Haven't heard of anything happening here in ES in a few weeks. Could we have weathered the storm? Is it over? Are we back on track? Thoughts?
19 replies (most recent on top)
Holy pink and golden parachute batman! Is that for real? Is that crazy old tw@t still getting paid by mattel for screwing things up??
Her total package/parachute was more than $60MM. We are still paying her a yearly "consulting" fee, IIRC.
Sorry as I confused the 40 million we paid her to leave against the 70 million PLM deal. My bad.
What cost more LC or PLM?
"Mattel sold The Learning Company in 2000 at a loss to Gores Technology group. The total financial losses to Mattel have been estimated to be as high as $3.6 billion."
Yes PLM has been a huge waste of money. Doesn't come close to the LC deal.
I also never got on the elevator with JB. I never saw anyone do it. Coming back from lunch there could be 5 or more of us waiting and when the doors opened and we saw Jill no one got in. She wouldn't even look at us or say anything.
That thing about not getting in an elevator with Jill is BS. I got into the elevator every single time with her & one time she even helped me hold a pretty big prototype I was carrying & went a got a soda for me while I prepared my presentation. Don't get me wrong, she could get really nasty in meetings if she felt you were ill prepared or if your concept made no sense but she always treated me with nothing but respect. She definitely threw other EVP under the bus so she could keep her position, that was apparent to everybody here. She was no Mother Teresa that's for sure but I'd take her over who we have now any day......what cost us more, the Learning Co or PLM? Enough said.
Agreed. JB liked her goose stepping pink clad drones. Her tenure was one of the most superficial eras of Matteo's corporate culture.
JB was a nasty piece of work. When JA was in charge she was one of four Presidents under him. The Ops Pres was Gandolfo. She wouldn't dare mess with Big Joe. But the Pres of Boys and the Pres of Infant/Preschool were under constant attack from her. Girls toys and Barbie ruled the company and she used that as leverage to run the other Presidents out of town. She knew that John's successor would come from one of those 3 Marketing Presidents. She made damn sure that she would have the inside track. Those other 2 Pres spots were a merry go round, new faces constantly. That was Jill's scheming.
Jill didn't care about anyone. If you were waiting for the elevator and the door opened and you saw Jill inside you were supposed to wait for the next one. No one was supposed to get in an elevator if Jill was already riding it. She inherited a great Barbie program, with a long term plan in place. Once that ended she was lost. Ask around and find out why DC comics fired Mattel in the late 90s. Jill the designer at work. But she definitely knew more than the Kraft people or the Pepsi guy. If she had taken the Reebok job she was supposedly offered someone else would have taken over for John A. Then there wouldn't have been a LC fiasco, so no Krafties, so maybe a healthy company today. It all goes back to Jill and her stupid bee pin.
J Barad was a Marketing person for sure but she cared/knew & understood product unlike those fools Eckert & Stockdowm who wouldn't know a decent toy concept if it crawled up their intestines & threw a Rose Parade. They sold a commodity. Toys are not a commodity but a luxury. JB knew Barbie as she was a Barbie doll herself. She had her followers that weren't perfect but other than the 40 mill LC deal she did OK while she was here. She knew who did what within the Design Center. Both Eckert & Stockdown wouldn't know a designer from the guy that drives the shuttle or a red shirt mail person here. She actually knew people by their names & accomplishments so I'll give her that much. Sinclair, RD, & all his fools are tools. Just my opinion, no hates here, just keep paying me for zero/minimum effort going forward. Just like my upper mismanagement does as they laugh all the way to the bank.
Jill wasn't from design. She was from Marketing.
Anonymous184497 - you're totally wrong. Sales had been off on the core businesses for 2 years prior to Learning Company. Jill Barad kept promising higher earnings per quarter to analysts, and then Mattel would lose money 8 quarters in a row. Wall Street quickly figured out she was either a liar (bad) or an idiot (worse). Getting rid of Jill was the best decision ever - perfect example of someone who was good in design floundering in management. Good thing Mattel doesn't have designers in management positions now leading brands... oops. #historyrepeatsitself.
Eckert had an easier turnaround because the problem then was only the Learning Company, which he just gave away. The base toy business was pretty good in 2000 when Eckert took over, and he kept the management largely intact at Mattel and F-P. In contrast, Stockton screwed up the management team at Mattel, and largely wiped them out in East Aurora. And the toy business is seriously sick this time. Sinclair and RD are not the answer. Prediction. Sinclair announces plans to retire at end of year in Fall, 2016. Board realizes RD is not the right guy by then. So Board goes hires a female from P&G to lead. RD takes his $25 million severance package and goes back to NYC. Then set your turnaround clock back another 2 years.
I beg to differ on Eckert. He was a fool who had nowhere to go but up as e were at the bottom. He was a pompous ass but did have a more down to earth conservative background than JB who was a Hollywood red carpet girl & looked the part as she was hot which helped get her where she got. Just ask J Amerman...... just say'n:) I blame Eckert for importing all his Kraft cronies who took this place down. Stockdown, Farr, etc.....he never was in the Design Center & I overheard him once say some pretty snide remarks like he was above everything there. RD is a tool/fool for sure but who really cares? Everybody at the top of the tower makes their millions. Why is K Farr still there? Perhaps he's cooked the booked SO MUCH that nobody else there can undo them so he stays. Somebody's going to jail once those numbers are figured out because it all doesn't make financial sense. I know, I'm in finance.His numbers are subjective & he's hiding the she'll game truth somewhere.
Yes Mattel has been on the ropes before and turned things around. It's possible. But always when that happened a new leader emerged with a vision and a plan and was able to articulate that plan and inspire people to want to be part of it. Bob eckert was the last one that did that after Jill. He was kind of conservative and corporate and not very creative but he came in and initiated a cost cutting and brand building strategy. He also instituted the development center to develop people in their careers. People were hopeful and got behind him. He had those silly "what's on my mind" emails that were effective and inclusive. He was just enough of a Goofball and had a certain charisma. He was seen in the halls and cafeteria. And over time he did turn us back into a profitable company. He left at its peak. His biggest mistake was turning it over to that drab talentless dolt Stockton. But do you see any charismatic or particularly brilliant leadership emerging? I sure don't. Dickson is a joke. I can't believe they didn't vet him. He used Barbie to position himself as some sort of fashion maven to get himself a job at Jones. Failed miserably there so they thought they'd bring him back to head all brands. Good move whoever did that. What kind of vision or plan have we heard out of him! Only stupid re-org emails saying absolutely nothing. Nope, doesn't look promising now. And pretty much everyone is just collecting a paycheck. If you are a talented designer with any good ideas keep them to yourself and take them with you when you leave.
No High margins? Manage the portfolio properly? What a ludicrous idea! It's like telling them not to be greedy. There's no cap for that.
Anonymous182842 - it's actually more complicated than that. Mattel can have high margins, but only when they have brands that deliver sales on those high margins. Barbie is one of the highest unit margin brands in the company, but with 4 years of declining sales, it can't support all the lesser brands that lose money (Polly, Little Mommy, Max Steel, etc.) When your largest margin-making brand declines and you don't start seriously cutting people, you have the problem Mattel has today.
At other companies, when sales tank, they fire people. When someone has been running a brand into the ground for 1-2 years, they're fired. Only at Mattel would you take the SVP and VP of Barbie marketing and reassign them to other jobs and keep the SVP and VP of design still there.
Smaller companies, entertainment companies, and most other toy companies are good at spotting trends. Like when an entire team fails to correct sales for 4 years, those heads of marketing and design would be fired. Only at Mattel would those people be spared again and again. It's like HR is being run by the mail room team.
If you don't want a high margin? EASY, then go work at a small company and do all the work. Simple as that. No free lunch.
Back on track? Which track? There are some Mattel Designers that still have good ideas that can get bubbled up, until they're cost reduced to plastic garbage packs. Mattel has too high a margin on their product to "keep the magic" in the product. If the Holiday season is as grim as the rest of the year has been, there will be more empty floors in the tower, and more empty cubicles in the HTC. I'm sure the Handlers would be proud of the crap this company has done.
That said, Mattel has been on the ropes before. Learning Company, Mattel Intellivision, etc. SO, there is always an opportunity for Mattel to turn things around. One thing that is always true is companies cannot always grow. Sometimes they need to be kicked to the curb to learn their place, and change direction. I don't think that "turn-around" strategy I've seen so far is working, but remember the new world order won't have product in the stores for another year. If Holiday 2016 bombs, then all bets are off. Mattel used to be one of the premier places to work, now it's a premier place to have worked.