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Skip to content The HBS Digital Initiative brings together perspectives across disciplines to help people understand how technology is transforming...
- September 2020
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
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- September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the...
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- April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
- Teaching Note
Toys 'R' Us: Come Buy My Toys
- October 2019 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
Toys 'R' Us: Come Buy My Toys
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz, Erica Segall, Alejandro Botto and Terrence Shu
Keywords:
Private Equity;
Retail;
Finance;
Leveraged Buyout;
Leverage;
Leveraged Buyouts;
Bankruptcy
- July 2019
- Case
Christmas Inc. (A)
By: Susanna Gallani, Gregory Sabin, Lexor Adams and Nicholas Haberling
Santa Claus is facing increasing pressures to contain costs. The economic model that has worked for centuries is starting to show some cracks, to the point that he is considering outsourcing part of its toy production. Evaluating the bids his team collected from...
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- June 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry
By: Rory M. McDonald, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain
In 2018, Henri Seydoux, CEO and Founder of Parrot, believed that his company was at an inflection point in its history. Parrot had been a European leader in consumer electronics since the 1990s, first developing Bluetooth kits for cars before moving on to electronic...
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Keywords:
Forecasting and Prediction;
Disruption;
Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Competitive Advantage;
Technology;
Competitive Strategy;
Consumer Products Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Technology Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Europe;
France;
Paris
- April 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Turnaround at Mattel, 2017
By: Ted Berk
Just nine months into her new role as chief executive of Mattel, the world's leading toy maker, Margo Georgiadis faces a set of unexpected, inter-related decisions in the fall of 2017. Mattel's performance had been lagging for a number of years, and Georgiadis had been...
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- February 2018
- Case
The Golden Triangle: Back in Business (A)
By: Joseph Fuller, William Kerr, Manjari Raman and Donald Maruyama
The Golden Triangle Region (GTR) is a three-county area in rural Mississippi that suffered a steep decline as manufacturing companies faced pressures from automation and overseas competition. Between the mid 1980s and late 1990s, several textile, toy, and tubing...
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- April 2013
- Article
In Search of a Second Act: Riding the Popularity of a Great First Product Is Easy; Finding the Next One Is Hard
By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery
The article presents a fictional case study on new product development and improvement after the successful launch of a first breakthrough product. Topics include business planning for brand name products, finance and investment for the development of educational toys,...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
Growth Strategy;
Consumer Marketing;
Marketing;
Brand Management;
Market Research;
New Product Development;
Marketing Management;
Technology Commercialization;
Technology;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Consumer Products Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Technology Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?
By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai
Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and...
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Keywords:
Plastics;
Injection Molding;
Toys;
Lego;
Lego Group;
Tools;
Additive Manufacturing;
3d Manufacturing;
Toolmaking;
Patenting;
Spillovers;
Knowledge Spillovers;
Change;
Trends;
Engineering;
Machinery and Machining;
Intellectual Property;
Patents;
Operations;
Production;
Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Technology Adoption;
Technology Platform;
Consumer Products Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Technology Industry;
Europe;
Denmark
- February 2013
- Case
LEGO (A): The Crisis
By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan H. Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
As this case opens, iconic toymaker LEGO stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, LEGO's young and newly appointed CEO, must size up changes in the toy industry, learn from the company's recent moves, and craft a strategy that will put LEGO back on...
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- November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
- Case
Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities
By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi
Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior....
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Keywords:
Leading Teams;
Strategy Formulation;
Strategy And Execution;
Innovation;
Corporate Culture;
Industry Analysis;
Organizational Alignment;
Entrepreneurs;
Sales Channels;
Leadership;
Strategy;
Change Management;
Innovation Leadership;
Family Business;
Entrepreneurship;
Product Design;
Sales;
Retail Industry;
United States
- July 2012
- Case
LEGO
By: Jan W. Rivkin, Stefan Thomke and Daniela Beyersdorfer
LEGO has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the toy industry. The case describes LEGO's gradual rise, rapid decline, and recent revitalization as it is keeping up with a changing market place. Central to LEGO's management model is the ability to find...
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- March 2012
- Case
Angry Birds
By: Sunil Gupta and Dharmishta Rood
Within months of its launch in December 2009, Angry Birds, a mobile game created by a small Finnish company, Rovio Entertainment Ltd., became an international hit. By late 2011, Rovio was not only making Angry Birds games for the iPhone, Android and other mobile...
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- April 2011 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Internet Securities, Inc.: Path to Sustainability
By: Lynda M. Applegate, William R. Kerr and Ryan Johnson
Founded in 1994 when the Internet was still a "toy for techies," the case is set in 1998 when Internet IPOs were red-hot. Internet Securities provides hard-to-find financial, business, economic, and political information on emerging markets. Information from over 600...
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- January 2011 (Revised January 2011)
- Case
Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (Abridged)
By: Anita Elberse
The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a...
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- March 2009 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?
By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey
Soon after Robert Iger took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in late 2005, he turned his attention toward Pixar, the animation studio with which Disney had worked since 1991 and was responsible for producing hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney's own...
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- February 2008 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
LeapFrog Enterprises
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Explores the success factors leading to the company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to expand beyond the toy industry and enter the educational technology and services industry....
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- December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
- Case
Hasbro Games -- POX (A)
By: David B. Godes and Elie Ofek
Hasbro's newest toy is so unique it requires a unique launch strategy. Comparing traditional media (TV, print) with a non-traditional viral campaign, Matt Collins must weigh the risks and benefits of doing things the way they've always been done or blazing a new path...
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- November 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Marvel Enterprises, Inc.
By: Anita Elberse
The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a...
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