Euro Disney

1] What factors contributed to EuroDisney’s poor performance during its first year of operation?

I have been to Euro Disney, I was there in 1995 with my family so this a very interesting topic for me. The biggest factors that contributed to the poor performance during the first year of EuroDisney’s operations were: a poor understanding of the marketplace, the issues and the cultural differences between two nations and two differing approaches to business life. The major factor was America leadership and there superior attitude which was counterbalanced by French national insecurities. They assumed that people would come from all over Europe as part of the business plan but failing to comprehend how diverse those consumers would be was another major part of the problem. When we went there was a language barrier of course but we found most people spoke a little bit of English and when the kids got there autograph books signed by the Disney characters the names were signed in French handwriting so it was interesting to figure out Mickey and Pluto signatures. You have to think at that time Europe was recently united as the European Union and they have been strongly distinct and independent cultures for centuries. Disney failed to understand the French national character and their insecurities over cultural invasion. Remember this is a country that has been occupied twice in the last century and the French have a deep commitment to maintaining their identity and liberty.

[2] To what degree do you consider that these factors were (i) foreseeable and (ii) controllable by either EuroDisney or the parent company, Disney?

Disney should have done a case study in history so they could have gotten an understanding of the characters of Europe and the European market place would have enabled the Disney managers to anticipate many of the problems. Some problems were controllable and others were inevitable.

Those were inevitable, however needed an approach that would...