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Mattel
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Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) is an American toy company and is the largest toy company based on revenue. Its products include Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. It was founded in 1945 by Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler (hence the name "matt-el"). Handler's wife Ruth Handler would later become president and is credited with establishing the Barbie product line for the company in 1959. Today the Barbie line is responsible for more than 80% of Mattel's profits. In 2007, Mattel has been forced to issue major recalls of its products (see 2007 Product recalls section).
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Mattel has a structured corporate system of governance. The board of directors consists of twelve members, only one of which is an internal member of management. The board is given the responsibility to look over an executive committee which consists of the chief operating officer and other company leaders and each member is expected to attend at least 75% of board meetings. The management committee governed by the board is responsible for the operations of the business and report directly to the CEO.
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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.
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In early 1998 Mattel celebrated Barbie's 39th birthday. Continuing its interactive success, a new web site was introduced (Barbie.com), as well as new dolls, including one with an official WNBA uniform. The year ... marked the 30th anniversary of Hot Wheels, with booming sales, as well as the 15th anniversary of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Barbie remained the bigger news, however, as the centerpiece of PBS's P.O.V., which dedicated an hour-long program to her evolution, entitled "Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour." Although the program provided publicity, its content was sometimes controversial--dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly, including some Barbie-inspired obsessions. Ruth Handler, extensively interviewed for the piece, vehemently supported her creation.
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Mattel rolled out its Global Manufacturing Principles[1] (GMP) in 1997, designed to set safe and fair treatment of employees. Mattel created an independent monitoring programme for GMP compliance to police the principles throughout its supply chain, publishing results since 1998. These principles formed the benchmark of corporate responsibility reporting for the company in years to come. In 2003 Mattel issues its first Global Reporting Initiative[2] report[3] to publicly assess the success of the GMP and commit to improvements. Simultaneous to this report, Mattel issued their 2004 Corporate Responsibility[4] report, the first to be issued by a toy company. As of 2007, no other toy company has issued a public Corporate Social Responsibility report[5].
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