Mattel Case

Sales in Asia could help combat Mattel’s plateauing market in the United States. The company seemed like it was in a strong position.

The problem surrounding Mattel Inc. 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.” 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.

Mattel, Inc has the vision of being the world’s premier toy brand, for the present and the future. It currently sells products in over 150 nations. The company was founded in 1945 by Harold Matson and Elliot Handler. It has gone to be 30,000 employees strong working in 43 countries. Mattel, Inc includes a number of toy brands such as Barbie, Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Tyco, and others. In 2008, the company was recognized by FORTUNE magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For”.

In 2004, Mattel Inc. first filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court claiming that its former employee, Carter Bryant, violated copyright infringement and breach of contract. Mattel is widely known for their popular Barbie dolls and MGA Entertainment have their Bratz dolls, which were the popular modernized Barbie in the 2000’s. In 2008, a federal jury ruled in favor of Mattel because they believed Mr. Bryant developed the concept of the Bratz doll while working at Mattel, then leaving and pitching his idea to MGA (“Barbie”). Mattel was awarded $100 million, however, the verdict was appealed resulting in a retrial.

4. As I mentioned above Mattel needs to determine if they want to have their products produced by producers in China or producers in the United States. They need to investigate into this problem and see which producer has the lowest recall rate and which producers seem to produce the highest quality products. They should re-evaluate the design of their product to see if there are any flaws involved with the overall design that are causing products to be harmful to children. Mattel should also do some research about international countries’ economies, unemployment rates, and how high the demand for toys is before selling their products internationally.

The Walt Disney Company is an outstanding renowned entertainment and media corporation with business ventures in Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Consumer Products, and Disney Interactive. Walt Disney Company is a diversified corporation with products all around the world. (The Walt Disney Company, n.d.)

The financial ratio analysis of a company is a useful indicator to measure the success of a company. By comparing financial ratios between companies in the same industry (competitors) it is a useful way for investors and shareholders to determine the financial health and/or the sustainability of a company. Disney’s main competitors within the industry include Time Warner and 21st Century Fox. There are five key areas of comparison that provide excellent financial analysis of a company. They are short-term solvency, long-term solvency, asset management, profitability, and market value.

In the contents of this case there are several management and safety issues and areas for improvement. One issue is Mattel, Inc.’s

A business unit can be defined by a set of operating divisions that are organized by market, customer, product, or other means, which essentially act as self-sufficient businesses with separate profits. (Thompson et al 2015).

Both Nasdaq director independence standards and Corporate Governance Guidelines of Mattel have strict requirements or rules to evaluate and determine whether these directors on the board are independent members in Mattel. In terms of the Nasdaq director independence rules, independent or outside directors are not allowed to participate in any material and pecuniary management activities and transactions as managers or employees. In addition, executive officers and employees who work in a listed company are not able to qualify independent directors, and members who have intimate relationships with other directors or executive officers also cannot be outside directors. However, the Corporate Governance Guidelines determine that members who take part in the Audit Committee, the Compensation Committee, the Executive Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Governance and Social Responsibility Committee are independent with material transactions and executive managements. As a result, there are ten directors on the board in Mattel, and only Christopher A. Sinclair, the CEO of Mattel, is not independent with the exercise of independent judgement and has no evidence to satisfy requirements of Nasdaq’s and Mattel’s director independence standards. In the other words, there are nine outside directors (90%) and one inside director (10%).

This report is about the situational analysis of the Toy R US Company. This company is currently facing some drop in sales, possible reasons and potential solutions are provided in this report. All the detailed analysis are given here. Report has suggested that company lost its main perspective which it famous at the first point. This is main outcome of the report. There are many other reasons as well which are causing the decline of the company. There is a lot of room for improvement which can be tackled, implementation plan is also given in this report along with the possible and potential full recommendations. So lets’ start with the report.

In 2111, Prof. Sethi and colleagues disclosed that Mattel Inc. had played a part in, what many would consider, unacceptable business practices (p. 483). Although Mattel took actions to investigate the level to which practices were truly occurring, they had also promised to remediate all noted unacceptable practices. One of the unacceptable business practices that was uncovered was the mandating of certain employee groups required to live in company dormitories and were not permitted to utilize any other options for housing. Was this practice a form of discrimination? In order to decide if the business practice and any alternatives are fair and ethical for all, resulting in the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people, the scenario will be run through the EthicsOps.com’s Utility Test.

Known to be one of the largest producers of multi-media content, Walt Disney and Pixar greatly impacted the entertainment industry with the use of three-dimensional generated content. It quickly gained popularity with the release of its animated movies and especially got the attention of children from their sequels. With the growing popularity, the competition in the media industry began to increase. Disney was then faced with a difficult decision regarding its relationship with Pixar on whether they should acquire or not acquire the company.

Clearly  Mattel  did  not  have  sufficiently  tight  quality  control   procedures  in  its  supply  chain  to  compensate  for  the  extra   risks  of  outsourcing  to  relatively  new  Chinese   subcontractors.  Clearly  there  were  design  flaws  in  the  toys   with  the  magnets  that  could  come  loose.   But  Mattel  deserves  praise  for  now  stepping  up  to  its   responsibilities  as  the  leading  brand  in  the  toy  industry.   -­‐What  has  Mattel  done!  :

The Disney brothers began drawing cartoons long before moving to Hollywood. The Missouri natives spent the majority of their lives imagining characters to which to introduce to the world. Along with the