Mattel Case[1]

Mattel is an American multinational toy manufacturing company that was founded in 1945 in California. The company operates the facilities and sells products in numerous countries outside the United States. Mattel is the second largest toy manufacturer in the world in terms of revenue after The Lego Group. The company is most famous for the Barbie doll. The production of Barbie doll commenced in 1959 and the doll became the company’s best-selling toy in history.

Mattel manufactures different toy products both in its own facilities and through third-party manufacturers. Mattel cooperates with unrelated entities that design, develop and manufacture products. As a part of the continuous effort to reduce manufacturing costs, Mattel produces its core products in the company-owned facilities. The principal manufacturing facilities are located in Canada, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico and Malaysia.

Mattel’s operating segments are separately managed business units that comprise of 1) North America (US and Canada), 2) International and 3) American Girl. The North America segment sells toys in the US and Canada including Barbie fashion dolls, vehicles and play sets, games, puzzles, building bricks, etc. The toys are designed for kids of different ages. Products in the International Segment are generally the same as those developed for the North American segment but sometimes products are adapted for international markets. Mattel sells its products in more than 150 nations. American Girl segment is a direct marketer and publisher of books and magazines for kids, sold in the US only.

Rachel Green was recently hired by Mattel as a Graduate Intern. Rachel has just finished a bachelor degree in accounting and is eager to apply her knowledge and skills in practice and learn more about multinational corporations. Her first task was to assist the Account Manager in writing a report about Mattel’s management accounting systems and to suggest ideas for improvement. for the task, Rachel started to collect information about the company: researching newspapers, reports, attending meetings and communicating with other employees. The following sections present the summary of information provided by Rachel Green to her manager.

Organisational strategy

I have attended several board meetings of Mattel. Generally board members envision Mattel “a recognized leader in play, learning and development worldwide”. Based on these meetings and informal chats with the board members, I can outline the following strategic priorities:

–      Growing sales and expanding into new international markets

–      Exploiting the franchise strength of core brands (the need to focus on brand management, and new partnerships)

–      Improving productivity and efficiency of core operations

–      Strengthening global supply chain (strong connections with key suppliers and negotiating decreases in raw material costs)

–      Improving commercial excellence (focus on customer satisfaction and repeat purchase)

–      Continuous cost improvement

–      Building market leadership (increasing market share, increasing scale and scope of operations)

–      Improving employee competencies in key business areas

1.how to make a balanced scorecard through this case?