Building the LEGO Brand: Brick by Brick

Formed in 1932, the LEGO Group was a family-owned private company based in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen (Christiansen), a Danish carpenter, who called his new toy business ‘Lego’ an abbreviation of the two Danish words, “leg godt”, meaning “play well.” Evolving from a small carpenter’s workshop into a global enterprise, LEGO became both the name and the idea behind the company. Started with the vision of ‘Inventing the future of play,’ LEGO promoted learning and development in children through play, realizing that for children, play was ‘nutrition for the soul.’ To kindle children’s interest in LEGO toys, it encouraged imagination, invention, and creativity in children. In 1958, the company introduced and patented the unique plastic stud-and-tube coupling system that permitted two blocks to be joined in 24 different ways . The LEGO brick soon became a popular global toy brand for children across the world. In 2015, the LEGO Group achieved 19 percent sales growth which enabled it to reach approximately 100 million children across the world. For the Fiscal Year 2015, the company’s revenue increased by 25.2 percent to US$ 5.41 billion, up from US$ 4.32 billion in 2014, and its profit amounted to US$ 1.38 billion in 2015 against that of US$ 1.06 billion in 2014 (See Exhibit I for Consolidated Income Statement of LEGO).....