Note
LEGO’s success can be attributed to their creation of a toy system that never gets old, appealing to both kids and adults, and generating recurring revenue. LEGO faced financial struggles in the late 90s and early 2000s due to management problems and diversifying away from their core product, but they rebounded by returning to their winning formula, the “system in play.” LEGO’s adaptation to the digital era included expanding into media with movies, video games, and online community building, leading to a resurgence in sales and profitability. LEGO is now the world’s biggest toy brand with $10 billion in annual sales, surpassing competitors like Mattel and Hasbro, and continues to innovate and grow its brand through various initiatives like LEGO Ideas and adult-focused sets.
Highlights
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2024-12-27 11:21 You’ve been there. Yeti’s legos is in fact the largest toy company in the world, beating Mattel, beating Hasbro, and even beating the McDonald’s Happy Meal. But few know that LEGO actually started in a carpenter’s workshop in rural denmark in the 1940s.
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2024-12-27 11:21 As Olle closed in on 30 years of age, business was going okay. He got married, he had four sons and he started employing more people to keep up with the demand for his wooden creations. But then disaster struck. A fire tore through Ole’s workshop and his family’s home.
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2024-12-27 11:21 Everything was destroyed. And that wasn’t even the worst part. To make matters worse, that fire, it was actually started by two of his sons goofing around with some matches. They were five year old Carl and four year old Gottfried, known to the family as Gott. But Olay built back better.
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2024-12-27 11:22 Play well and Jack My Danish is still a little bit rusty, so could you help me with the Google Translate on this play? Well, abbreviated in Danish is LEGO lego. But Nick, you’re not going to believe this. Another fire hit in 1942. His magical workshop burned to the ground again. Another fire. Dude, I did not have LEGO disaster on my bingo card for this episode. I feel bad for the guy. I do too.
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2024-12-24 11:51 When the war ended, there was a ton of plastic making capacity, but no end market for plastic. This meant the field was wide open for innovators to create new plastic products aimed at consumers.
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2024-12-27 11:22 Their differentiation is their business inclinations. Oh, Got is totally against plastic. Gott thinks plastic is a fad. He thinks it’s far inferior to wood, and he doesn’t even want to touch the stuff. He’s like, give me a Douglas fir or give me death.
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2024-12-27 11:22 In fact, Got’s sure that if his dad doesn’t stop with this whole plastic obsession, he’s going to bankrupt the entire family business. But those words of caution do not stop father Ole from pushing ahead. After all, he’s the patriarch. He makes the decisions. True, true.
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2024-12-27 11:22 By 1954, with his father’s health declining, Gott is running Lego. And where Olay had a happy go lucky approach to business, GoT is a little more serious. He’s all about the details and he’s looking to get ahead of the game. So he’s embarking on Lego’s international expansion.
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2024-12-27 11:22 And he starts with Norway. Sweden and Iceland, they’re next. Lego is covering Scandinavia like a svelte cross country skier. Beautiful. But the real gold medal is Europe’s biggest economy, Germany.
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2024-12-24 12:55 Another fun fact, that Jar Jar Binks minifigure was the first ever to have a customized head created for them. The most hated Star wars character of all time gets the first custom LEGO head.
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2024-12-24 13:05 They lost their way in the late 90s and the early 2000s because they abandoned their winning formula, the system in play, and that is what had brought them success.