The whiplash journey of Mattel’s beloved kids’ toy range perfectly sums up the fundamentals and key challenges of managing continuous, successful corporate innovation.
Avoid He-Man sized innovation mistakes
And now for something a bit different: key lessons from the history of Mattel’s kids toy range, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The brand’s journey perfectly demonstrates the fundamentals and challenges of managing continuous, successful corporate innovation.
In highly competitive market conditions, Mattel instinctively undertook the innovation process (well before Design Thinking and Lean Startup were even things), and they won big. But that triumph led to monumental downfall within a heartbeat. Learn how and why He-Man’s extreme success didn’t translate into an engrained and sustainable growth engine, innovation culture, and repeatable capability.
Read article nowHe-Man and his friends looked like they could break a Jedi in half physically – and did so (financially, that is).
