PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WLNE) — Hasbro said that a number of employees will be affected by a “workforce reduction” as part of the company’s “operational streamlining.” The company said that around 100 employees would be affected by the reductions, which were part of its aim to “trim three months” from the development process. The reductions also came with a restructuring of positions and departments of the company, including the “commercial integration” of the company’s toy unit with Wizards of the Coast, the designers and publishers of roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons and card game Magic: The Gathering. A letter from CEO Chris Cocks said the changes aimed to “empower teams to make quicker decisions and deliver innovation faster.” The company added it will release its quarterly earnings report on Oct. 24. The full letter can be read below: Team, Today we are announcing organizational changes to drive our Playing to Win strategy. These changes aim to empower teams to make quicker decisions and deliver innovation faster. Our commitment as a leadership team is to offer each of you a great place to work with opportunities for impact and growth. Empowered Business Units We are consolidating commercial teams into our Wizards & Digital Gaming and Toy, Game, Licensing & Entertainment (TGLE) Business Units. Hobby (including WPN) under Brian Trunk and Direct under Dan Rawson, will report to John Hight. Mass and Specialty Retail will report to Tim Kilpin. As part of this consolidation, Matt Austin will move into an advisory role reporting directly to Tim. Lisa Gilbert will lead our commercial team for North and Latin America and Bhavesh Somaya will lead our commercial team for EMEA/APAC, both also reporting directly to Tim. Our Business Units will support each other in relevant channels (for instance, Wizards will support board game sell-in to Hobby; Consumer Products will help drive D&D and Magic assortment in Mass). However, the majority of sales for each unit will be self-directed. As part of this shift, we are also moving demand planning into our Supply Chain team. We will integrate our demand and supply planning platform to improve order fulfillment and forecast accuracy. With these changes, our Business Units will contain all the design, go to market and business decision making disciplines they need to drive our product initiatives and achieve our business goals, supported by streamlined marketing, finance, legal, communications, and HR partners. Restructuring Toy for Growth In addition to the Commercial integration, the Toy team will pair Design and Development at the source. Our newly combined Innovation, Design and Development team, led by Dean Carley, will work to speed our innovation and design to value efforts at the source of production. We will prioritize our presence in Asia, with closer proximity to key suppliers, and increased collaboration with manufacturing partners. Our goal is to cut time to market by 3+ months, allowing us to better compete in an environment that favors companies that can capitalize on trends. We are also creating a unified Brand and Licensing organization led by Kim Boyd. In addition to overseeing our Global Play Leads across Action, NERF, Play-Doh, Preschool and Fashion, we will consolidate our North America Marketing Team, our Licensed Consumer Products team, and Location-based Entertainment under Kim. This franchise model helps evolve our strategy as we focus on building profitable franchises and working with partners to expand our reach to over a billion people over the next five years. And the new structure will support decision making at a pace and scale to win. These changes will improve productivity and empowerment but required making some difficult choices. As a result, today we are saying goodbye to several team members who will be moving on from Hasbro. We’re grateful for their contributions to our mission and wish each of them well. A New Marketing Org Marketing is our biggest annual investment, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. In recognition of the unique nature of our business units we are approaching marketing in bespoke ways for each, with both supported by a centralized marketing services team that manages these investments for the company. Jason Bunge will join the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), focusing on supporting John Hight and the Magic, D&D and Digital Games teams while continuing to spearhead our go to market efforts for Toy and Game. As part of this change, the marketing teams at Wizards will report to Jason. The regional marketing teams supporting Consumer Products will shift into TGLE to align with our regional Commercial teams. This model provides Wizards with a digital and gaming expert as we build our publishing organization, and TGLE with core marketing services for seasonal and promotional marketing, coupled with a specialized brand team for each of our major brands. Kim, Brian Baker, and the rest of our TGLE leadership will continue to be supported by a central marketing services organization reporting to Jason spanning media and campaign planning, social, influencer and digital marketing, agency management and creative services, and marketing analytics. 2025 and Beyond Part of our strategy is an “all in” bet on digital, direct, and technology-assisted innovation. Dan Rawson, who now leads Direct for the entire company, is developing a unified back-end platform and managing the front end for brand-focused initiatives like Pulse, Secret Lair and DDB. Dan Shull will consolidate IT and Technology into one cohesive team. You can read details about his new team here. Lastly, we’ll keep investing significantly in our video game studios, bringing on new studio capacity and expanding partnerships with some of the biggest and best names in digital gaming. Our work to resize our cost base continues, and thanks to the hard work of many of you across the company we are tracking towards our long-term cost savings goals. We are re-setting our processes, dedicating resources (including a new indirect procurement team under John Hewitt) and will be rolling out clearer spending guardrails and expectations across all areas as we move into 2025. We will also be making investments in our team, most notably exploring a new HQ with a collaborative, modern environment that is reflective of our brands and fosters innovation. Expect an update in Q1 on our location strategy. We wouldn’t be moving until mid-2026 at the earliest, prioritizing convenience to public transit, and working closely with teams to make sure we’re building a space that works for our unique needs. Finally, recognizing the critical importance of operational excellence and the progress to date as well as the road ahead, I couldn’t be more pleased that Gina Goetter is now serving as our Chief Operating Officer, in addition to CFO. Gina is a brilliant leader and building the strong operational foundation that is crucial to driving our strategic objectives as well as our bottom line. This foundation will drive our legacy as we delight fans for the next 100 years and make Hasbro one of the best places to work in the business of play. Thank you for being on this journey with us. I’m looking forward to connecting in a couple of weeks at our State of the Company on November 7. — Chris & the Executive Leadership Team Categories: News, Pawtucket, Rhode Island