Turning towards trend

 

LEGO is much more than a brick, it is a system built around an idea

With sales picking up around Christmas and plummeting the rest of the year, Godfred felt their LEGO toys were missing something essential.

He realized they were giving kids ready-made toys which were not challenging enough. The toys needed an idea and a system built around it. This way children were able to use their imagination and creativity.

This is the second breakthrough moment in LEGO history. Instead of offering kids ready-made toys, LEGO gives them the opportunity to build their toys — a much more challenging activity which kept kids engaged for hours.

The LEGO System of Play becomes very successful and the company starts selling it to other countries.

Back to the basics.  LEGO introduces new products every year, but is mindful of the costs of this innovation.  The leadership team reduced the number of different LEGO bricks produced, eliminating those that were costly to source, standardizing their design, and thus increasing the team’s ability to react more quickly to consumer trends.  Additionally, the company decided to sell off non-core, underperforming business lines.  Lesson learned: focus on core competencies, and do not be afraid to shut down operations of unprofitable businesses.

LEGO prides itself on creating unique ways to tap into the needs of its customer through advances in field research and design thinking.  In an environment where mistakes can be made cheaply and there are no cost or feasibility constraints, a team called the Future Lab is tasked with generating interesting concepts for the company, even though many of them never end up getting launched.  Yet, after the idea generation phase, the company ensures that costs of innovation are clear to designers.  LEGO has devised rules regarding the creation of new colors, shapes and ordering of new materials.  Lesson learned: no boundaries should be placed on idea generation, but strict guidelines limit the chances of creating loss leading toys.