Fishing For Dreams

An Introduction

A Brief History

A young boy fishing in a pool of dreams that is the image and/or logo we see when we watch the latest production from DreamWorks. DreamWorks LLC, a publicly traded American film company, was founded in late 1994. Founders are media frontrunners Jeffery Katzenberg, formally the top manager of Disney's animated unit and responsible for such hits as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, David Geffen, and by Steven Spielberg, renowned director and producer. (Wikipedia.com)

The different sectors of DreamWorks include:

* DreamWorks Pictures

* DreamWorks SKG

* DreamWorks Studios

With their hand in every aspect of entertainment from TV and music to movies and videogames "the studio has had it greatest financial success with movies, especially animated movies." (DreamWorksStudios.com) Its most successful title to date is Shrek 2. As a fairly young company, DreamWorks has gone through it share of sells and mergers with such companies as Viacom and Paramount Pictures. The company has release plans for titles through the year 2013.

Financial Information

The company is one of the leading studios in the recent innovation of computer-generated animation. It pushes competition, such as Pixar, to continue to strive for the limits of what today's technology can do for the entertainment industry. So it was surprising to learn, that under the eye of Katzenberg the company lost 125 million on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and recently it has been that the company has twice been close to bankruptcy. In 2006, revenues rose 2.8 billion and since then continue to rise for 2007. (Wikipedia.com) ( N.S.)

CEO of DreamWorks

Mr. Jeffrey Katzenberg is the CEO of DreamWorks, LLC. He has served as the Chief Executive Officer since October 2004. Mr. Katzenberg co-founded DreamWorks, LLC in 1994 and was a member of the DreamWorks Studios from October 2004 until their sale to Paramount Pictures. Before he became the CEO, he was chairman of the board of The Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994.

His responsibilities as chairman:

* Responsible for the world wide production.

* Marketing

* Distribution of all films (which were all motion pictures, television, cable, syndication, home entertainment, and interactive entertainment.

Mr. Katzenberg has much consideration in the way he leads the company. In other words, he is very people-oriented because he participates in various fundraisers and commends his employees to donate their time to company wide efforts. Mr. Katzenberg states, "We believe it is both our duty and privilege to continue this legacy of generosity. We believe in giving back. We believe we can make a difference." (DreamWorksanimation.com)

Organizational Events:

1. Fundraising on behalf of the AIDS Project of Los Angeles

2. Salvation Army Children's Angel Tree

3. Thanksgiving Tea

Mission, Strategy, and Goals

Every film maker has a certain goal they would like to obtain. In being able to maintain that goal, they must have a mission and make strategic plans.

*A goal is simply a desired future state that the organization attempts to realize.

DreamWorks goal was to produce a diversified media company for all of its viewers. At a conference in 2006, Katzenberg stated, "We make movies for children and the child that exist in every adult." (cornellsun.com pg. 1) Their mission consists of choosing a well developed story line that would appeal to their viewing audience whether young or old. DreamWorks continues to look for new and better talent and more creativity among the actors today.

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Like any other company, DreamWorks has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as its share of opportunities and threats.

Strength: Their strongest internal strength lies probably in the teams' creativity. In the past, their Academy Award winning films, such as Saving Private Ryan and American Beauty created an outstanding reputation and a high expectation from the viewers, as well as their competition (Wikipedia.com). These expectations were soon fulfilled by other award-winning films such as Catch Me If You Can and Things We Lost In The Fire. DreamWorks also has holds strength in their ever innovation. For example, their animated films Antz and the Shrek series lead to a new generation in animation technology (Wikipedia.com), as well as racking in profit (Times, 2008).

Weaknesses: Where there is strength, though, there is always room for improvement in their weaknesses. Many of their films' box-office failures were usually caused by weak marketing and advertisement. Films, such as The Ring Two, failed to make a splash in theaters around the world due to weak television advertisements, as well as a low desire for a sequel to its smash-hit predecessor, The Ring.

Opportunities: With weaknesses, though, come opportunities. Especially in the movie industry, gold-minds of opportunities come with the viewers tastes in films which, everyone knows, come and go with the ever-changing trends. Animated features could really make a splash at nation-wide box offices, but only if DreamWorks keeps up their technological innovation that they are known for. DreamWorks' strengths also lie in their ability to attract famous directors, such as Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. If they keep these directors coming, they will stay a big-name in Hollywood.

Threats: Especially in Hollywood, threats, such as competition, come at DreamWorks at every direction.

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