Acc 6013 Management Control Systems - Hasbro Interactive

Acc 6013 Management Control Systems

June 14, 2011

Written Assignment: Hasbro Interactive

Hasbro's Strategy

Stage 1

Most companies will develop a strategy or plan that will extend over several years to help determine annual budgets and projections for the company. The plan becomes a tool for upper management to monitor the growth or short comings of the company. Hasbro's plan began by first making the decision for the company to take a risk in future technology with respects to the game industry.

The founder of Hasbro was a visionary. Alan Hassenfield traveled to other countries and game fairs as a way of checking the pulse of the industry. Hassenfield saw the benefit of using computers and adapting the existing games of the company as a base. His plan was to first seek out the right person to carry forward this vision. This led him to Dusenberry who was a part of Hasbro thru acquisition of another company. Dusenberry was also a visionary with a talent of getting others not only to buy into the vision, but to work and form the foundation for the vision. Dusenberry was credited with activating others to interact and create. The American dream is founded on individuals being able to work, save, invest, and innovate. Dusenberry was the catalyst.

Stage 2

The plan was simple (1) To create a division; Hasbro's Interactive (2) write a business plan (3) form a team to develop and manage the operation (4) take the product to market. Dusenberry was directed to formulate an entire division based on the above plan. Another portion of the plan was Dusenberry himself. He was an insider who had worked from the loading docks up to management level and every in phase of the company in between. Hasbro's Interactive was to be a separate entity of its' own and not connected to Hasbro Corporation. The company began to make money in the 1950's with a new toy. From that point forward, the company did not have a written plan other than the word of the division head and his perception of what earnings were to be. As long as the revenue streams were constant, the interactive division grew and acquired other small competitors along the way.

Turning Point

Stage 3

As the electronic market developed and grew, the idea of turning some of the company's well known games into computerized items emerged. Hasbro created, designed, and developed the visual work and allowed a third party to format the electronic portion of the technology. Hasbro was careful to maintain product branding of its games. Carrying forward branding was the best strategic plan the company could make and is in my opinion the turning point for the company. Without the brand name of Hasbro, the loss may have been enormous for the interactive division.

Hasbro also had its eye on the virtual reality system but the microprocessor to handle the product had not yet been developed. The marketing plan began to emerge at this point. This future endeavor was abandoned but the formation of the plan had started.

Management Controls Emerge Hasbro's Style

During the 1995's a new software developer