Richard Gottlieb talks about why Mattel made the Time 100 Most Influential Companies and finds that a surprising game (older than any of us) also made the list.

Richard Gottlieb is the founder and CEO of Global Toy Experts, a consultancy to US and international toy companies. He is also the publisher of Global Toy News, a web-based magazine founded in 2009 that covers toy industry news and provides resources to the toy industry. Richard co-hosts The Playground Podcast and publishes The Toy Intelligencer report. Here, he shares one of his latest columns with Toy World readers:

Congratulations to Mattel for being included in this year’s “Time 100 Most Influential Companies ” list. They and other honourees were selected based on relevance, impact, innovation, leadership, ambition and success.

And Mattel is in good company. No, make that outstanding company. The list includes companies like Space X, JP Morgan Chase, Apple, and Nvidia

Here is how Times describes Mattel’s achievements: “Mattel, the company behind Barbie, American Girl, and Uno, is rapidly expanding from toys to digital games, merchandise, and films driven by its storied IP. This summer, Mattel will debut Greta Gerwig’s much hyped Barbie movie, the iconic doll’s first on the big screen in her 64-year history. Barbie is just the first of 15 projects in development from Mattel’s new films division, ranging from a Hot Wheels movie with J.J. Abrams to a Barney film with Daniel Kaluuya. Led by CEO Ynon Kreiz, Mattel also won back the lucrative Disney Princess contract from rival Hasbro, launching new dolls this year, and has broken ground on a theme park in Arizona.”

That is excellent news for Mattel and the toy industry, but I wanted to know whether other toy or game companies made the list. Here is what I discovered, Chess made the list. Yes, a game invented in the 6th century is propelling one of the most influential companies of the 21st.

Find out what drove the chess influence in this century in Richard’s full article on Global Toy News here.