IMAX: Larger than life - Essay Example

IMAX: Larger Than Life IMAX is a company that is engaged in the business of manufacturing IMAX cameras, projection systems and it is also managing the IMAX theatres. It is not only a type of the film, camera or projection equipment but it is a combination of the camera, film, projection and the space where the film is projected. The company was founded in the year 1968 and was later acquired by Gelfond and Wechsler in 1994 for $80 million. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AT IMAX Organizational culture of an organization is highly important in order to assess the type of the organization. Organizational culture is the reflection of the way things are done within an organization. The structure of the organization, the policies and procedures of the organization, the work environment in an organization; all these factors collectively form the culture of the organization. At IMAX, the organization is engaged in production and exhibition of films which are larger in size than the traditional films. Since the organization was started with the help of National Film Board of Canada, it can be said that it had the attributes of the organizational culture of a government organization. Traditional films are 35mm while the IMAX films are 70mm in size. The films are projected at screen which are, on average, eight stories high and 120 feet wide. The screens are designed in such a manner that images stretch to the end of the peripheral vision of the viewer. In this way, a viewer finds himself completely indulged in the motion picture. IMAX is mostly equipped with 3D projectors that exhibit 3D movies. Such movies are either shot with 3D cameras developed by IMAX or are converted from 2D to 3D in post production (Nair 2009). It can be observed that the presence of IMAX theatres is mostly confined in museums, aquariums and other educational and recreational venues. From this fact it can be inferred that IMAX basically targeted the audience for educational movies. It can also be seen that IMAX initially exhibited documentaries and educational movies in 3D. Such movies were made on low budget and there were less or no costs allocated to marketing. The period of time during which such movies were exhibited in IMAX theatres stretched from a couple of months to years unlike the commercial Hollywood movies that had a time span of only a few weeks on screens. IMAX also started showing Hollywood movies in its theaters after the conversion of such films from 35mm to 70mm film size. Since the change in size made the image grainy, IMAX conducted enormous Research & Development costs in order to develop a technology that helped the organization covert films without compromising the quality of the images. Ultimately the organization was successful in developing such a technology and it started exhibiting commercial Hollywood movies in its 3D theatres. Some of the successful movies were The Polar Express, The Matrix Reloaded, Fantasia, Beauty and the Best etc (Oestricher 2003). In order to save the costs of conversion, some movies were originally shot for the IMAX theatres (Nair 2009). From the above discussion, it can be inferred that the organizational culture of IMAX has shifted from being educational and isolated to innovative and dynamic. The allocation of resources to Research & Development is the evidence that the organization is trying to be innovative and it is attempting to grow in order to compete with the traditional theatres. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AT IMAX The organizational structure is IMAX is simple as it does not include unnecessary levels. Some organizations have hierarchical structure which includes several levels in between the top management and the operational level. Such organizational structures are seen mostly at bureaucratic organizations which have remained in existence for a long period of time and have developed their own sets of rules and regulations. However at IMAX, the organizational structure consists of two main levels. The top most level includes the CEO and the directors of the organization. The second main level consists of the departments operating within the organization. The departments and personnel that constitute the second level in the organization are; Filmed Entertainment, Finance (CFO), Marketing, Operations (COO), Executive Vice President, Digital Development and Theatre Operations, Corporate Services and Secretary, CTO, Theatre Development, and Legal. All the departments and personnel in the second level of the organization report directly to the CEO of the organization. The strategic decisions of the organization are taken at the top most level. The CEO, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Directors are involved in the decision making process. Internal Organizational Activities as a Basis of Competitive Advantage on IMAX Competitive advantage is a strategic advantage that an organization might have as compared to the other organizations in the industry. A competitive advantage may be a technology developed internally in the organization, the goodwill of the organization, the specially trained human resource of the organization etc. The competitive advantage of IMAX is the very technology developed by IMAX. It is the only organization in the world that has developed 70mm film size cameras, complementary projectors and the exhibiting spaces. IMAX is a total brand with a monopoly all over the globe. IMAX does not have any competitors because there is no other organization that has put so many resources into Research & Development in order to develop a similar technology. IMAX has a very strong competitive advantage with the patents. IMAX is a registered brand itself and the technologies developed by the company are also registered patents. Therefore it can be said that IMAX has strong technological competitive advantage over the traditional theatres and 3D theatres in the movie industry. The traditional theatres pose competition to IMAX because Hollywood movies are made on enormous budgets with significant marketing costs. On the other hand, films produced by IMAX are not marketed and are made on a low budget (Nair 2009). Due to the strong competitive advantage held by IMAX, the new entrants in the film industry value chain are very low. There are not many organizations that intend to enter into the film industry value chain as there are very less chances of survival in the industry (Bryson 2004). The industry is already constituted by giant studios and companies, therefore new entrants do not seem to have enough resources to compete the already established organizations. In this manner, competitors to IMAX are also very few and due to the lack of entrants in the overall industry, there are no new competitors to IMAX as well. Strategic Resources on IMAX Strategic resources are the key resources of an organization that help it survive in the industry and to determine strategy in accordance with the presence of such resources (Armstrong 2009). These resources make an organization capable to conduct its operations. Strategic resources also include the competitive advantage of the organizations (Balogun 2008). Different strategic resources exist for different organizations and in case of IMAX, the strategic resources are technological. Similar to the competitive advantage, the strategic resources of the organization are the technologies developed by the organization through extensive Research & Development. One of the strategic resources of IMAX is the theatres. IMAX is the only company that has developed so many theatres all around the globe for exhibiting 70mm films. It is a very important strategic resource because the organization can plan to expand its operations based on the expansion of this resource. The organization can establish further theatres on different venues in order to expand its operations. The expansion of the organization depends mainly upon the expansion of the network of its theatres (Greasley 1999). Another strategic resource of the organization is its technology for conversion of the traditional 35mm films to 70mm films and the conversion of 2D movies to 3D movies. This is also an important strategic resource of the organization because the generation of the revenue of the organization depends mainly upon this technology. Recently, a number of commercial Hollywood movies are being exhibited in IMAX 3D theatres. Such movies are originally shot on traditional 35mm films and need conversion in post production in order to exhibit them in IMAX theatres. Some movies are partially shot in IMAX format such as The Dark Knight and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. However, the rest of the movie needs to be converted to IMAX format in order to make it compatible with IMAX equipment (Nair 2009). STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR IMAX Strategic options are the options available to an organization for determining a strategy or modifying a strategy already in place (Balogun et al 2007). Such options can be regarding the expansion of the operations of the organization, lowering the operational costs, increasing the revenue or strengthening the position of the organization in the market (Brown 2005). IMAX also has strategic options available to it and the most feasible strategic option is the expansion of the operations of the organizations (Dallas 2006). Initially IMAX exhibited documentaries and educational films only but now it has been showing mainstream Hollywood movies as well. In the recent past, there have been so many movies that have been exhibited on IMAX screens and the response from audience has also been positive. This is an opportunity for the organization to expand the network of its theatres all around the globe and to increase the number of screens. INNOVATION, ALLIANCES AND PARTNERSHIPS ON IMAX IMAX is being innovative in its technological aspect as it has developed technologies for conversion of movies to IMAX format. The organization is trying to bring more innovation to give the audience a commendable movie experience. From alliances and partnerships perspective, in the recent past IMAX has entered into partnerships with AMC and Regal Cinemas to screen IMAX films in multiplexes using its MPX technology. This technology allowed the owners of the theatres to convert traditional theatres to IMAX format. From this partnership it can be inferred that IMAX is now trying to move out of its confined venues that were museums and aquariums, and it is now entering the mainstream theatre industry by installing IMAX format theatres in multiplexes (Nair 2009). REFERENCES Armstrong, G., Harket, M., Kotler, P., Brennan, R. (2009). Marketing: An Introduction. Financial Times Prentice Hall. Balogun, J. and Hailey, V. (2008) Exploring strategic change, New York: FT Prentice Hall Balogun, J.; Jarzabkowski, P. and Seidl, D. (2007) ‘Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective’, Human Relation, vol. 60 no. 1 5-27. Brown, S. (2005). Strategic Operations Management, 2nd Edition. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann Bryson, J. M. (2004). Strategic Planning for Public and Non-Profit Organizations, 3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Dallas, M. (2006). Value and Risk Management. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Greasley, A. (1999). Operations Management in Business. Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thornes Lamb, R. (1984). Competitive strategic management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Nair, A. (2009). ‘IMAX: Larger than Life’. Richard Ivey School of Business. Oestricher, D. “IMAX hopes for big run with Matrix,” The Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2003, p. b5c. Read More