Taking a Look at the Lego Group

History of Lego

In 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded the LEGO Group. The name “LEGO” is inspired by two word “leg godt” which means “play well” in Danish.

Actually, since 1916, Ole Kirk Kristiansen has begun his business at his own carpentry workshop which manufactured furniture in Billund, Denmark. His workshop started producing small wooden toys in 1920s. In 1932, his son, Godtfred, started working in business with him at the age of 12. Godtfred worked hard and played an active role in his father’s company. He started creating models when he was 17 years old.

In 1947, the Lego Group bought a plastic injection molding machine and produced some plastic toys. Ole Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. Two years later, Lego began making similar bricks, then developed them, in order to make these brick be able to stick together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart. These produce has been called “Lego Mursten”, or "Lego Bricks” since 1953.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was appointed Junior Vice President at the age of 30, when there was around 50 employees worked for the firm at that time. In 1954, Godtfred became the junior managing director of Lego, and he got the idea for a new play platform called “Lego System” including many sets, vehicles and supplementary elements.

In 1958, Lego developed and patented a design that improves the locking ability and versatility of the bricks. Ole Kirk Christiansen passed away that same year, and his son became head of the company.

In 1960, a warehouse fire destroyed almost wooden toys of Lego. Godtfred decided to lead the company to focus on manufacturing plastic toys and removed the wooden line. At that time, more t...

... middle of paper ...

...ry.

However, that managing a company with many different subcultures in many countries is not an easy work. The challenge is not only ensure that every department globally is fully aware of the vision, mission and philosophy of the Lego Group but indeed also to ensure they are innovative and understand the globally changing trends of the children nowadays.

Conclusion

The analysis shows that the LEGO Group follows a traditional organization structure. The CEO has the most power in the organization, but with the influence from the shareholder family. The company also encourages a good communication among employees that solves some of disadvantages of the old structure. Nowadays, the structure of LEGO Group has become looser to encourage creativity, but it will take time for a big company like the LEGO Group to change their structure from old organization to new model.