1. MATTEL RECALL
What would you do?

2. Mattel History
In 1945 Ruth and Elliot Handler and Harold “Matt” Masson launched Mattel out of a garage workshop in Southern California.
In 1960 Mattel became a publicly owned company.
1997 Mattel merged with Tyco, the third largest toy company in the world, resulting in the Sesame Street License.
May 2000 under the leadership of Bob Eckert Mattel unveiled a new vision with a clear focus on building brands, cutting costs and developing people.
Today Mattel is the world’s largest toy company they design, manufacture and distribute a wide variety of toys to 150 countries. Products, include a number of toy lines, including Barbie dolls, clothing, access Wheels toy die-cast vehicles; Warner Bros., merchandise including Harry Porter, Batman, Superman and Looney Tunes products; the American Girls Collection of books, dolls, clothing, and accessories; Fisher-Price infant and preschool including Little People figures and playsets and toys based on various licensed characters. Toys are produced in company-owned manufacturing facilities in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand, as well as through independent contractors located in States, Europe, Mexico, the Far East and Australia

3. Mattel Leadership
Bob Eckert graduated from Kellogg School of Management.
Became CEO of Mattel 2000 after working for Kraft Foods for 23 Years holding CEO position from Oct until May 2000

4. Mattel Recalls and Lead
Mattel's difficulties stem from two sources: lead paint and small magnets. On August 2 the company announced a recall of approximately 1.5 million Fisher-Price toys that contain lead paint- including Ernie, Elmo, Dora the Explorer and Big Bird.
On August 14th, Mattel announced a second and even larger lead paint recall involving 436,000 "Sarge" toy cars (235,000 in the U.S. and 183,000 outside the U.S.). Additionally, Mattel recalled approximately 18.2 million (9.5 million in the U.S.) Barbie, Polly Pocket, Doggie Day Care and Batman toys and accessories whose small high-powered magnets can cause intestinal perforation (Gastrointestinal perforation is a hole that passes through the entire wall of the stomach, small intestine or large bowel).
On September 5th Mattel announces a third recall of Chinese toys, saying it would take back more than 800,000 units globally that contain "impermissible" levels of lead

5. Mattel Recalls and Lead cont.
About 65% of Mattel's toys are made in China, with half of those toys made in Mattel owned plants and the rest in about a dozen vendor factories. According to the company the problems occurred after its Chinese contractor subcontracted the painting of the toys to a supplier that used inferior and unauthorized products.
Those inferior and unauthorized products being lead. If lead is ingested it can lead to developmental problems in children or the fetus of pregnant women

6. Mattel’s Response & Resolution
Bob Eckert wrote and published an opinion statement that was published in the September 11, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal
On September 21st Mattel apologized for damaging the reputation of Chinese goods admitting it targeted some good goods that were up to scratch. In addition the chairman and CEO Robert Eckert apologized by continuously publicizing its recalls the including the example above.
“We are by no means perfect. The company could have done a better job overseeing subcontractors in China that produced more than 21 million recalled toys. ”
As a result of the recalls Mattel will now require that every batch of paint from every vendor be tested for lead, that random inspections be instituted and that every production run of finished toys be checked for compliance

7. Consumer Response
Observers see the CEO's apology as a welcome action compared to companies in the past that have initially failed to acknowledge a problem or tried to shift the blame on others. "High profile public apologies are a good idea for two reasons" says Jaques deLisle "First, they tend to get the word out even more effectively about the recall. Seocnd, many studies show that victims of harm often do care a great deal about an apology and may actually settle for less money if the defendant apologizes and atones rather than denies liability."
"A lot of what is happening is pushback towards China, and there are those in other nations who are happy to take potshots at the country over this," says Dr. David Strutton, director of UNT's New Product Development Scholars Program.
It's clear that China is to blame for the problems with the toys, just as Chinese vendors were to blame for recalls of products earlier this year. In March, many brands of dog and cat foods were pulled from shelves because they contaminated rice protein from a source in China that was identified as being associated with kidney failure in pets. In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would block sales of Chinese catfish, basa, dace, shrimp and eel, after repeated testing turned up contamination with drugs not approved in the U.S. for farmed seafood.

8. Groups Resolution
The Real Challenge for Mattel is to show that it is making a massive effort in the area of quality control. In addition to instituting new safety-check systems, Mattel should have massive educational campaigns to go along with that.  For example they could consider publishing information about toys and how children should play with them safely.

9. Future Challenges for Mattel