ORGL-5005: Influential Organizational Leader Profile
Research Project by Angela Baker
With its brick systems and playsets, Lego has delighted generations of children and their parents since its founding in 1932.
The Kirk Kristiansen family founded the LEGO Group over 90 years ago. Since then, Lego has become one of the largest and most beloved toy manufacturers in the world. Headquartered in Billund, Denmark, Lego has over 20 thousand employees (“The Lego Group,” 2021a) and operates over 678 retail stores globally (Whitten, 2021).
Beginning first as a carpenter’s small toy shop, Lego grew from constructing quality wood toys to molding inventive and colorful plastic interlocking bricks. Although Lego’s products have undergone extensive development over the years, the traditional Lego brick and play systems remain their core focus.
The company name “Lego” comes from the Danish word “leg godt”, which means “play well” (The LEGO Group History, n.d.). Lego believes that play is foundational to the development and well-being of children and is vital in creating the skills necessary for them to thrive in a complex and challenging world. Lego is deeply committed to its mission to create and develop the future builders of tomorrow, as is evident through its company values (imagination, fun, creativity, caring, learning, quality) and promises (play promise, people promise, partner promise, planet promise) (The LEGO Brand, n.d.).
Lego had seen booming success in the early 2000s. Fortune magazine and the British Association of Toy Makers named Lego the “Toy of the Century” (CBS News, 2010). In addition, the brand exploded in popularity after the release of The Lego Movie in 2014, which included a star-studded cast and the iconic song “Everything Is Awesome” (IMBb.com, Inc., 2014).
But in 2017, Lego experienced its first drop in sales in over a decade as children began favoring more modern toys (Neate, 2018). At the time, the company was lead by interim CEO Bali Padda, a long-standing LEGO executive. The company was drowning in excess inventory that it could not sell, which limited its ability to push out new toys (Neate, 2018). For a market traditionally dominated by “newness”, this was a major obstacle for Lego. To get things back on track and solidify the company’s future, Lego needed to expand sales and establish a greater digital presence to revive its growth (Gronholt-Pedersen & Jensen, 2017). So how did Lego make everything awesome again? Enter Niels Christiansen.
Niels B. Christiansen was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Lego Group in October 2017. He succeeded Bali Padda, who served as interim CEO for only 9 months while Lego searched for a long-term replacement. Christianson holds an MBA and a Masters of Science in Engineering and brings with him over 25 years of experience in business and technology leadership (About Us, n.d.). Christiansen was one of the first “outsider” CEOs to run the historically family-owned business. He quickly earned the respect of his employees and the Board of Directors through credible and authentic leadership.
Before joining Lego, he was the CEO of Danfoss, an industrial technology company. During his tenure, Christiansen transformed the company into a high-performing and agile leader in technology (The Lego Group, 2019b). Lego was excited to position an experienced and talented leader with solid danish roots at the helm to steer the company back towards success. Upon Christiansen’s appointment, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, Executive Chairman of LEGO Brand Group said, “Niels is a great leader who delivered outstanding results while CEO of Danfoss…The Board is confident that under Niels, the LEGO Group will continue to flourish and bring play experiences to more children around the world.” (The Lego Group, 2019b). Christiansen has been proving them right ever since.
