Alan Hassenfeld and G. Miller

00:01 Good morning. I'm Alan hassenfeld a very good friend of potato heads. I am ageless today is February 24th 2020. I'm speaking to you from New York City and I'm here with Wayne Miller who has been a friend for years and a writer of the book called kid. Number one, and another book called toy wars, which are both part of the Hasbro history.

00:36 Good morning. I'm Wayne Miller. I'm 65 years old today is February 24th 2020. We're here in New York City at Toy Fair. My partner is Alan who just spoke and he gave the relationship. We have been friends and colleagues and confidants for almost 30 years. So we know each other very well in this Allen mentioned I have written two books where

01:03 Potato Head. Mr. Potato Head AKA Allen is the central character.

01:10 So the first question Allen who has had the biggest influence on your life. And in what lessons did they teach you that's actually a wonderful question start with Wayne the people that had the greatest influence on my life and how I the road that I chose would have been both my father and my brother and I say that because I remember when I was at University my brother and my father really wanted me to join the business, but I had problems I wanted to go my own way. I have been offered a fellowship and I also wanted to play Wimbledon which I never would have made it. Anyway, I hit when my brother and my dad to talk to me about coming into the business. I had three things. I said to them number one. You always brought me up a certain way and I love our family but

02:10 All around me. I see many times when family is in business together. There are fights between brother and brother and Father and Son and one of my Criterion are coming into the business is If Ever I See since I'm the youngest in the family that the business is creating a rift in the family. I would leave the other thing is we are when I came into the business we're living in a time where big business did not have a very good reputation and many people basically forgot some of the ethics and Morality In This would have been the late 1960s early for the late sixties, and I also said to my dad and brother I'll come into the business but ever ever I'm asked to sacrifice what you taught me all my life and ethics and morality. I'm out of here. And the other thing I said to them was I'll work with you I won't work for you.

03:10 So you talk about ethics and morality those who are clearly lessons you you got from your your brother and your father and your mother as well, but there was another lesson you got from those three people which was the importance of giving back philanthropy and helping other people in different ways. That's been sort of part of the Hasbro DNA right from the beginning talk a little bit about that.

03:35 I think too often people forget where they came from and you know how Astros history is history. Today is wonderful, but there were times that we were faced tough times and I've always found that my father really set the most incredible table for Steve and I to sit down at but he said that table because he was beloved in the industry. He had that Jena se qua that wonderful smile that wonderful bonvie on but more than anything he cared about people and he always gave back and I think from that I learned and then took it to a different level that when we started to do corporate philanthropy. I very much believed in something called the triple threat and that was giving philanthropy money giving gift in kind.

04:35 Play in this case toys to orphanage has or to a disaster area. But the third one which was very unique is we at Hasbro began a program where we hate our people 4 hours a month to do volunteer work. And you know, all I can tell you is that many people say, you know, the business Milton Friedman said the business of business is business. Well, the business of business is business, but you also have to see the future and therefore I've always believed in what I call tangential philanthropy in especially for a business and that is businesses should give back to the communities that they live in and work in and businesses. Not only should do that but intentional philanthropy, they should basically be giving back to things that have made them successful has froze unique in the sense that

05:35 All of our success is because of families and children and so the heart of our philanthropy goes back to Children IEEE. There's the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Rhode Island in here in New York. We've just finished the hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU which is spectacular by the way, and your people look at me and talk to me about philanthropy all the time and I say you don't understand you can't take it with you.

06:06 And if you can't take it with you, what are you going to do with it? And I've always believed in trying to create a smile where there's always a frown and I can't tell you how much I feel good and people around me feel great about some of the work we've done in the other thing about philanthropy corporately which is very important is the people that are part of your team that work with you. They also when they see what you doing a community they become very very proud and just one last thing I want philanthropy. I remember around Christmas time. We used to bring in some of our partners in philanthropy and I remember one of the presentations that we recorded these was for Operation Smile and I think after the people from UPS file head talk for a while.

07:06 There wasn't a dry eye in the house. But we give to our people that tape of the different partners that we do not have in philanthropy because we want them to share it with her family's because you know many people go to work 9 to 5, you leave it where a company with the heart and it's hard to know all of a sudden we were a huge company, but how do you keep that culture and philanthropies has been a wonderful bond for us. You mentioned the word smile more than once.

07:46 And so that sort of naturally leads to the next question when children play with your toys and has row over the years and today has had literally hundreds of toys.

07:58 What do you hope to see when kids play with your toys are in grown up kids too for that matter? Cuz a lot of the games that you guys do not just don't but grown-ups kids are wonderful there like a school of fish. They go from here to here to hear very very quickly. Most important thing for any toy or anything really is how do you create the smile? How do you hope that the product that you've given to a child creates imagination makes them more creative the most important thing is how long do they play with it? What do they do with it a toy or really play is a child's work in we once we become more think we become adults. We forget what it was like to be a child.

08:54 You know I say to people do you remember when you chase the wind and see what do you mean I said didn't you ever fly a kite? Didn't you ever run free? That's a child and is so much pleasure in seeing the sunshine come out on a child's face, but most important thing children with a toy without their playthings. It's about creativity in the most wonderful word imagination.

09:27 So what is the greatest lesson you have learned from your work and I should say here that your work really goes back to your childhood you grew up in the business. You were just a wee one when mr. Potato Head came out in 1952 still on the market today. I think the most enduring toy ever first toy advertised on TV and then you went to work for the company to mention at least one way of saying what lessons have you learned? I'm learning everyday new lessons. But anyway, I think the most important lessons are remember in growing up. We had some tough times in the business and I try and tell people never forget where you came from.

10:12 And I watch too many people once they think they're successful become bigger than their surroundings. And I also tell people don't burn any Bridges, you know, always try to work with other people and but you know lessons, you know, my favorite quote and I'm still trying to figure out if I originated problems are like ice cream cones. If you don't lick them quickly, they become very messy and I use that quote a lot of people's first aid. Wow, that's really true because so many times I listen to other CEOs talk or there's it a problem. I say to people you don't understand tell people what the problem is how it happened what you're going to do to fix it and then shut up instead too often people basically give 10% of the story and it stays

11:12 The news keeps you busy and a job but no smell it out. But the best thing is just tell people the truth and move on. So you talking about it's very important to always remember where you came from and I think this is a good time to know where you and where Hasbro came from which would have been two teenage brothers.

11:39 They had no money. They spoke no English. They arrived in America in 1903. They were escaping religious persecution and possible death of Jews in what is now Poland.

11:53 That's where you came from. One of them Henry hassenfeld is your grandfather and one of the others is hello your great-uncle.

12:02 I want to tell their maybe we won't give her the first of all I hate you notes happy to be here because remember I'm the third generation. Yes, the first generation are the Pioneers the second generation takes it to the next level, but they always say the third generation squanders everything my grandfather and his brother Hillel flagpole and they arrived at Ellis Island when they were hitting my grandfather was 14 Henry was fourteen. He didn't speak any English on he couldn't rub two nickels together. They ended up selling Rags on the streets of New York right here in New York right here in New York, and then they ended up because many of the rags came from Rhode Island move their move to Rhode Island, but you know, you look at each generation and you use

13:02 Reese h e could I have done that and you know and then my grandfather passed the Baton on to my father and his brother and that's how you have Hasbro hassenfeld brothers. And we ended up splitting the business. My father did the toy business my uncle Harold did the pencil business the pencil business was in Tennessee under the name pedigree and Empire and we had the toy business and then after dad passed away Steve my brother took over in 1979 and Steve was really considered to be the modern architect of the toy industry today through acquisition through TV programming and when Steve unexpectedly passed away in 1989 kid number one came.

14:02 Who is singing not as willing as most people would have thought to take over a business because I had spent most of my life in the business living outside of the United States setting up our supply lines and Logistics in Japan and Korea and Taiwan and Hong Kong and in China, but also we didn't have much capital in those days. So instead of having subsidiaries around Europe or wherever to sell toys. I ended up heading our group that licensed our product which is a wonderful business to be in because it's very profitable and it it was great and made me come in contact with someone was wonderful storytellers around the world and I think of all of the wonderful mentors, you know why I've had you can tell one stop

15:02 RI after another about you know, wondering the world but it was it was it was wonderful. So you took over as chairman and CEO as you were kind of when your brother died in 1989 and endure some people and both eating even on the Hasbro board and certainly in the industry who were sort of skeptical that kid. Number one is nicknamed yourself could actually run has My Wish by that point was a Fortune 500 company. I believe a Fortune 100 company Stephen with when Steve died. We were doing about 1.2 million 1.2 Bell. So it was a big company. It was a Wall Street darling and not only did you steer the ship to success you've built it to greatest success with more Acquisitions and maybe you can talk a little bit about that cuz you're 10 years in the corner office was

15:57 Equally distinguished as both your father and your brother. Let's say I was lucky on yourself, but most important thing, you know for anyone who runs a large company company are the people that he or she surrounds themselves with if you have good people and they're probably brighter than you if they shine they make you look very very good. It was when I took over for Steve and I had always talked about when your run if you're fortunate enough to be successful. What are the other things that you want to acquire your to make the company even better and we always talked at the most important thing with content and when I say content we used to get around about what are the properties on the Monopoly board.

16:57 Which by the way is a house program which of course is a Hasbro game. So I think it was 83 or 84 that we bought an open Bradley before when I took over one of the first Acquisitions I did I still can't believe we did it was the acquisition of Kenner Parker Brothers and Tonka and it was absolutely gave us a foundation like no one could believe especially in the game business but content content content in when Steve and I and we're really running the business the toy industry was almost two maybe three dimensional and when I say that you had the physical toy, sometimes you had an advertisement or in many cases there would be TV programming, but you didn't have video games.

17:57 Send you didn't have computers. Then you didn't have there are so many different platforms today that we never imagined would ever be there in the sense of how you deploy the answer to me. If you look at Monopoly which is being scripted for a movie now and it's it gets a great story. But Monopoly sound like six or seven different platforms, whether it's the cell phone, whether it's you know, a Sony game whether it's an Activision. It's it's unbelievable in all of that for us is licensing Revenue. So today the key thing that we did necessary realize was how valuable content would become I think the other you know, there were many other Acquisitions I did but the one that I think I'm at one point which looks like my downfall but probably was

18:57 The most important Acquisitions we made was when we bought Magic the Gathering which was a company called Wizards of the Coast magic. It was a trading card game along with it came another wonderful product called Dungeons & Dragons. And you know, I look at Hasbro today and all of the work that Brian and who's our CEO and chairman is doing Brian Goldman young but the focus of the amount of books and law and Legend from both dungeon the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering its infinite and you know, I'm watching, you know, you're the other day, you know certain footage for both Esports because magic is now an esport game and I remember when we were doing the beta they should have listened to Austin, Iowa. But anyway 1 minute

19:57 We were doing the beta test. I think we had two billion hits over one year on Magic the Gathering in incredibly High number but you had magic you have dungeons there in so much and now Brian just orchestrated the acquisition of entertainment one which entertainment one gives us things like Peppa the Pig PJ Ricky zoom in

20:31 More importantly, they're brilliant at basically content storytelling and creating movies creating TV programming and many times when you do an acquisition, sometimes the cultures don't work. This is one where I believe that the two cultures put hand in glove and the future is infinite.

21:02 You mentioned TV programming and movies and certainly has road today is well represented in terms of alliances and Partnerships with Hollywood with many many properties, but that's not a new thing either. We we talked briefly before about the first toy advertised on television anywhere in the world was mr. Potato Head in 1952 in the fifties when your father was running has broke he built alliances in friendships that endure to this day with companies like

21:34 Disney most notably with some of them big movie studios and that is simply continued to today. So it's all the kind with that by accident that these relationships happen. There's no other choice somebody that has built that kind of her presence on the screen. I think we lived at the right time in relationships. I don't see relationships being as deep today as maybe they were in the past because you know, everyone does their texting their emailing their whatever in but they don't spend as much time face-to-face with people understanding people's lives children, you know what they like what they don't like, you know, it's just a You Know the Way of the world it's moving much faster, but you mention Tina one named Potato at

22:25 You know. Potato head spin very difficult for me. As you know, Potato Head and eye Potato Head was born in 52. I was born in 48 and potato head always thought he should have been chairman CEO of Hasbro. You must understand liking Toy Story toys come alive. It's just that we humans don't understand them that well, but the Potato Head, you know, it has been angry with me for a long time. I think it was in the mid-eighties. We're and I called him pothead. We were in pothead for a mayor of Boise, Idaho. There were five candidates to be mayor and the eyes I tell the story which Wayne is a little bit different than the way you tell the story. I got a call about 10 days before the election from the Electoral Commission of Idaho basically saying mr. Hassenfeld we have a problem.

23:25 Problem right now in the polling. Mr. Potato Head is polling number 2 and there is a strong belief that he's probably going to win the election. Can you please take him out of contention? And I had a long talk with mrs. Potato head and she prevailed that story by the way when International in this was in the pre-internet age was really sort of an incredible story. And for those who may not know and this probably no one who doesn't know Idaho is the potato capital of the world, which is actually mr. Potato Head is in this potato Hall of Fame and you can buy Potato Head

24:07 Items in that gift shop there Potato Head though. His also been a spokesperson for other.

24:15 Causes including physical fitness with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then quitting smoking with the Venom Surgeon General. So there's a toy Garden in sort of the three cause world. Will you had the League of Women Voters in the use potato head as their spokesman to and get people off the couch and not be a couch potato is done a lot of things, but he and I had a little bit of a falling-out because a year-and-a-half ago with a great deal of her guy tonight to talk to Potato Head about this, you know Potato Head has this opening in his bum is where you are and where you stick his pieces so they don't get lost. Well, the drug cartels in Mexico decided Potato Head would be a good mule and but they actually were stuffing cocaine into potato head screw around and trying to get it across the border.

25:15 Thank God it was stopped.

25:18 Oh, that's funny that leads naturally to.

25:23 This question. What is your favorite toy?

25:27 You know, I ain't everybody asked me. You know what my favorite toy is, but

25:34 Having their all my children and you know, I don't think fathers and mothers. That's a Sara Lee save this as my favorite child. I love them all. I mean obviously g i Joe's very important to me because GI Joe was what put me through college and Taylor built the company into a monkey out of it. It made it really has row on the map Scotland for I love you know, I love them all. I mean the ones that stand out obviously I spent more time. You don't want Transformers because in those days I was Fino back in the Moon Transformers first came out in 8485. I was sourcing it with the Japanese but the so hard, you know, I love the Monopoly. I love clue do I you know Battleship connect for My Little Pony.

26:33 Baby alive but for Nerf, of course with all Nerf Super Soaker, but that it's why it's so hard to choose. I mean, they're all wonderful. I think they were at the same point in time. It's not only the toys the stories that I can tell from around the world or England France Germany Iran of all of the different happenings with our toys or with my children. It's wonderful.

27:08 So how is the toy industry changed over these many decades of eminent one time they were

27:15 Many companies that were family owned. Most of them are gone.

27:21 We had Brands like I'd ideal Mattel Ken or which was Papa. You people transogram marks talk about the changes from what was essentially family-run businesses and maybe even hotel in the early days to what we have today. Look I'm going to back into the question in a way because from me the most important thing, you know, I'm chairman of the executive committee of Hasbro right now, which means I'm on the board, but what's my role my only role is to make sure that we don't forget our culture our Morality In Our ethic. We're still a family company not only do we care about the toys but we care about our people and that is so so important and I think that was one of the things that happens is that when you know, you still have wonderful entrepreneurs in this toy industry coming up everyday, you know, it's Hannah with wonderful ideas.

28:21 Most important thing in any business is passion, and I find that sometimes as companies get bored or whatever. They lose their heart and soul family businesses have a tendency to yes. They worry about the bottom line, but they are also a lot about Humanity. So I think is I look around the industry today. There's still some wonderful wonderful people, but it's lost a little bit of its heart and soul. You know, we used to, you know, there are things that I can say with the games the pranks the stories. We used to tell you no coming into toy fair and some of the things that happened at Toy Fair in but to give me my dear also how it changed when I started the business you kissed your wife. Goodbye if you were married at you know, when beginning of January and

29:21 Went to the Hong Kong toy fair. And from the Hong Kong toy fair. You went to the Milan Toy Fair in Italy in from Milan. You went to London from London. You went to Paris from Paris you then went to Nuremberg in Germany and then you came to the New York toy fair. And I would stay 3 or 4 days fly for 2 days to Valencia Spain for the Spanish toy fair. So you were really for almost 2 months just traveling the world at different toy fairs. Do they ever get boring? No in the recent didn't get boring the people in so many of the European businesses that we were did business with so many of those businesses were family Ron and I, you know being in a family business many of them took me in and gave has for a really good chance.

30:18 I think one of the unusual characteristics of your tenure in the corner office and since running the passing field family initiatives, which is the family philanthropy was your willingness to become politically involved in terms of Ethics reform in terms of political reform campaign Finance reform in the 1990s when there was a movement in Rhode Island called right now, which was basically to summarize a rather long and complicated movement clean up politics in Rhode Island. Where did where did that come from? You were really the first member of your family to step out there some risks of the company because of that time you were Fortune 500 company.

31:05 You believed in something talk about that. Well again, you are home base is always been Rhode Island and there were things that we're going on in Rhode Island that were wrong. Hasbro was always a very fortunate company in the sense that we needed. Nothing from government. Another words. We never asked for favors or this or that no tax breaks are none of that none of that stuff and and I've always loved that because once you do something with a politician or they give you something you're indebted for your life, and I was one of the few people that couldn't

31:44 People trusted to follow form a coalition and it was the most ungodly Coalition in the world. It was the bar association. It was save the bay which is the Environmental Group. It was the Urban League. It was the Council of churches. That was the Jewish Federation. The one that disappointed me at the end was the Catholic church because they came in and then right as we began to go public they pulled out for a while the unions were and I mean it was a Coalition in the most important thing. If you want change to happen change it the end of the day has to come from within but you can put pressure to make that change happen and because we were so broadly based in ending in all we were fighting for was Rhode Island was an anomaly we and one other state had two year.

32:44 Governorships sort of State offices. We wanted like everyone else to go to four years. We wanted to come close what was called the revolving-door which politicians that were leaving office going into lobbying jobs and getting other state jobs. We wanted to change campaign Finance in Rhode Island and that cause me trouble because I called for a moratorium on all and it woke up a lot of people. Anyway, we had to go to referendum in the beginning it looked like it was about 4060 against us at the end of the day we 175-25 because we weren't asking for any favors. We were at just asking to do the right thing and it was an incredible group of people that organized but the reason to get involved is

33:44 If your home base here, if your government's failing then your health systems going to fail your education system is going to fail. The roads aren't going to be in you're never going to attract good people or have people stay and you know again for Hasbro as brilliant as our toys are in our ETA shannan our creativity the most important asset that Hasbro has are its people and too often. We don't take the proper care of our people.

34:20 So kid number one Alan hassenfeld in Hasbro it is what I would describe as the sequel to Toy Wars which came over 20 years ago and the prequel because we get into a lot of your family history and things have happened that weren't reported in the first book. Why did you want?

34:40 A book written I definitely had to be my ego know I know the real reason you would expect from someone of your stature in life a go-ahead know that the most important thing is I go back to Hasbro and to recall has four of the learning experience in when I'm talkin to new employees one of the things that I've begun to note and I'm just telling story after story about you know, what my beliefs are in and the company in the history. But today we're a 5 billion dollar company people coming into has four are coming into a company that's 5 billion dollars. They have no idea of who came before them who set the table for them to sit down to mean I came into the company when we were 30 million dollars and losing money. So more than anything, you know, when I wish we would do this is a cont.

35:40 We don't teach history and so it more than anything. I wanted people to understand the history where we all came from in the sense of who would have thought this 5 billion dollar company was started by someone that had come across on an immigrant ship couldn't speak English didn't have a penny in his pocket and sold Rags. I want people to understand that there is a culture here. There is a wonderful wonderful family, but I wanted that story to be told

36:19 I have seen you inside house for a fact. We're account a scene in kid. Number one where you speak to employees of House Road house for you. It's called.

36:31 What is the reaction you get from people who are attending the sessions some of them of people that you knew when from when you were the head of the county, but some had never met you obviously know who you are. What kind of reactions you go. I get wonderful reactions because you know, I I love to tell stories, you know about my exploits and how fortunate I was because no one stepped Dunmore minefields get you know many times because I share a business while I watch different CEO speak and they always talk about how great they are. That's not what people want to hear about they want to hear about a what was Stakes did you make and how did you survive? And so, you know, I love our people so much and I get a chance to have drinks with them afterwards in in in dinner and they're all smiles because they are beginning to make them feel more and more apart.

37:30 Of what we call the family of Hasbro.

37:34 I never have liked the term living legend, but if it could apply to someone it would probably apply to you. Is that a reaction you get from it much as employees, but other people I think people give me more credit than I deserve because he can I'm only as good as the people who made me look good and I love the industry. Yes. I'm in the Hall of Fame. Yes. I chair the Hall of Fame, you know of the toy industry. I'm probably the only American in the British toy Hall of Fame, but it's just most Beauty from me is always been how you treat people and everybody, you know, I'm lucky.

38:21 I could have been born something else, but I appreciate it. And in the sense, I don't take anything for granted and whether it's a beggar on the street or it's me in a way. We're equals were human and never never never look down on anybody.