Mattel's Governance System

Mattel's Governance System is made up of many management members. Since Mattel Inc. is such a large company - the largest toy company in the world (New York Times), they have developed many different toy departments categorized based on target gender and for their larger products, the product range.

Mattel's chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman, Robert Eckert, leads a team of 34 people (Cogmap) - including Directors of Media Relations, Public Relations, Corporate Communications, EVPs of Worldwide Operations, American Girl and more. The list of executive managements available show that Mattel divides their management staff into different departments/categories based on the department's need for management. For example, Hot Wheels has a VP and SVP of Marketing, whereas all other boys toys are managed by one General Manager, Tim Kiplin, under the title General Manager; Boys and Wheels Group and Games and Puzzles.

Though Mattel's governance system clearly shows they have a taller hierarchy, it is altogether very possible - though not certain - that they use a decentralized system during the decision making process. It is most likely that this is the case since Mattel Inc. has been in the business market for so long that their communications systems are fully established and easily convenient for all stakeholders involved.

It is evident that Mattel distinguishes between the senior management and middle management through the titles that are given to their employees. Such as CFO, President, Vice President, Senior Vice President and General Manager. CFO, Presidents are have connotations that infer they are apart of the senior management, whereas Vice President, Senior Vice President or Executive Vice President even, suggest a middle management and General Managers are above the working management, but not above the Vice Presidents.

In conclusion, Mattel's management team seems to be organized into a tall hierarchy structure but using a decentralized system in performing the tasks at hand. It does not at all seem to be a conflicting structure for them and since Mattel has been an active company in the business world for so long - and made such an excellent reputation as the world's highest revenue toy company, Mattel has made a suitable example of how the combination of a tall hierarchy in a decentralized system can be a successful organizational structure for profiting companies.


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1. "Mattel Inc. News - Company Information - The New York Times." Times Topics. Web. 08 Nov. 2009. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/mattel_inc/index.html.
2. "Mattel, Inc. Directory -- El Segundo, CA, US | Cogmap | The Organization Chart Wiki." Org Charts by Cogmap | The Organization Chart Wiki | A Free Directory of Organizational Charts. Web. 08 Nov. 2009. http://www.cogmap.com/directory/mattel-inc?ver=4&vt=0.

Organizational Structures

Heineken cracks down on Swiss ‘Keineken’
Dutch beer giant complained its brand was being infringed

Unit 4.3 - Product (Branding)
Business and Management by Paul Hoang.

This article discusses the Dutch beer company's tolerance of branding of its competitor, the Swiss brand, Keineken. Dutch beer company, Heineken, seized 1,000 bottles and accused a local Swiss brand of beer named Keineken of infringement.

This article is an excellent example of the significance of branding to companies. Keineken, as the article mentioned, is German for “No Heineken”. By naming their beer a spoof of one of the most popular beers in Western Europe, which accounts for approximately 57% of Western Europe’s market share¹, Keineken gives themselves an opportunity to gain sales targeting those who enjoy “spoof-humour” and those against Heineken.

However, for Heineken, this sort of publicity is insulting and intolerable. This would be because of the deep impact it has on the brand name. For Heineken, to have a competitor, as small as they are, that names their beer a spoof of their popular brand, is an insult and can have huge impacts on Heineken’s success in the Swiss sales. Therefore, their solution to managing this conflict was to have their products seized and sued for infringement.

NOTE: Suing for infringement could have been a part of the Legal threats that Keineken would have considered when analysing their company using the STEEPLE analysis in Unit 1.5 of the Business and Management textbook by Paul Hoang. In addition, this sort of conflict can also be considered an external stakeholder conflict since both parties in this example are companies in the same (beer) market. This information can be found in Unit 1.4 of the Business and Management textbook by Paul Hoang.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32645722/ns/business-world_business/

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^{1 "Western Europe - Regional review - Report of the Executive Board - Heineken Annual Report 2008." Home - Heineken Annual Report 2008. Heineken. Web. 15 Sept. 2009.
http://www.annualreport.heineken.com/report_of_the_executive_board/regional_review/western_europe/index.html}