Thanks Chuck for your years leading Fisher Price. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
Let’s hope the new guy from Mattel shows the same passion for FP you did!
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How awesome would it be if the “cupcake” lady were actually tending to Cash register #3 at Cr--ker Barrell! Bu))sh:t business school jargon. Call those people out when you see them for the pretenders that they are!
hopefully not another ES "cupcake."
@5sxa+1s7fMAyk The loonie cupcake lady was in fact recently hired as CEO of the Cr--ker Barrel restaurant chain. Unsurprisingly the company’s stock has dropped 54% since she became CEO less than a year ago! 😆
Anyone else remember her first town hall meeting after taking over as head of FP, where she laid out her plan of turning FP into a social media company for mom’s and in doing so, double the division’s revenue by 2020? The entire FP staff just sat there d-mbfounded listening to her ramble incoherent business school jargon and talking about building “connected communities” for over an hour with a growing sense of collective dread.
I wrote a haiku about the slide:
Atop the slide's gleam,
Hubris echos in the air,
Pride's swift downfall nears.
I agree, it was all the slide's fault.
The cupcake lady went on to run marketing at Taco Bell. So the phrase “Sh-t Show” would be appropriate for her skill set in the food service industry. That skill set has no place in a once trusted world known children’s toy company with deep roots in upstate NY. Her physical office was in ES too. That should explain how that experiment went.
I get why the AG business is struggling; premium priced dolls sold in brick & mortar mall stores in a time when people are shopping online more and other major retailers now sell much cheaper AG knock-off dolls. Makes sense.
But FP? I never really understood why their business has been struggling, they make baby and toddler toys, so less concern about competition from screens and devices. They have nearly universal brand recognition. They have listings at retailers all over the place plus strong sales rankings on Amazon. They have good product and have added popular brands to their line over the years, and yet they've been in a downward spiral for at least a decade now.
It makes no sense to me. What the heck is going on?
Chuck was a very nice person but didn't do us any favors from a business perspective. Don't forget that FP stagnated under his leadership and this is what led to all the layoffs. He was too focused on appearances like putting in a slide that growing the business properly. If he'd have grown the business we wouldn't be in this position now.
The cupcake lady at least wasn’t previously drinking the coolaid and came back.
It doesn’t matter if he’s capable or wants to do good - I’m sure he “boomeranged” because leadership already knows he fits right into the sh-t show that Mattel leadership is. A simple decision or communication from most of Mattel leadership is a convoluted, mismanageded sh-t show of an ordeal that first graders would be able to sort out faster, and better.
These people are a fu--ing joke.
I’m hard pressed to believe anyone from elsegundo can run FP and suspect fisher, price, and Shelley will be rolling in their graves
Only real ones know the cupcake reference.
Let’s see how Fitzy does! He served his time in ES. Hopefully he did not drink the corporate BS and can help FP. At least the new leader of FP is not a former executive of a gourmet cupcake company!