Is There Something Mickey Mouse About Mattel GEO John Amerman?

Business writers are inclined to have fun writing about John Amerman '53. Not only is there a lot of good news about how he turned around Mattel Inc., there's his relationship with Barbie.

"The biggest woman in the life of John Amerman, 57, just turned 30 years old, and can be . . . easily manipulated," began a Los Angeles Business Journal profile. "They are inseparable these days. At 30 years old and only 11.5 inches high, she is one of the most . . . bankable personalities in the world. [He is] John W. Amerman, 5 feet, 11.5 inches.

Despite the severe height and age discrepancies, it seems a marriage made in toy heaven." So said California Business.

Both articles went on to celebrate CEO Amerman's success in restoring Mattel to first place in the toy business, partly because Barbie brings in half a billion dollars a year, but mostly because of John Amerman's restructuring skills.

During his 30-year post-Tuck career in sales and marketing and management, he's been on the fast track at Colgate-Palmolive, Warner Lambert, and, since 1980, Mattel. His first task at the toy company was shoring up its international business; in four years it was contributing almost half of Mattel's worldwide sales, up from a quarter in 1982. When the company's former CEO retired in 1986 Mattel's board created a triumvirate to run things—and to compete against one another for the top slot. When John Amerman won, in February of 1987, the hard work was just beginning. Sales were off, there was over-capacity and dead wood, and an awful lot was riding on Barbie's little shoulders.

But the new CEO already had a plan: to control expenses, manage assets, give new life to core products, and develop new toy lines. All the returns aren't in yet, but sales are up at a leaner company. Barbie is alive and well. And John Amerman has a new alliance he hopes will give her a run for her money: Walt Disney Cos. Under a licensing arrangement Mattel is now marketing Disney's core products—and John is getting photographed with Mickey Mouse, too.