Fantasy Film: A Digital Animation Studio Creates Captivating Essay.

Structure

Fantasy Film is a digital animation studio that specialises in animated feature films, digitally animated advertising, digital animation software, and digital special effects for live action films.

Although the organisation has production facilities in Brisbane, San Francisco, and Los Angeles it remains centrally controlled by a senior executive team from company headquarters located in Sydney. The managerial structure is ‘top down’ meaning that all decisions such as project appraisal and selection are made by the senior executive team and then filter down to the lower levels in the organisational hierarchy.

Fantasy Film operates the following four strategic business units:

1. Fantaspace

This business produces digital animation feature films generating $4.8 billion in revenue. The Fantaspace production “Slippery Bob” won the Academy Award last year for best animated feature film. 

2. Advantage

This business creates digitally animated advertising for television and the Internet and generates $1.9 billion in revenue for Fantasy Films. Important clients include Amazon, Tesla Motors, and Apple. 

3. Anisoft

This business builds digital animation software generating $200 million in revenue. DreamWorks has just signed on as a client subscriber. 

4. DigiFX

This business produces special effects for live action feature films and generates $150 million in revenue. The business has just been contracted to perform the digital special effects work on the upcoming film ‘Aquaman’.

Anisoft recently completed a new product development project called ‘Script Doctor’. The software program helps storywriters and film directors to identify potential problems in early drafts of movie scripts such as weak characters and underdeveloped scenes. The product cost $3 million and six months to develop.

When the managers of Anisoft presented their completed product ‘Script Doctor’ to the managers of Fantaspace for their feedback they discovered that Fantaspace had already been using a very similar (but slightly superior) script analysis program they had developed themselves over five years ago. In fact, Fantaspace believe their Academy Award for “Slippery Bob” would not have been possible without their own in-house script analysis program.

The situation has raised some serious concerns for the senior executives of Fantasy Film. Why did the managers of Fantaspace fail to realise their script analysis program could be packaged and marketed to Anisoft clients? And why did the managers of Anisoft waste $3 million and six months developing a product that already existed within the organisation?

Fantasy Film Business Portfolio

Fantasy Film is a digital animation studio which has created various animated films, advertising, animation software and animated effects to be used in films. It is an Australia based company with headquarters in Sydney and operating in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Brisbane.

Fantasy Films comprises of four business units:

– Fantaspace: It specialises in the digital animation in feature films. With a revenue of $4.8 billion, they won the Academy Award for the film ‘Slippery Bob’ in the best animated picture category.

– Advantage: It specialises in the creation of animated advertisements and has an yearly revenue of $1.9 billion.

– Anisoft: It has the specialization in working in the development of animation software and has a revenue of $200 million annually.

– DigiFX: It specializes in the creation of special effects for feature films and generates about $150 million in revenues, annually.

– The report will highlight the business strategies by analysing their different aspects in BCG, GE-McKinsey, Synergy Matrix. This analysis will help in the development of recommendation for the Business Portfolio and Dynamic Capability Development.

• Analysis

• Fantaspace is a highly competitive company which has the largest revenue collection among the four business units.

• The Animation Film market is the rising market prospect with high possibilities in the future.

• It has the maximum market shares as it generates almost $4.8 billion from the total market of $7 billion, which is roughly 67.14% of the market revenue.

• It is Star in the BCG Matrix

• It is the market leader leaving behind all other competitors.

• It reflects a higher growth in the GE-McKinsey Matrix

• It can be categorized as Fits in Synergy Matrix.

• It is developing in the growth phase in the business cycle.

• Recommendations

• The company should invest more in expansion

• The company should procure more funds for the research and development of new technology

• It should monitor its growth and development over time periods

• Analysis

• Advantage has a medium competitive strength, a low incoming benefit and a very high outgoing benefit in the previous analysis

• The growth rate is low and the attractiveness is medium in the advertisement of digital animation.

• The company generates a revenue of $1.9 billion of the $2.5 billion market which demonstrates a high revenue from the market with low growth.

• The company in the BCG Matrix represents the cash cow.

• In the GE McKinsey Matrix the company represents Medium selective

• In the Synergy Matrix it is reflected as the Givers.

• The market is a saturated one with low growth, hence if not developed it can turn into a Dog

• Recommendation

• The priority of the company should be heavy investment and maintain the status of a market leader

• The company should prioritize investments for the R&D which can make innovations and keep the company ahead in the market dominance.

• The management should develop teams to look into the innovation part of the development

• The company should work in collaboration with other companies.

• It is essential for the managements to prioritize customer needs and develop accordingly.

• The company should a strong management structure.

• Analysis

• Anisoft reflects a high income market, where competition is low and the outgoing benefit is low

• The Digital software has a promising and attractive market.

• It is reflected in the BCG matrix as a question mark.

• It is reflected in the GE McKinsey Matrix as High Selective.

• In the Synergy Matrix it is reflected as Takers.

• It has a good market share with a revenue collection of $200 million.

• The market growth is high but comparatively the market share is low

• The company has the potential to grow in the future

• Recommendations

• The company requires investment in the growing industry to be reflected as a  star.

• The company requires to prioritize investment

• The collaboration with Dreamworks can show a brighter future.

• The company needs professional supervision to become a star in the future

• The key aspects include development of new strategies and advanced technologies to strengthen itself in the business scenario.

• The company can procure money by selling its assets and increase the investment.

• Attracting new customers is also the key to its success in the future.

• Analysis

• DigiFX has a lower income benefit from a lower competition market.

• The market of special effects is no more promising with low growth in the sector.

• In the BCG matrix, it is a dog

• In the GE McKinsey Matrix, it is a low harvest

• In the Synergy Matrix, it is placed in the Misfits

• The company has a market share of 11.53%

• In the market with low growth, it a has also a lower market share

• It has a saturated market.

• Recommendations

• More investments also cannot increase the market

• The company can slowly close down the business as it can eventually incur losses upon the company

• The market is saturated and it is difficult to compete.

• The company should shift its focus on the other businesses

• The company should dissolve a merge with the other businesses.

• It is high time to sell the business.

• Developing some newer projects can be of some benefit to the company.

 Conclusion

Fantasy Film is expertise in digital animated film commercial advertisement and special effect. The company is an old entity in the market and has huge experience in the digital animation sector. Investments and expansion can help the business to grow and develop in the future.

• Fantaspace holds the reputation of being the star and is responsible for the lion’s share of the company’s revenue..

• The Advantage has a great market share in a low growth market and is the cash cow of the company.

• Anisoft is Question mark, and in the market with a high growth has a lower market share.

• Digi FX has no future in the market and is a burden to the company.

• The company requires to invest and develop itself for growth and development. It has to develop new products and services for drawing new customers and generating more review.

• Analysis:

• Strengths: The core competency of Fantasy Film is animation infilm and advertisement. The digital market is an ever growing one with potential for future developments and has the competitive advantage over its competitors.

• Weakness: This company shows lack of business dynamics and The current management structure is an outdated one which does not have ambition for future endeavors. The saturated market needs to change and management plays a key role in the development of the new attitude in the company.

Opportunity :

The dynamic capacity of the company should include its ability to adapt to the current market trends and develop itself accordingly. Procurement of new knowledge and new products for attracting newer customers should be the primary objective of the company.

• It can collaborate with Apple.

• It can collaborate with Tesla Motors.

• It can collaborate with Dreamworks and work on the development of new films like the Slippery Bob which can deliver it good revenues in the future.
• It can collaborate with Amazon to provide its customers an unique buying experience.

Threat :

• The highly competitive market poses a potential threat for the company. The saturated market structure and the inability of the company to address the needs of the new customers is a positive threat for the development of the company.

• The company needs to restructure its managerial system, in order to properly utilize the resources.
• The company needs to invest more on the animation film market as it has a promising future.
• The company can diversify using its animation specialization and catch new market prospects.
• The company should monitor its activities at every level to understand its own shortcomings and rectify them.
• The company should collaborate with other companies and create new products and expand into new markets (Lee, Olson and Trimi 2012).

• The company should identify more talented managers who can analyse the true requirements and design the policies accordingly.
• The company should have more interest in research and development as the technology is changing everyday and the company needs to remain prepared for the changes.

• Considering animation to be the primary strength of the company, it should develop different products based on animation and diversify its market.
• The company should identify the factors that is lagging its business operations and work to eliminate them in the future.

• The company can create alliances to strategically tackle the innovations and can allow the employees to gather unique products to pacify the clients’ requirements.

• The company should be ready to adapt to the changes and build the business strategies accordingly.
• The company should be able to identify the problems by monitoring the circumstances.
• It should understand the markets and accordingly reconfigure and change itself accordingly
• It should create unique products in order to enhance the competitive advantage and bring profits to both the organization and the customers (Kapferer 2012).

• The company can use its potential to develop new products with unique technological advances.
• The modern world has a potential for the growth of the market for the digital software. The company should utilize this specialization and use them accordingly.

• The complete transformation of a business requires a very strong foundation. It is the responsibility of the management team to develop a strong foundation in the business (Cummings 2014).
• The management should be open to taking decisions and should have the authority to develop according to the needs of the company.

• The company should be able to adapt quickly and develop contemporary strategies to involve the new strategies and develop the company.
• The company should focus on continuous improvement

• The organization should deploy resources for desired result.

 Conclusion

• The company has a huge potential to develop itself for the future challenges.

• It has a large market share and it should develop itself to grab more in the future.

• The SWOT analysis shows that the company’s strength, that is animation, can provide it with immense opportunities to diversify and gain more market shares.
• The company has to diversify because in the modern age it is not possible to survive on a particular product

 References:

Kajanus, M., Leskinen, P., Kurttila, M. and Kangas, J., 2012. Making use of MCDS methods in SWOT analysis—Lessons learnt in strategic natural resources management. Forest Policy and Economics, 20, pp.1-9.

Lee, S.M., Olson, D.L. and Trimi, S., 2012. Co-innovation: convergenomics, collaboration, and co-creation for organizational values. Management Decision, 50(5), pp.817-831.

Cummings, T., 2014. Organization Development and Change: Foundations and Applications. Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning, pp.25-42.

Kapferer, J.N., 2012. The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers.