Euro Disneyland Failure

Russel MacKay 1029726

Euro Disneyland – Blog Update

1. “In managing its Euro Disneyland operations, what are three mistakes that the company made? Explain.” (Euro Disneyland).

The Euro Disneyland operation was poised for success but I feel there were a lot of management, marketing and administration decisions that led to failure. The biggest disadvantage was that the Walt Disney Company did not fully commit to integrating their theme park with the French culture. For example, Fred Luthans explained that Euro Disneyland was still predominately American themed. He proves his point by stating that Euro Disneyland placed a strict alcohol ban in the park despite French culture believes that wine with a meal is a God-given right [International Management, 8th edition. Page 250]. Also, I feel that the Walt Disney Company was overly confident in their theme park “formula” due to the tremendous success in Tokyo, Anaheim and Florida. Bourguignon said that park changes and improvements came from staff suggestions, which implies to me that Euro Disney was not receptive to the needs and desires of it’s demographic region and visitors. There also was a lot of skepticism in the European market that the Walt Disney Company completely disregarded. They were referred to as a cultural disgrace – as well as being accused of ruining valuable prime French farmland. Cultural imperialists said comments such as, “I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to Disneyland” and claimed Disneyland “is stifling individualism and transforming children into consumers” [International Management, 8th edition. Page 249]. As an additional fourth reason, I also think it’s worth commenting that Robert Fitzpatrick was not given a long enough attempt with the Walt Disney Company. Fitzpatrick was hired because of his general knowledge of Europe, but was terminated only a year later. Although Fitzpatrick may have been a bad choice, I think that a dismissal after 1-year showed a lot of...