Time is up

This is an open letter to Enon:
It’s time you wash your hands of RD. In the 6 years he’s been back, he’s authored lots of marketing ideas (that cost more than they’re worth) but not ONE of them has been a commercial success - which is what Mattel so desperately needs. It’s almost as if he’s sprayed him self with Commercial Success Repellent because NOTHING he touched works. He may have many convinced that these efforts will SOME DAY turn things around, but they never will. I’m embarrassed for lemming Steve T who can’t seem to click “like” on linked in fast enough whenever another daily Mattel posting is unleashed on the world.

Here’s a few recent ones:
Thank you Heroes Collection - take a disastrous relaunch of Rescue Heroes and repaint them as hospital staff in a vain attempt to save Chuck S who is woefully over his head leading a business like FP. Then add mega blox and uno?! Here’s what they aren’t telling you: there’s no where to buy it accept Amazon - and it’s not because fall reset dates aren’t until August. No, it’s because Walmart and Target turned them down because no kid wants to play with them in great enough numbers.

Barbie heroes being given away - this is because no little girl wants to play with fashion dolls. “You can be anything” was never the rallying cry for Barbie - it was “you can be anything as long as you’ve got a cool outfit on”. None of the variety of bodies they have introduced ever worked - check shelves now and I dare you to find the “mom body” doll - since they took it and the super tall one out of the line up.

Enon - Mattel has to singularly focus on projects that can generated $50M-$200M In revenue (not retail $). Not these trite little hobbies that can gain temporary headlines but can’t get people to buy them. Richard either refuses to work on commercially viable ideas or can’t come up with them or identify them from with his team. Either way this isn’t working and therefore needs to stop. Cut your losses quickly, my friend, or you’ll find yourself on the outside looking in before heard end.

Comment! It's anonymous!

12 replies (most recent on top)

The word is that Mattel goes BK by end of year

Yeah, time is up, Mister CEO. Time to get rid of dead weight. Send the the SS Sanders out to sea, flush the whole useless film group especially that woman who “runs” it (into the ground), outsource the robotic head of human resource, bounce JoJo the finance fraud, turn off the all-talk tv guy, issue a press statement about the departure of the clueless publicity maven, give the head of franchise a nice farewell package full of consumer products and just fire Tricky D–k’s sorry a–. We are waiting.

Are we now voting to cast RD off the island? High time! Ynon goes next, then the Good man, then the entire Board of Directors, and everyone with director, VP or president in their title. We got this!

Mattel is such a horrible company I would be embarrassed to put them on my resume. Oh what’s that, you’ve spent two decades at a losing company? And you held on for why?

Traditionally, "turnaround" CEOs get 12 months to show positive momentum. If they can't move the needle after 4 quarters, don't hold your breath long-term. IIRC, Ynon did supposedly cut a half a billion dollars in costs during his first year at Mattel, so maybe he's not a total waste of space, but yeah, as an investor, I can tell you the way his whole "movie strategy" is playing out is not a good look. During the recent earnings call, his slate of movies was not even mentioned once. I'd say they're a no go.

If entertainment is the right strategy then why haven’t any movies been made? There are zero movies in production. Zero. Many scripts and announcements but no results. Exactly how long should Ynon get? How much rope will he be given? An entertainment strategy that takes over 2 years with zero results is a loser.

Never happen. They’re ‘war buddies’ now having faced the Wall Street grim reaper together. They’d have to stop their ski vacations together first. Really if you’re waiting for Enon to make the move don’t hold your breath. An effective CEO needs to make his moves in the first 3 months and then live with the consequences. The board won’t remove Enon yet because there’s nowhere else to go. They’ve tried everything and entertainment is probably the right strategy. It just needs to be led by a couple of dopes who are star struck.

RD often says 'you're over-thinking it, keep it simple.' Fire him. Don't overthink it. It's that simple. Figure out who he has pictures of on the board, dismiss that person first, and then slide the proverbial envelope across the table to RD. Tell him that unfortunately, due to your astonishing lack of success in leadership, business intelligence, and creativity that the company needs to 'bring costs in line with the revenue you have created.' It's not personal. It's simple.

And in true Mattel fashion, when they finally get rid of RD, they'll undoubtedly replace him with an even bigger waste of space.

The post below nailed it.

Mattel's response to everything is so disingenuous. A knee-jerk response to a crisis without actually thinking it through because they're already late to the party. And in the end, it comes off as so self serving. "Buy our special products so we can help."

Then it's wrapped up in a tidy press release and posted on Linked-In so all the VPs can repost it and state how "proud" they are to be working for a company that cares.

Something about all these Covid-19 SKUs seems off. I can't put my finger on it.

At first when Fisher-Price showed off the Rescue Heros and Little People first responder sets, it made sense with the IP and seemed like a sweet and natural way to pay tribute and maybe generate some PR while making some money for charity.

And then a few weeks later, here comes Mattel going, "Oh, hey! I heard you like Coronavirus themed toys! Look, I've got a deck of UNO cards featuring an illustration of He-man wearing a surgical mask while delivering groceries for Instacart!"

I guess, to me at least, it just feels like they jumped the shark a little. Maybe it's also the timing, in typical Mattel fashion they seem to be a few months late to the whole "our corporation cares during this difficult time" shtick or maybe I just have Coronavirus fatigue.

The RIGHT thing to do is the HARDEST thing to do most of the time. Ynon, open your eyes. #savemattel #lethimgo

Thread regarding Mattel Inc. layoffs

Time is up

12 replies (most recent on top)

Post a reply