It’s not easy being Mattel. Last year they got word that they’d be losing all of their Disney’s Frozen and Disney Princess licenses. Then, the holidays dealt them a brutal blow with sales down 59% compared to the year prior. Now, with just a few days before Toy Fair International, their CEO, Bryan Stockton, has just abruptly resigned.
Here’s what the Wall Street Journal had to say about it:
Mr. Stockton took the CEO job three years ago and has presided over a long run of weak results. People inside the company and at customers attributed the slide to a growing focus on the numbers and overseas expansion at the expense of the company’s creative side. The company’s executives became entangled in a culture that valued endless meetings and long PowerPoint presentations. Meanwhile, smaller competitors like VTech Holdings Ltd. were taking shelf space and Lego A/S was challenging Mattel’s position as the largest toy company.