We talk about Michael Porter. We hypothesize that strategy, in a turbulent world, is qualitatively different than it was in the stable era of 1973. Anyway, I know that Peter Schwartz is not like that. He talks about the redesign of Barbie, which related to a scenario project he'd conducted with Mattel. Surprisingly enough, the years that girls spend playing with dolls have been declining.
Research shows that girls leave the dolls behind and move earlier and earlier on to other pursuits.
All the pursuits of older girls. So Mattel is not slimming down Barbie's breasts so much as beefing up the rest of her, making her a little bit thicker all around so the breasts are less, well, disproportionate. A few days later, I tell a friend, a woman in her 40s, this story. She tells me how her mother wouldn't let her play with Barbie, how she played with the dolls at friends' houses, and how they used them to play sex games between Barbie, Ken, and their friends. Or, at least, real clothes.