Mega Brands
Magnetic Toys Can Hurt
The major problem with Mega Brands is with the safety of the children that play with the toys. Magnets fall off of the toy and children swallow the magnets which can cause stomach flu like symptoms and has even caused one child to die. Another problem is Mega Brands refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. According to CPSC.com, “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children.” The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission has a job to do as well as Mega Brands. From one business to another, Mega Brands should have responded to the recalls that could have prevented a lot of children from being sick. According to our text on page 263 “data was submitted covering 1,500 complaint reports made to Mega Brands”. Mega Brands “lacked an organized comprehensive reporting system.” (Brooks, Leonard J. Page 263.) If the organization was better this complaints could have been a red flag to get the toys off of the market.
The concerns that I would express to the CEO about the Magnetix to issues would be that there has been a reported death from our toys. This alone should make the CEO not feel at ease. If the child were his own, he would take every measure necessary to make sure this toy was off the market. This is how we should think when we sell these toys. We should put ourselves as the customer first, before looking at it from a business stand point. Would we buy this toy? What would we do if our child swallowed the magnet or magnets? Another concern that I would express would be that the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission does not just call for recalls for no reason. There has to be a reason and that reasoning is that the magnets fall off the toy and children swallow the magnet. If we take the toy off the market early, before more incidents are reported and come out with a new and improved toy our sales and profits will only plunder for a little bit. If we keep the defective toy on the market, we are not only risking major lawsuits but a plunge in our sales that some consumers may never purchase our products again. The last concern I have is our warehouse needs help. If we have a better structure in keeping the data organized, we can respond to the complaints.
The mechanisms causing the problem is the defective toy and Mega Brands not taking the toy off the shelves. According to the case, Mega Brands refused the recall from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission twice. Then did their own “voluntary” recall. But there were still defective toys found on the shelves months later. Again Mega Brands only cares about their profits, not the safety of the children playing with the toys.
If the CEO did not listen to my concerns, I would report him to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. Tell them the truth about knowing about the recalls but refusing them. I may lose my job but I will have a piece of mind knowing my children will not be hurt while playing with these toys. I would then go to Rose Art Industries. They should also be held responsible for manufacturing harmful toys. I also would protest the toys and start a protest myself. I’m sure all of the children who were affected would join along with their parents. I feel that going to the media will raise the awareness of how harmful these toys are and how careless Mega Brands and Rose Art Industries really are. Not only will their reputation be affected but so will their sales. And that is the main thing companies worry about.
I think Mega Brands did a good thing by changing the age from 3 to 6, but there is still risk that a 6 year old will swallow the magnet or if they have a younger sibling that could also swallow the magnet. The next action is trying to see if we could either use a less powerful magnet or not magnet at all. We must test this product as if we were the children playing with it. Also we should observe very closely, a child playing with the toy. Children and adults have very different ways of thinking. What looks like a toy to an adult may look like a chew toy to a child. We should have the media come in and show the World all the testing that we have to done to make sure this toy is safe. Then allow the toy in stores.
I think the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission should have more power than it actually does. They know a product is unsafe and they do what they can to reach out to the company to recall the product but they do not have much else they can do. They need to be able to have the power to close the business down. If the company, in this case Mega Brands refuses to take their advice, there needs to consequences. They should be allowed to close the company down until the problem is fixed. Then the company needs to be under close watch. After some time of being under close watch, they should have unannounced visits from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. This way they will have to cooperate with all the regulations.
References
Brooks, Leonard J. 2010 “Business and Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives, and Accountant”
Recalls.gov
www.recalls.gov
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission www.cpsc.gov Q1. If I was the executive of Mega Brands, I will more concern with the customer feedback. The good customer feedback can bring the company to the success although it is hard to achieve good feedback from the customer. The good customer feedback can also bring the company to the top of the business and also let the company increase in growing to the successful.
Furthermore, i also will concern with the customer safety. We as the company who sold the product of the customers, we must make sure that the product in safe and harmless to customers. The customer who believes with our product just will buy the product that we sold. If we sold the product that have the problem or it will harm to the customer, the customer will not confidence with our product and it will let our business failure. The customer is the most important person for the company. The customer can make the company to success or failure. The customer is the main resource of the company. The company without customer, the company wouldn’t be success in the market.
Q3. The CPSC have no more powers to deal with such hazards and companies. Although the customer safety to use the product has been protecting by the CPSC, the company is the one who produce and sold the product to the customer. The company ethic is the main problem. If the company has the bad ethic, they will just care with their income and selling of their product. They also will won’t take any attention and action for the customer safety who using their product. They also will try to hiding up or ignore the problem that happen from the customer. The company with poor in ethic maybe will try to save their cost in production just want to earn more and try to produce the product that is low in quality to the customer and it may harm to customers. The CPSC can stop the company to produce or selling the product in order to protect the customer but the company is the person who hold all the production and selling of the product. The company can produce different type of product and sold it to others country without the approval of the CPSC. There have many product produce by the company and the CPSC wont able to check all product in time.
Q2. The major problem with Mega Brands is with the safety of the children that play with the toys. Magnets fall off of the toy and children swallow the magnets which can cause stomach flu like symptoms and has even caused one child to die. Another problem is Mega Brands refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. According to CPSC.com, “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children.” The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission has a job to do as well as Mega Brands. From one business to another, Mega Brands should have responded to the recalls that could have prevented a lot of children from being sick. According to our text on page 263 “data was submitted covering 1,500 complaint reports made to Mega Brands”. Mega Brands “lacked an organized comprehensive reporting system.” (Brooks, Leonard J. Page 263.) If the organization was better this complaints could have been a red flag to get the toys off of the market.
The concerns that I would express to the CEO about the Magnetix to issues would be that there has been a reported death from our toys. This alone should make the CEO not feel at ease. If the child were his own, he would take every measure necessary to make sure this toy was off the market.