A great interview this morning with our CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp elaborates on something frequently misunderstood – the difference between a turnaround and transformation. He explains the profound changes that the LEGO Group have undergone since its days of crisis in early 2000 and what it took to get there, yes – you guessed it, our fans and consumers are at the heart of it.
Category Archives: News
Mindstorms Hackathon at SXSW
I knew I missed out on something good when this was in the works! A great video that shows just what all those crazy folks got up to when you give them some Mindstorms robots and a couple of hours to play. Really great and what an atmosphere! Wish I was there…
LEGO Maersk train
Working for The LEGO Group as an incurable LEGO fan is a bit like working in a sweet factory if you love sweets. Lots and lots of wonderful models all over, that you are tempted to buy just for yourself so that you don’t just fill your workplace with the toys from your childhood, but your home as well. Discipline is tested, daily! And then comes this newest creation from one of our super talented designers – the LEGO Maersk train. No easy build – this baby demands patience, skills and lots of small parts, but it’s resemblance to the real thing is second to none. Here is Pierre Normandin talking about the intricacies of the model -
The big idea
Some weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Grid09 conference organised by Bonnier, the Swedish media empire. This event brought together authors, journalists, publishers, tv-people – you name it, from near and far to think about the big ideas for the future. A superbly inspiring bunch of speakers, of whom I was privileged to be one of and tons of interesting topics – my only regret was that I wish I could have stayed for longer. Fortunately the expert producers of the event, well versed with technology – have managed to capture the presentations and make them available online for all to see!
Go to www.bonnier.com/gridmeeting to see the presentations – I particularly recommend the one from Steven Berlin Johnson on the ecosystems of news, which is a nice preamble to my own talk about eco-systems involving users – and to not forget what is really important in life: meet Abraham Verghese and his stories of life and death. A truly memorable event – well done to Stefan Mehr and co for putting it all together!
Growth in an uncertain future
A great article from the Wharton school highlights the importance of working with scenarios, instead of a concept of a fixed point in the future. Incidentally this article describes in almost perfect detail the process we use at LEGO too, to elicit leaders to approach the future using creativity and innovation, as opposed to purely being reactionary – which too much planning with a fixed point in mind can lead to.
I’ve found that working with the future in the way described in the article, is a great way to encourage strategic conversations all across the company, create robust strategies for succeeding no matter what the world looks like and generally creating a versatile, adaptive organisation capable of sensing changes in the world and reacting to those changes much faster. Surprisingly though, this practice seems to be fairly uncommon in companies, which I find scary – the current economic climate alone should serve as a reminder of what can happen if we fail to prepare adequately for all eventualities. The best way to predict the future is to invent it as Alan Kay so well put it.
