...Lego Case Study -Avinash Mavireddi 1. After Knudstorp has taken the control of Lego, the first thing he stressed on was the Supply Chain Management. Earlier, the components produced by Lego were primarily used for only one pattern or model. So the prototype designers were asked to use the same blocks for more than one design. This was the first step taken by Knudstorp that resulted in reducing the production of Lego components to almost half of what they were producing before. It also helped in reducing the expenses on the components mold significantly. The new approach has generalized the Lego components and this gave children an unlimited ability to think and create different models and design beyond what they can imagine. On the whole it even widened the range of products that Lego had. Another strategy that Lego employed was to induce the themes of films that were a huge success like Indian Jones and Star Wars. They didn’t stop at this and started to carefully maneuver into the Video games which featured animated Lego cast. All this growth in the company created a pressure on the Information Systems. Order management and fulfillment were the two sectors that were impacted severely and in turn it resulted in missing the customer demands. To overcome this situation, Employee management systems were widened by adding new employees to the stability and growth at many new locations. Product design and development were the other two modules which needs to be concentrated now...
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...LEGO as we know it today first came into being in 1949 when Godtfred Kirk Christiansen used a “new” material – plastic – to create simple four and eight stud building blocks. Today, LEGO has turned into one of the most famous toy brands in the world. The aim of this case study essay is to asses the macro and micro environment in which LEGO is performing today. Micro Marketing Environment The micro marketing environment is defined as “the forces close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers – the company, market channel, firms, customer markets, competitors and publics, which combine to make the firm’s value delivery system” (Kotler, Wong, Saunders and Armstrong, 2005) One of the most notable things concerning the micro environment of LEGO is that it is viewed as a strong brand. It been part of the toy market for so long, that grandparents and parents can remember playing with the toy as a child, and so often feel they have a relationship or bond with the product. The brand has also infiltrated many markets world-wide, and its fame is instrumental in its continued success. The case study states, it’s the only European company to enter the worlds Top Ten toy manufacturers. The product also has a unique selling point. The toy of LEGO is aiming to capture a creative imagination and also enable it to stand out in the market of dolls, cars, computer games etc. It is promoted as a “system of play”, which can be a strong selling point when trying to compete...
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...Introduction & Company Overview Lego is the definition of the household name. The little brick has made itself an essential part of childhood around the world. The Lego Company, a multinational corporation was founded in 1932 in Jutland, Denmark. By 2009, it became the fifth largest manufacturer of toys by sales volume. The company had a workforce of over 7000, and was selling its products in over 130 countries. The core idea behind LEGO is to develop a line of marketing toys and accessories in the form of interlocking plastic bricks. Because plastic became readily available following the Second World War, Lego purchased its first plastic injection-molding machine in 1947. The plastic version of the Lego brick was born and patented in 1958. Modern bricks we still see today are comparable with ones made in the 1950s. During the 1970’s the foundation of the company’s manufacturing facilities and research and development department were established to keep the manufacturing methods up to date. A LEGO production plant was opened in Enfield, Connecticut in the United States. This growth enabled The LEGO Group to continue expanding their product and by 2007 divide their product line into six product segments including pre-school products, creative building, play themes, licensed products, Lego NXT, and LEGO Education. Fortune Magazine and the British Association of Toy Retailers named the Lego Group Company’s iconic brick the “Toy of the Century.” It was clear that the brand...
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...Introduction Since LEGOs inception in 1932, the company has not only experienced extreme pressure from competitors, but it has overcome numerous challenging obstacles from the external environment to become the world’s largest toy manufacturer (Financial Times, 2016). Upon analysis of LEGOs strengths through Institutional Theory (IT) and Resource-Based View (RBV), this essay aims to combine these two theories to explain LEGOs internationalisation process. Firstly, the two frameworks will be used to analyse the period (1932-1990s) where LEGO established a culture centred on product quality and innovation. As a result, the company achieved legitimacy within the institutional environment which spurred their international expansion. Within this analysis, the strategic decision to enter specific markets, and the methods they used to so will be outlined. Secondly, LEGOs recovery from their financial crisis in 2003, is an excellent example of how new capabilities can be made, and existing ones rebuilt to deploy resources using organisational processes to produce a desired effect. Institutional theory Institutional theory describes companies that operate in foreign markets conform to the institutional environments in order to gain legitimacy from the perspective of other institutional bodies. These institutions are the rules, norms and beliefs that define socially acceptable behaviour and therefore influence economic activity (Scott, 1995). The degree to which a company...
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...Rebuilding Lego, Brick by Brick How a supply chain transformation helped put the beloved toymaker back together again. by Keith Oliver, Edouard Samakh, and Peter Heckmann Lego art by Sean Kenney Photographs by Matthew Septimus On the surface, the Lego Group didn’t look as if it was in trouble. The fourth-largest toymaker in the world at the time (today it is fifth-largest), the Lego Group sold €1 billion (US$1.35 billion) worth of toys in 2004, ranging from its snap-together bricks for young children to Mindstorms, a line of do-it-yourself robot kits for older kids. Even in the digital age, its toys maintained a surprisingly firm grip on the market and seemed to adapt well to changing tastes. The company’s steady stream of new products routinely generated three-quarters of its yearly sales. Popular enthusiasm was so great that in 2000, the British Association of Toy Retailers joined Fortune magazine in naming the company’s classic bricks “the toy of the century.” But the Lego Group’s financial performance told another story. Despite its extraordinary hold on the imagination of children around the world, the Billund, Denmark, company was in trouble. The Lego Group had lost money four out of the seven years from 1998 through 2004. Sales dropped 30 percent in 2003 and 10 percent more in 2004, when profit margins stood at –30 percent. Lego Group executives estimated that the company was destroying €250,000 ($337,000) in value every day. How could such a seemingly successful...
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...Short Answers 1. Explain the factors that may influence the organisation in adopting RM. 2. Suggest for a company with which you are familiar. Where would you place the company on the hypothetical RM/TM continuum? What factors led to your decision to place them at this point on the continuum? 3. What are the differences between Relationship Marketing and Transactional Marketing? 4. What effect do switching costs have on a relationship? 5. Explain the association between risk, salience and emotion. Part B: Case Study Lego is one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers. It is estimated that more than 400 million children and adults play with Lego each year. However, despite being voted the nation’s favourite toy for a number of successive years and a YouGov pool into the top ten favourite toys of the past century showing Lego as the clear winner (ahead of computer games, teddy bears, Meccano and train sets!) Lego is in serious financial difficulty! With an annual revenue of over £1 billion and employing around 8000 people in North and South America, Asia and Europe, the company has posted a loss for a number of consecutive years. After attempting unsuccessfully to redress its losses with new products such as computer games, the company is attempting to restructure so as to focus on its core values. As Frank Martin, of Hornby toys states, “Children are still interested in Playing. Blaming the TV or computer...
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...physical toys. Children are playing computer games at a younger age, eroding the share of their playtime that was once dominated by toys. 1.2.2 Demographics In developed countries, aging population coupled with lowering birth rates are the primary driving forces for industry players going forward. I believe that this should provide implications on the future directions that LEGO should take. 1.2 External Environment – SWOT Analysis 1.3.3 Strengths and Opportunities The LEGO brand itself is entrenched deeply within the building toys industry. This strength is especially valuable to certain sub-industries under the broader toys industry such as infants’ toys and serious gaming. LEGO is also a trusted brand in education and with parents. LEGO can leverage on this strong brand name to perhaps explore opportunities in non-traditional markets such as the silver industry. LEGO, being an established brand that the older generations are familiar with, can expand into these industries. In addition, the trend towards more playtimes spent on computer games opens up the digital market for LEGO as well. The culture of innovation and LEGO’s unique product offering – providing building blocks for players to create and invent is a valuable and complex strength embedded in its organizational culture that can be used to reliably gain a foothold in the digital games market. 1.3.4 Weaknesses and Threats The consolidation of licenses under Disney, coupled with LEGO’s...
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...5. Summarize the strategic risks using the Strategic Risk Management framework and map the risks on the LEGO PAPA model. The LEGO Group uses a four step Strategic Risk Management model which is comprised of Enterprise Risk Management, Monte Carlo Simulations, Active Risk and Opportunity Planning, and Preparing for Uncertainty. Using the Strategic Risk Management Framework, there are many different risks on the pyramid that the LEGO Group are open to. They are shaded and explained below. Customer Risk—LEGO’s products are geared to younger children. It needs to fulfill otherwise unmet customer needs in the Asian market to make a presence and gain market share in that market. “Market research firms noted a strong preference for preschool and educational toys in most emerging Asian economies. For example, Chinese sales of scientific/educational toys and construction toys had grown 20% between 2009 and 2010.” The LEGO Group has a plethora of construction toys and it prides itself on its ability to use consumer insight in product development. “Anyone can get consumer insight, but many people have a hard time dissecting this information and utilizing it in their product development.”1 We believe LEGO should proceed with caution and do more research because their own focus groups with Chinese mothers contradicts the preference above. “The post-eighties mums grew up in this hard school paradigm. They don’t want to offer their kids that same experience. These parents want...
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...LEGOLAND® Deutschland eröffnete im Jahr 2002 im bayrischen Günzburg, nahe der Autobahn 8 München - Stuttgart, seine Pforten ворота und ist der zweite Versuch попытка einen LEGO®-Park in Deutschland zu etablieren основывать. Den ersten Versuch gab es 1973-1976 in Sierksdorf, allerdings scheiterte неудалось,Dieser und wurde 1977 als Hansaland, dem heutigen Hansa Park, neu eröffnet. Viel durchgestylter hingegen, und mit den besten Attraktionen der weltweit drei anderen LEGO® Parks - Billund (1968), Windsor (1996), Kalifornien (1999) - ausgestattet, geht LEGOLAND® Deutschland an den Start. Allen Parks gemeinsam ist die einzigartige неповторимое Mischung aus Unterhaltung техническое обслуживание, und spielerischem Lernen, wobei причем das Miniland das Herzstück ядро jedes Parks ist. Das Miniland ist der maßstabsgetreue естественный масштаб Nachbau (1:20) berühmter Städte und Landschaften. Hierbei wird viel Wert ценный auf die Details gelegt, denn in fast jeder Szene gibt es sich bewegende движущиеся Objekte, die gerade den besonderen Witz ausmachen включена. Rund um das Miniland versammeln sich сосредотачиваются die fünf weiteren Themenbereiche тематические зоны (ohne Eingangsbereich) LEGO City, Knights Kingdom, Imagination, Land der Abenteuer und LEGO X-treme. Für ein Investitionsvolumen объем капиталовложений von mehr als 150 Millionen Euro wurden hier die Highlights der anderen Parks gebaut, darunter der Feuerdrache огнедышащий дракон oder die Projekt X - Teststrecke...
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...This is one of Nathan Sawaya’s signature piece titled “Yellow”. At a glance, the first words that we think of are ‘yellow’, ‘Lego’ and ‘torn’. However, if we look at this sculpture patiently, then more complicated and abstract words like ‘repent’, ‘suffering’, and “absolvent” come to mind. The reason I found this exhibit so intriguing is because of the world of opposite going on within it. Play bricks or Lego, which are such simple and innocent play toys for children have been used to construct a sculpture which has a very eerie and dark vibe emitting from it. The color ‘yellow’ too, adds to this one of a kind ‘unity in conflict’. One would associate yellow with happiness, laughter and maybe even hope. However, the kinds of emotion and sentiment this sculpture screams out are those of a darker shade like black and maroon. I believe this unison of light and dark elements of the sculpture is what gives it its balanced and at the same time, intriguing appeal. My imagination makes me believe that light plays a very important role in the whole exhibit. Without the lighting, the ‘story’ would be incomplete. The sculpture looks up as if it were reaching out to a higher, more divine entity. There are several interpretations that resonate in the sculpture - A devotee performing a cleansing ritual for the God he believes in, a sinner in the middle of a confession, a commoner trying to relieve himself of stress or maybe even a lover ‘pouring his heart out’ to his long lost love! Imagination...
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...3 STEPS TO LEGO GROUP FINANCIAL TURNAROUND * Easy, Fast & Quick Results EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rivkin, Thomke and Beyersdorfer (2013) suggested in 2004, the market size of the toy industry is worth $61% billion in the wholesales revenue, with a steady growth of 4% per year in the retail market for toys. Thousands of toymakers flourish the market to serve global demand while keeping track of the 3 new trends in the industry which are toys demand rise while product life cycles decline, children has less time to play, and lastly increase demand of technology integration in physical toy or online worlds. Changes in conduct of competitors have change as witnessed by manufacturing in Asia, entering diverse retail channels and engaging in heavy marketing efforts. Therefore, we recommends LEGO Group to first, bring back LEGO DUPLO concepts and offer to unexplored market by establish strategic partnerships. Second, increase investment in R&D of new product designs and innovations. Third, adopt internal supply chain monitoring system and LEGO retailers’ system integrator. As external analysis has suggested increase of retail competition sector in the toy industry and this will have effect on LEGO Group because internal analysis shows that firms have high operational costs and as a result the firm is making no profit. By implementing these recommendations LEGO Group will achieve lower operational cost, establish sustained competitive advantages which will led to higher market shares...
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...and be. When going to any type of toy store, people can clearly see difference between the toys for girls and the toys for boys. Even the simplest of toys are separated by gender just because of the color scheme that it holds. Legos are simple toy blocks, but they have two separate sets, one for girls and one for boys. The appearance of the toy, the activities of each set, and the packaging of the toy reinforces stereotypes and the connotative meaning of boys and girls. One difference between the girl and boy Legos are their packaging. The packaging of the girl and boy Lego sets are almost completely different. The boy packaging has dark colors, such as blues, blacks, greens, yellows and reds. Some of the boy packaging also has just boys playing with the Legos on the front of it. When it comes to the boys’ Legos none of the colors are bright and colorful, but the girls’ Legos...
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...Part 1: Background info In 2004, Lego found itself losing up to $1 million dollars a day (page 39), a position no big company wishes to find itself in. It had been determined that new leadership was vital to the company’s survival. As a result, Jorden Vig Knudstorp took over as CEO five years later. Knudstorp immediately noticed poor internal organizational structure that ultimately resulted in frustrated retailers and less shelf space (page 39). Knudstorp successfully cut production costs by creating new designs. He also successfully introduced new markets for Lego products, such as movie collection and video game products targeting adults and girls. From within the organization of the company, Knudstorp successfully shifted the culture away from ineffective and costly innovation and geared more towards profit. Some of these organizational changes included incentives for developing cost cutting methods, innovation and sales. He also took the initiative to create new markets in the virtual world through video games and movies (page 40). With these changes brought about by Knudstorp, Lego found itself in a situation where they were successfully developing new technology, new methods and a more simplified information of enterprise systems, all which were cost effective and ultimately brought the company back to success. Part 2 (discussion questions at the back of the book) The key change in business strategy was to cut costs and gear more towards profit. The objective was...
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...Alisa Olson MGT405 Section 7 Sunduramurthy 29 November 2012 Case Write Up: LEGO Group LEGO Group has been a successful company in the toy industry since they started in 1949. As of 2010, LEGO remained a privately held company by the Kirk Kristiansen family. Annual sales reached an all-time high equaling over $3.7 billion. The company’s strongest lines were LEGO Star Wars, LEGO City, and LEGO DUPLO. Even though the company has maintained a competitive advantage, they face some seriously threatening issues. Some of the current issues they face are maintaining patents, company acquisitions, court battles, and new competition. In 1984, TYCO introduced Super Blocks, which were almost identical to the plastic brick design that LEGO has. TYCO had advertisements that stated “if you can’t tell the difference, why pay the difference”. LEGO launched a four year lawsuit against them, but by 1988 the patent for LEGO’s building block design expired, so they lost the lawsuit. All the effort against TYCO was wasted. LEGO should have renewed their patent to prevent incidents such as this one from happening. Once this patent expired, the barriers of competition were lowered significantly in the building toy market. In 2009, Disney acquired the comic book company Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. This provided Disney with control over Marvel’s vast catalogue of over 5,000 comic book characters to be used in future publishing, movie production, and licensing operations. This was...
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...Case Studies Lego The Danish company Lego is one of the most famous brands in the world when it comes to children’s toys and has grown since it was founded in 1932 into a global business. Its origins lie with Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund (where the firm is still based) who bought a woodworking business in 1916 and made furniture for local farmers. For various reasons he shifted his production range in the 1930s to make children’s toys and in 1934 named the company ‘Lego’ from the Danish words leg and godt, meaning ‘play well’. His early products - wooden pull toys, piggy banks, cars and trucks – were reasonably successful but a key turning point for the business came in the 1940s when they began making plastic toys including a truck which could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1949 Lego began producing a set of interlocking bricks (based on an original patent by the UK Kiddicraft company for which they bought the rights) made from cellulose acetate and using an early version of a hollow design with holes and studs. The now familiar Lego bricks appeared on the market in 1953 but were not initially very successful, partly due to poor perceptions amongst consumers and retailers of plastic toys. The key was probably the emergence of the idea of a building system based on interlocking bricks – an idea which took some time to develop and is closely linked to the son of the founder, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. His discussions with buyers, especially in the USA...
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