...discussion taken from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business “Unsafe for Children: Mattel’s Toy Recalls and Supply Chain Management” | Rob Breakiron Wenyao Ma Alek Shnayder Jiajie Wang | Contents Introduction 2 Why do companies outsource? 2 What were the primary causes of Mattel’s recall problems? Where these the result of outsourcing? 4 What actions were taken by the principals in the case to address the recall problems? Were these the right actions? Why, or why not? 5 What should Mattel do now? What should governments do? 7 How can accountability be better managed in long, global supply chains? 12 Introduction Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT), the world’s largest toy company with over $12.5 billion in revenue, has grown from the little toy company it once was and has certainly come a long way since it was founded in 1945. The exponential world-wide growth has not always come without a hitch. In the late 2000’s Mattel was at a crossroads due to a significant toy recall problem, reaching far beyond the bottom line. During this case write up we discuss what went wrong, whose fault it was, and what can and should be done to not only fix the problem, but eliminate the chance of similar problems for Mattel and other firms in the future. Our case study will tackle the following five questions through in depth discussion: 1) Why do companies outsource? 2) What were the primary causes of Mattel’s recall problems? Where these the result of outsourcing? 3) What...
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...The Problem: The problem surrounding Mattel Inc., one of the world’s largest toy companies, is their mismanagement of international subcontractors and vendors and the production of certain toys (the manufacturing process), as well as their inability to adapt their marketing strategy or product to the constantly changing “demographic and socioeconomic trends” (Ferrell, et. all 466). This is supported by Mattel’s legal battle with Carter Bryant and MGA, their forced recall of certain toys that were manufactured overseas, and the increasing rate at which traditional toys are becoming less appealing to today’s young audience. Essentially, Mattel’s mismanagement and oversight lead to violations in terms of ethical and social responsibilities and safety standards. Issues Relevant to the Problem: Mattel’s problem of mismanagement can be divided into several issues that need to be considered: legal issues, international supply chain issues, and an increase in technology-based toys. In regards to legal issues, Mattel has been involved in prolonged litigation with Carter Bryant and MGA over a breach of an employment contract and copyright infringement. Due to Mattel’s poor management of its overseas manufacturers, in which unauthorized subcontractors and third-party suppliers were hired and unsafe materials used, several toy products were recalled. Advances in technology and changes in socioeconomic and demographic trends have created marketing, privacy, and product development issues...
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...Jessica Jane A. Gonzales BSBA MMIV-B ASSIGNMENT in TQM CASE STUDY: Unsafe for Children: Mattel’s Toy Recalls and Supply Chain Management Discussion Questions: 1. Why do firms contract overseas for production of products they sell? There are several reasons for the companies to outsource some of their non-core business functions. Outsourced company will become a strategic partner who will be coordinating with the company. It has many advantages and helps the company to concentrate on their main business rather than distracting their efficiencies in different directions. Sometimes companies outsource because the company have expertise in that business area. Another reason behind the outsourcing can be the lack of resources in a company, which lead it to outsource to be performed better by an outsourced company. Outsourcing can help to reduce the excess capital expenses and a company will not need to invest in its non-core business through partnering with other company. 2. What were the primary causes of Mattel’s recall problems? There were many issues which became the primary cause of Mattel recalling its goods. There were initially two problems in the Mattel’s toys which were lead excess paint and defective design. According to the recalling volume of Mattel’s goods, most were recalled due to defective design in which small magnets were attached that could become loose. While on the other side, recalling of goods due to excess lead was comparatively low with...
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...Overcoming Marketing and Manufacturing Challenges 11/01/2010 Marketing Management 6800 Section 004 The Problem: The problem surrounding Mattel Inc., one of the world’s largest toy companies, is their mismanagement of international subcontractors and vendors and the production of certain toys (the manufacturing process), as well as their inability to adapt their marketing strategy or product to the constantly changing “demographic and socioeconomic trends” (Ferrell, et. all 466). This is supported by Mattel’s legal battle with Carter Bryant and MGA, their forced recall of certain toys that were manufactured overseas, and the increasing rate at which traditional toys are becoming less appealing to today’s young audience. Essentially, Mattel’s mismanagement and oversight lead to violations in terms of ethical and social responsibilities and safety standards. Issues Relevant to the Problem: Mattel’s problem of mismanagement can be divided into several issues that need to be considered: legal issues, international supply chain issues, and an increase in technology-based toys. In regards to legal issues, Mattel has been involved in prolonged litigation with Carter Bryant and MGA over a breach of an employment contract and copyright infringement. Due to Mattel’s poor management of its overseas manufacturers, in which unauthorized subcontractors and third-party suppliers were hired and unsafe materials used, several toy products were recalled. Advances in technology and changes in socioeconomic...
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...Environment Case Study Analysis Kaplan University School of Business MT460 Management Policy and Strategy Introduction In 1944, Elliot and Ruth Handler decided to capitalize on the big baby boom that World War II had caused. They went after the toy market and founded the Mattel Brand. They started out simple with a few essential toys such as Barbie and Hot Wheels. The reception was great and their brand of product took off in the toy market. Throughout the years, the Mattel Company saw profits along with facing many hardships. Management changes brought uncertainty and even more hard times to the company as the world’s focus shifted to the quality and safety of products (Teagarden, 2008). Oversight and poor follow-up with Mattel’s overseas Chinese plants and company designs brought this once respectful top of the market toy manufacture to be looked upon in a negative manner amongst their consumers. Mattel’s Recall of Toys from China and Store Shelves July 13, 2007, Jim Walter, Senior Vice President of Mattel’s worldwide quality assurance, brought disturbing news to Bob Echert the CEO of Mattel at the time. After a customary inspection of the Sarge die-cast toy car in Europe, they had found above federal standard levels of lead in the paint of the car (Teagarden, 2008). Bob Echert new trouble was ahead for the company, but had no idea the enormous effect it would have. The Sarge toy car was just the start of the problems that Mattel would face that...
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...Mattel Recalls 2007 Communication Implications for Quality Control, Outsourcing, and Consumer Relations [ABSTRACT] In August 2007, America's largest toy manufacturer announced the first of what would become five recalls involving 21 million toys—most of which were manufactured in China. This case study and teaching note examine a corporate response to a global crisis and consider the unique communications challenges facing a corporation that operates in an international, crosscultural arena. The teaching note critiques the response’s suitability to the level and impact of the crisis and recommends alternatives. It illustrates that communicators should be cognizant of their international stakeholders and should proactively manage global issues of public concern such as outsourcing and product safety. An example would be that to avert future recalls, Mattel should work closely with its Chinese suppliers and government agencies to implement realistic quality control solutions for which it can be held accountable. The company must reassure stakeholders that outsourcing to China does not mean sacrificing quality. Regaining consumer confidence and controlling the dissemination of product safety information requires strong corporate communicators who can delicately and deliberately balance complex relationships. Table of Contents I. Case Study 1. Overview 2. Company History 2.1 Beginnings 2.2 Reorganization as Mattel, Inc. 2.3 Products 2.4 Accolades for Ethics 2.5 Financial Performance...
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...Challenges INTRODUCTION Mattel, Inc. is a global leader in designing and manufacturing toys and family products. Well-known for brands such as Barbie, Fisher-Price, Disney, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Tyco, Cabbage Patch Kids, and board games, the company boasts nearly $5.9 billion in annual revenue. Headquartered in El Segundo, California, with offices across the world, Mattel markets its products in over 150 nations. It all started in a California garage workshop when Ruth and Elliot Handler and Matt Matson founded Mattel in 1945. The company started out making picture frames, but the founders soon recognized the profitability of the toy industry and switched their emphasis to toys. Mattel became a publicly owned company in 1960, with sales exceeding $100 million by 1965. Over the next forty years, Mattel went on to become the world’s largest toy company in terms of revenue. In spite of its overall success, Mattel has had its share of losses over its history. During the mid to late 1990s, Mattel lost millions to declining sales and bad business acquisitions. In January 1997, Jill Barad took over as Mattel’s CEO. Barad’s management-style was characterized as strict and her tenure at the helm proved challenging for many employees. While Barad had been successful in building the Barbie brand to $2 billion by the end of the 20th century, growth slowed in the early 21st. Declining sales at outlets such as Toys ‘R’ Us marked the start of some difficulties for the retailer, responsibilities for...
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...Executive Summary Mattel, Inc is the world’s largest toy manufacturer product line includes such household names as Fisher-Price, Matchbox and of course Barbie dolls. The company was founded in 1945 and has grown remarkably since with global revenue approaching $6 billion per annum and counting on 31,000 employees to fulfill the toy needs of millions of children. Mattel began their initial Corporate Social Responsibility program when the idea was still in its infancy for many companies back in 1997; they released their first GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) in 2003 and have done so annually since. In the summer of 2007 the company went through a social responsibility media nightmare after the revelations that various toys in their product line exceeded the safety levels for lead which resulted in the recall of over 18,000,000 products. At the time it was a huge story that naturally impacted the company in a negative way but if there is a silver lining it would be that the company has subsequently fully revamped their testing and auditing processes for all manufacturing. The company’s more robust position in 2011 demonstrates that huge business mistakes can be overcome if lessons are learned, which appears to be the case for Mattel. Introduction Mattel, Inc. was founded in 1945 by Ruth and Elliot Handler and Matt Matson. The company had its headquarter in El Segundo, California and was well-known in the world as the leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of family...
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...CASE: GS-63 DATE: 09/15/08 UNSAFE FOR CHILDREN: MATTEL’S TOY RECALLS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT We apologize to everyone affected by this recall, especially those who bought the toys in question. We realize that parents trust us with what is most precious to them—their children. And we also recognize that trust is earned. —Robert Eckert, CEO of Mattel, Inc.1 On August 2, 2007, Mattel announced a voluntary worldwide recall of 83 products in its Fisher- Price toy lines, including characters such as Dora the Explorer, and the Big Bird and Elmo characters from Sesame Street. The recall, which applied to approximately 1.5 million toys sold worldwide after May 1, 2007, was due to the use of excessive lead paint.2 Over the next month, Mattel announced six more recalls that covered toys with lead paint, as well as small magnets that could become loose and be ingested by children. In October, Mattel made yet another recall for lead paint contamination.3 All of the toys recalled had been manufactured in China. Two weeks after the August 2nd recall, the owner of the Chinese factory that had used the lead paint committed suicide. This series of recalls attracted widespread publicity, as well as political and consumer concerns that sometimes bordered on hysteria. Newspapers and television networks jumped on the story, interviewing concerned shoppers and showing toys being removed from shelves and parents bringing toys to stores for lead testing. Mattel‟s brand image took a serious...
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...material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. For Isabella and Calista Stone When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. —Jeff Bezos, commencement speech at Princeton University, May 30, 2010 Prologue In the early 1970s, an industrious advertising executive named Julie Ray became fascinated with an unconventional public-school program for gifted children in Houston, Texas. Her son was among the first students enrolled in what would later be called the Vanguard program, which stoked creativity and independence in its students and nurtured expansive, outside-the-box thinking. Ray grew so enamored with the curriculum and the community of enthusiastic teachers and parents that she set out to research similar schools around the state with an eye toward writing a book about Texas’s fledgling gifted-education movement. A few years later, after her son had moved on to junior high, Ray returned to tour the program, nestled in a wing of River Oaks Elementary School, west of downtown Houston. The school’s principal chose a student to accompany her on the visit, an articulate, sandy-haired sixth-grader...
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...Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen Acquisitions Editor: Melissa Sabella Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Editorial Project Manager: Kierra Bloom Editorial Assistant: Elisabeth Scarpa Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Senior Marketing Manager: Anne Fahlgren Marketing Assistant: Melinda Jensen Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Project Manager: Becca Richter Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Creative Director: Jon Christiana Senior Art Director: Blair Brown Text and Cover Designer: Blair Brown Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Bindery: Courier/Kendalville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: Palatino Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. Screen shots and icons reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Corporation. This book is not sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation. Copyright © 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street,...
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...Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen Acquisitions Editor: Melissa Sabella Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Editorial Project Manager: Kierra Bloom Editorial Assistant: Elisabeth Scarpa Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Senior Marketing Manager: Anne Fahlgren Marketing Assistant: Melinda Jensen Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Project Manager: Becca Richter Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Creative Director: Jon Christiana Senior Art Director: Blair Brown Text and Cover Designer: Blair Brown Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Bindery: Courier/Kendalville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: Palatino Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. Screen shots and icons reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Corporation. This book is not sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation. Copyright © 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street,...
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...Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen Acquisitions Editor: Melissa Sabella Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Editorial Project Manager: Kierra Bloom Editorial Assistant: Elisabeth Scarpa Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Senior Marketing Manager: Anne Fahlgren Marketing Assistant: Melinda Jensen Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Project Manager: Becca Richter Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Creative Director: Jon Christiana Senior Art Director: Blair Brown Text and Cover Designer: Blair Brown Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Bindery: Courier/Kendalville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: Palatino Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. Screen shots and icons reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Corporation. This book is not sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation. Copyright © 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2003 Pearson Education, Inc.,...
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...Marketing Management, Millenium Edition Philip Kotler Custom Edition for University of Phoenix Excerpts taken from: A Framework for Marketing Management, by Philip Kotler Copyright © 2001by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 Marketing Management Millenium Edition, Tenth Edition, by Philip Kotler Copyright © 2000 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher. Compilation Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Custom Publishing. This copyright covers material written expressly for this volume by the editor/s as well as the compilation itself. It does not cover the individual selections herein that first appeared elsewhere. Permission to reprint these has been obtained by Pearson Custom Publishing for this edition only. Further reproduction by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, must be arranged with the individual copyright holders noted. This special edition published in cooperation with Pearson Custom Publishing Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Please visit our web site at www.pearsoncustom.com ISBN 0–536–63099-2 BA 993095 PEARSON CUSTOM PUBLISHING 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA 02116 A Pearson Education Company SECTION ONE Understanding Marketing Management Marketing in...
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...SIXTH EDITION STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN ACTION Mary Coulter Missouri State University Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montréal Toronto Delhi Mexico City São Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editor in Chief: Stephanie Wall Senior Acquisitions Editor: April Cole Editorial Project Manager: Claudia Fernandes Director of Marketing: Maggie Moylan Senior Marketing Manager: Nikki Ayana Jones Marketing Assistant: Gianna Sandri Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Production Project Manager: Kelly Warsak Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Operations Specialist: Cathleen Petersen Creative Director: Blair Brown Senior Art Director: Kenny Beck Text Designer: LCI Design Cover Designer: LCI Design Cover Art: Svetoslav Iliev/Shutterstock.com Permission Specialist: Brooks Hill-Whilton Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Senior Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management and Composition: Integra Printer/Binder: RRD/Willard Cover Printer: Lehigh-Phoenix Color Text Font: 10/12, Times LT Std Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Copyright © 2013, 2010, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. All rights...
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