predict what the company might do to improve its ability to address these forces in the near future.
- Assess the external threats affecting this corporation and the opportunities available to the corporation. Give your opinions on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threat and the greatest opportunity. Justify your answer.
- Give your opinion on the corporation's greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses. Choose the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to take maximum advantage of its strengths, and the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to fix its most significant weakness. Justify your choices.
- Determine the company’s resources, capabilities, and core competencies.
- Analyze the company’s value chain to determine where they can create value using the resources, capabilities, and core competencies discussed above.
- Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
- Identify how the six segments of the general environment affect an industry and its firms.
- Identify the five forces of competition.
- Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.
- Analyze the internal environment of a company for strengths and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.
- Use technology and information resources to research issues in business administration.
- Write clearly and concisely about business administration using proper writing mechanics.

Explanation & Answer

Attached.
Running head: EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS
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External and Internal Environments
Institution Affiliation
Date
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS
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Introduction
Publicly traded corporations are companies that sell their stock on a public stock
exchange to the general public through the initial public offering. This enables anyone to openly
purchase or sell ownership shares of that company. Walt Disney is one of those public traded
companies in the media and entertainment industry. It is ranked by Forbes for taking the 24th
position as America’s top public company and position 7 as the worlds most valuable brand as of
2017 (The Walt Disney Company, 2016). It is a diversified media enterprise and an international
family entertainment business.
Walt Disney’s Segments
Walt Disney operates in four major business segments which include Media Networks,
Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products and Interactive Media and Park and Resorts. The
Media networks include cable and broadcast television networks, and productions and
distribution operations, and radio networks. The Studio Entertainment includes music recordings
and live-staged plays. It also produces action and animated productions, and direct-to-video
content and films under Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel, Touchstone Banners, Pixar, and
Lucasfilm. The Park and Resorts include Walt Disney's resort and spas in Florida, Hawaii, and
California among others. The Consumer Products & Interactive Media licenses Walt Disney’s
characters, trade names, and literary and visual properties. It offers the licenses to retailers,
publishers, game developers, and manufacturers all over the world.
However, the two major segments that would rank highest in their influence on the
company are Media Network and Parks & Resorts (thewaltdisneycompany.com, 2016). Statistics
even show that in 2006, the company generated $14,638 million from the Media Networks which
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS
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increased to $23,689 million in 2016. On the other hand, the company generated $9,925 million
in 2008 from the parks and resorts which increased to $16,794 million in 2016 (The Walt Disney
Company, 2016). The two segments showed tremendous performance compared to the other
segments. This shows that they had great influence on the company’s external and internal
environments. However, the total revenue generated from all the segments accumulated to $55
billion in 2016.
Walt Disney's Media Network competes for viewers with other television and cable
networks. Also, and independent televisions as well as other media such as video games, and
Blue-ray formats just to mention a few are among the competitors. This has affected the
company due to the increased competitive pressure even in the industry mainly in advertising,
and sports programming. Due to the global presence of the Media Network, it has helped the
company widen its audience and popularity since it owns broadcasting channels in 163 countries.
In addition, the channels are broadcasted in 34 languages. This has strengthened the company's
leadership position in the media and entertainment industry (The Walt Disney Company, 2016).
Looking at the setbacks, the company experiences some challenges that are a result of increased
operational cost and expenses due to production and programming. This has created financial
pressure in this segment as well as increased legal and regulatory pressure in the industry.
On the other hand, the parks and resorts segment also has a great impact on the company.
It competes ...
