Re:My Position On The Disney Layoffs
by talmand on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:27PM
(#9733037)
I would somewhat disagree with the thought that technology is not Disney's core competency. Technology is a really, really big deal for Disney and has been for a long time. It is a major part of their day-to-day across the entire company and they are quite competent at it. They didn't hand these tasks over to someone else because they were somehow better at it or Disney's people were incompetent. I simply cannot believe that.
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Technology is not their core competency, marketing is. All of their technology would be far less valuable without Mickey, Elsa and Cinderella plastered all over it. Their C-suite may have decided that their technology department was too expensive and the needs of the business could be adequately served by an outside firm.
Quality likely didn't factor in to the decision; so long as it was good enough to not be a roadblock for their marketing teams.
But what are they marketing? It isn't just their characters and movies. Disney is huge and the majority of it heavily relies on technology of many types, including their marketing. I would say they don't have a single core competency, it is a multi-faceted company.
Re:My Position On The Disney Layoffs
by prostoalex on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:51PM
(#9733318)
This is the entity that controls Disney entertainment parks. I can see how in-house software engineering is important for some of their entities like Pixar, for Disneyland/Disneyworld it's hardly core competence.