Innovative Toys Inc. Case Analysis Essay

Specialty Toys, Inc., sells a variety of new and innovative children’s toys. Management learned that the preholiday season is the best time to introduce a new toy, because many families use this time to look for new ideas for December holiday gifts. When Specialty discovers a new toy with good market potential, it chooses an October market entry date.

The purpose of this memo is to document and evaluate the business risks faced by Toy Central Corporation (TCC), as well as audit risks, accounting issues identified, and management assertions affected.

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.

Toys R Us is the world's largest children's specialty retailer. The company operates toy stores throughout the world and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In this paper I will give a brief company history, cite where the competitive environment is coming from, strategies that were attempted, and where they stand today.

The LEGO Group, as the third largest toy manufacturer worldwide, has long been popular and well respected for its building system which employed interlocking bricks using a stud-and-tube coupling system. In order to keep up with the continuing huge demand of strong volume growth of such products, considerably high precision manufacturing process with decreased lead time and cost deem necessary for driving the company success. Concept Center engineers had come up with significant innovations on improving both the speed and precision of their manufacturing processes such as plastic injection molding process which has boosted productivity and output greatly. Hence, it is of upmost important to protect such inventions, as core competences, sufficiently so as to allow the company to utilize them to the full. Several protection mechanisms, e.g. patent, trade secrets, publication, etc., have been discussed and considered by top management of the LEGO Group.

Organizational Hierarchy Structure- Toys R Us was a decentralized organization, which had a leadership type setting from country to country. This type of structure was difficult because all the leaders from different countries were not communicating effectively. The company knew they had to make some changes to the system, if they wanted to be successful. Therefore, after careful consideration, the company decided to move to a more centralized structure. This change was needed to strengthen their business with regards to their compatibility amongst countries and creating a more efficient workplace in the United States and abroad. In the company’s business in Europe, instead of their being different leaders across the continent, there will

In analyzing ratios, we recognized an improvement in both return on equity and return on asset ratios if we adopt the level monthly production.

1. From early 1990s to 2004, the Lego Group, a long successful toymaker with a world-renowned brand, fell into the edge of bankruptcy. Compared with the highest revenue in 1999, the revenue in 2014 decreased by 35.6% while the net profit was negative, seven times less than that in 1999, the lowest in the past ten years. Its net profit margin and ROE were also the lowest. The gross margin and inventory turnover were all lower than its competitors. The strategic moves in the two main periods “growth period that wasn’t” (1993-1998) and the “fix that wasn’t” (1999-2004) lead to its poor performance.

1. The decision facing Mattel is whether to continue to produce their products internationally where cost are low, or produce them in the United States where costs are significantly higher but quality is better. Mattel might want to even reconsider going global if there sales are decreasing more internationally than in the United States. Mattel needs to determine how many of the products produced internationally were recalled versus the amount of products produced in the United States that were recalled. Mattel also needs to decide how they are going to advertise their products in a way that will convince consumers in the external environment to buy their products, without having any

The political lens sees an organization as “an arena for competition and conflict among individuals, groups, and other organizations whose interest and goals differ and even clash dramatically” (Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van Maanen, & Westney, 2005: M-2, 33). It assumes that “In the political perspective, the roots of conflict lie in different and competing interests, and disagreements require political action, including negotiation, coalition building, and the exercise of power and influence, all of which recognize that rationality is local” (Ancona et al., 2005: M2, 33). I will analyze and explain the concepts within the political landscape to explain the new front end / back end structure at Dyna Corporation,

Through studying the entire retail toy industry, we have been able to understand the complexity of the industry in which Toys "R" Us operates. Upon completion of the analysis, we realized that the industry is growing stably,

The competitive rivalry in the toy industry is intense. Organizations try to sell through their own retailers and online instead of solely through other retailers. Flexibility and responsiveness to the market are

This paper researched the fact that the Toys “R” Us Company was displaying a weakness in financial related issues due to the lack of proper strategic planning. This made the company susceptible to many threats in the industry’s competitive environment. The research has shown that its main competitors Walmart, Target, and Amazon are functioning successfully in the industry while Toys R Us heads for bankruptcy. This research emphasizes the fact that Toys R Us has not taken steps to strategize its operations properly which resulted in a loss of revenue and opportunities in their environment. If the company does not take steps to better its strategic planning, the company will not

Consumers have wants and needs, and the most popular way to get those products known to consumers is advertising. Advertising provides the consumers with important information about the products and or services. Plus, how would the consumers know about things if they were not advertised in a particular way. Advertisements educate the consumers about the positive and negative effect of a product. For example, a medical, commercial may across your television or you may even see an ad about it in a magazine, throughout that ad the marketer will explain to you the good that

The fur trading industry played a major role in the development of the United States and Canada for more than 300 years. The fur trade began in the 1500's as an exchange between Indians and Europeans. The Indians traded furs for such goods as tools and weapons. Beaver fur, which was used in Europe to make felt hats, became the most valuable of these furs. The fur trade prospered until the mid-1800, when fur-bearing animals became scarce and silk hats became more popular than felt hats made with beaver. Traders and trappers explored much of North America in search of fur. They built trading posts in the wilderness, and settlements grew up around many of these posts. Some of these settlements later became such major cities as Detroit, New Orleans, and St. Louis in the United States; and Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec, and Winnipeg in Canada.