The Rise Of The Lego Empire

How Lego’s Success Is Driven By Intuition and Supply Chain Magic

Whether you played with a set when you were younger, built a computer with them, saw the movie about the “ordinary” lego-man, Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), or severely wounded your foot’s sole on one, you know about Legos.

Time and billions of bricks have laid the foundation for the Lego Group’s toy empire. But to call the toy-block company’s progress in 89 years “simple” or “an overnight success” would be just naive. It is only recently that the masses have begun to recognize the massive impression these toys can offer on children’s potential.

A Brief Background

The Lego Group began in 1932 in a small carpenter’s workshop in a town known as Billund, Denmark. The name for the interlocking plastic bricks abbreviates the two Danish words “leg godt,” meaning to “play well.” Currently, the seemingly simple design of the bricks you know and love today originated in 1958 and offered endless building opportunities, unlike the premium wooden toys consumers were used to. Meaning those 63-year-old bricks can still be used to connect with ones manufactured today.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, the Lego Group developed several strategies and principles that make up the modern Lego…