The Lego Company : Case Analysis Of The Leo Company

There was the change in the business strategy in the company that was brought up by the new CEO. The strategy was to survive, cut costs, sell businesses, generate cash and ignore the dash for the growth in the immediate future. Lego was known for the traditional blocks and components that will allow children to build anything with their imagination. The business strategy was to broaden the Lego products for the other customer segments. They created the

The Lego Group tried to catch up the market trends during the period, but they ignored that the industry total profit pool decreased by 50% Between 1999 and 2003. It's naturally for players to reduce mass production and focus on core competency. However, the Lego Group invested significantly in expansion not only in brick-based product lines, but also beyond the brick. The expansion was not focusing on its core competency.

In this article a Lego factory in Europe is facing the problem of making sure all of the toys will be delivered on time. According to the article, “Lego A/S has spent years overhauling its supply chain to keep up with surging demand.” Lego has such a high demand that they are making 72 million bricks a day. According to the article it states, “Lego faces as it vies with U.S. rival

LEGO,  like  most  companies  in  the  toy  industry  are  fighting  to  stay  profitable  in  this

There are many barriers to new organizations in the toy industry, making the threat of new entrants low. Lego and other big toy companies like Mattel benefit from economies of scale. An economy of scale is achieved by lower costs through large volume production (Textbook glossary). Economies of scale can occur in many departments within the organization including production, marketing, research and development, and finance. Some manufacturing of Lego products was shifted to Central Europe and Mexico in order to benefit from lower wages and to shorten product supply chains (p. 13 of case). The management of Lego additionally holds expertise on production, distribution and customer needs; which are absent in a new organization. To enter the toy sector a potential entrant needs to calculate the start of production at a level that will give a competitive position and production costs lower than the market.

Based on the case study Lego appears to be using the Focus strategy. Michael Porter proposed three generic strategies Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Focus. Focus is a strategy where organization focuses on specific niche markets; this may include a particular geographic region or particular segment of customers. Organizations which use this strategy develop their products after having a study of dynamics of the segment and unique needs of customer. Lego before the appointment of the new CEO appear to use the focus strategy as their top priority was always to focus on innovation and creativity with taking profits into consideration. Add to that the case study also mention that Lego used to create products that primarily targeted boys. After the appointment of new CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp the company appears to have changed its policy form Focus to Cost-Leadership. Cost-Leadership is a strategy where organizations focus on gaining competitive advantage by offering products and services at the lowest possible price. They achieve this by increasing profits by reducing production cost and other way is to increase market share by reducing the prices of products compared to the competitors. Knudstorp after taking charge of Lego changed their focus on reducing the production

In 2002 and beginning of 2003 LEGO struggle with low sales and an increase in their inventory levels due to an intensification of their competitors, adapting their process as LEGO did in the beginning

1. What led the LEGO group to the edge of bankruptcy by 2004? Please focus on the management moves during “the growth period that wasn’t” (1993-98) and “the fix that wasn’t” (1999-2004).

LEGO Group was formed by a carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932 in Billund, Denmark. The Word, LEGO was meant to attract kids of various age groups, it is derived from Danish phrase, “leg godt” meaning: “Play well”. Initially LEGO was produced as a wooden brick, with their motto, “Only the best is the best.” The LEGO Brick was produced in 1958 composed of interlocking tubes that offered unlimited building opportunities. The purpose of The LEGO Brick was to inspire creative and controlled problem solving, while adhering to common curiosity using your everyday imagination (Sandgaard Jensen). It was awarded “Toy of the century” by Fortune Magazine, as well as British Association of Toy Retailers. LEGOs was sold in more than 130 countries. A couple major products include: Pre-school products LEGO DUPLO, Play Themes LEGO city line, BIONICLE, and many more Licensed Products built up around movies or books also including a LEGO Education Board game. Market sizes category US, Australia, United Kingdom, New

As their name and ideal, Lego has been beloved by the children as well as the parents for decades. Not only as plastic toy bricks, but also effective educational tools, the LEGO Company enjoyed continuous growth and broaden the global brand value. The LEGO brand moved to third place in 2002/2003 with only Coca-cola and Kellogg having greater respect among families with children. Even though as the overall toy market faces challenges, LEGO’s revenue and profits are increasing rapidly, especially since 2005. This profitability didn’t change even in the current recession in the global market. The LEGO Group achieved record-breaking profits in

In addition to their commitment to the builders of tomorrow, LEGO Group makes 4 promises. The first promise they make is to their partners. Building partnerships with their customers, suppliers, and intellectual property partners based on mutual value creation is fundamental. The second promise they make to their people, to enable execution of the business strategy and build the long-term health of the company. The

Lego's key weakness in the run up to 2004 may be seen as two fold. Firstly the company has failed in a key area

Lego is one of the most recognizable companies across the world. The Lego Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen and has since been passed down from generation to generation, currently owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. The Lego Group has headquarters in Billund, Denmark and main offices in USA, UK, China, and Singapore. The Lego name originated from the abbreviation of two Danish words “leg godt” meaning “play well”. The present-day Lego brick was launched in 1958 with the interlocking principle which allowed for an infinite amount of building possibilities. Because of the Lego Groups mass size there also comes a very precise corporate structure. The Lego company is operated in a five-member Management Board. The Management Board consists of the Chief Executive Officer(CEO), Chief Marketing Officer(CMO), Chief Financial Officer(CFO), Chief Commercial Officer(CCO), and the Chief Operations Officer(COO)/Chief HR Officer(CHRO). From there it is further broken down into a 21-member Corporate Management and a board of directors. This corporate structure allows for individual departments to work successfully within the larger corporation. With the Lego Groups mission to “inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow” they have become one of the world’s largest manufactures of toys, valuing imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring, and quality.

Mattel Toy Company is a multinational organization headquartered in El Segundo, California. This company deals with the manufacturing of toys such as dolls, toys, board games among others. Founded in 1945 and since, it has been in the children’s entertainment industry where it has indicated a lot of advancement in all its sectors across the countries it is operating in furthering the help of its strategy that has met the demands of its customers (Syed, 2014).

The company LEGO (Appendix 1), was far from the reality when in the year 2000 the famous Bricks were named as ‘the toy of the century’ by Fortune Magazine. the numbers were reflecting a different reality when in 2003 and 2004 the losses were of more than $400m on annual sales of over $1b (Lego case of study 2014).