The Mattel

Back in the 1960’s Mattel was announced as the best or number 1 company in the world, it still beholds the reputation and the value for its brand. This company still boasts of its ever famous toys such as the Barbie dolls, hot-wheel cars etc. This popularity and appreciation from the consumers and the retailers are solely responsible for the company’s progress and success through its risk taking abilities, risks as well as crisis management policies at the same time being concerned about its translational gain.

Several instances of risk taken by the company and shrewd implementation of risk management never did let the company to falter or loose its charm. This one instance when the Mattel Company acquired ‘the learning company’ which was an entertainment company in the hope and idea of business diversification and occupying a leading position in the company market. This strategy didn’t payoff well and induced pre-tax losses over the revenues. So sometimes the risk and the idea behind it may not work. Though the company under acquisition incurred huge losses but it sure did appealed to the consumers closely via this entertainment company and gained their trust.

Anther strategy of the Mattel Company is quite evident through history. The Mattel set up its production unit in China this involved a lot of risk and speculation. While the toys imported into the country after its manufacture were found to be very high in lead content due to some design issues. Thus this led to a large scale and numerous recalls of the toys. So, in order to get marks from consumers and retailers the company decided to come out clean by spreading the message out. Some of the staffs were sent immediately to report at the biggest media outlets. The CEO himself had set up to talk with reporters explaining all the media queries, apologizing for the defect in designing and to the people for the mistake. This helped elate the reputation and the image of the company. Besides this, before the ‘recalls’ the manufacturing and import-export of products from china led to currency exchange and levied much less tariff over the products thus leading to a translation gain before the recalling phase.

Presently the company is much concerned about the use of paper pulp for packaging, showing much concern about the issues of deforestation. This strategy of becoming responsible and also reduction in use of wooden parts in toys are a matter of concern of this company presently. These thrive for the sustainability works very well to create a positive impact on people which has been the main aim or goal of the company. Hopefully, if the company strikes the right balance between these risks and their management then only its path can be defined towards the road of progress and success besides sufficient gain