Mattel crowdsources innovation to feed new product engine

This event report discusses how Mattel, the toy manufacturer, is using crowdsourcing to drive new product development.

Mattel crowdsources innovation to feed new product engine

Geoffrey PrecourtWarc

California garages served as launch pads for entrepreneurs long before Amazon, Apple, Google and Hewlett-Packard lent an aura of magic to the homegrown lore.

"We started in a garage workshop here in southern California back in 1945," Olga Patel, Mattel's senior manager/open innovation, told the 2014 Future of Consumer Intelligence (FOCI) conference – an event convened by the Institute for International Research in Los Angeles. "Over the years, we grew to be the largest toy company in the world."

Today, Mattel employs 25,000 staff across the globe and generates...

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