Summary
It may have appeared that Robert Eckert was bypassing a career-making opportunity when he did not immediately take the top job at Mattel Corp. But when Eckert was thinking about coming aboard as CEO six years ago, Mattel was not the company it had once been. Looking back, Eckert attributes the company's turnaround largely to its workforce strategy. The idea of developing a workforce strategy to effect cultural changes within Mattel was seductive, he says, and was a major factor for taking the CEO job in May 2000. The HR leadership understood that workforce development would have to become a systematic process throughout Mattel. With Eckert's vision, the company developed standard methodologies for employee training, performance management and succession planning. The company's training and development programs have created employees who are more discerning when it comes to making important business decisions, like entering new markets or forming partnerships. They have the skills and the know-how to make better predictions.
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Extract
Shaking Up the Toyshop
It may have appeared that Robert Eckert was bypassing a career-making opportunity when he didn't immediately take the top job at Mattel Corp. It had been the world's largest toy company and home to some of the most successful brands in history: Barbie and Hot Wheels.
But when Eckert was thinking about coming aboard as CEO six years ago, Mattel was not the company it had once been. It was dealing with the disastrous $3.5 billion acquisition of the Learning Company, had fired its CEO and had virtually no strategic plan. From the beginning, Eckert knew that the employee groups were disjointed and unmotivated. Workforce management had to play a critical role in pulling the company out of the muck.Looking back, he attributes the company's turnaround largely to its work-force strategy."The institutionalization of people development is what I would love ...See the full content of this document
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