History of Lego
In 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded the LEGO Group. The name “LEGO” is inspired by two word “leg godt” which means “play well” in Danish.
Actually, since 1916, Ole Kirk Kristiansen has begun his business at his own carpentry workshop which manufactured furniture in Billund, Denmark. His workshop started producing small wooden toys in 1920s. In 1932, his son, Godtfred, started working in business with him at the age of 12. Godtfred worked hard and played an active role in his father’s company. He started creating models when he was 17 years old.
In 1947, the Lego Group bought a plastic injection molding machine and produced some plastic toys. Ole Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. Two years later, Lego began making similar bricks, then developed them, in order to make these brick be able to stick together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart. These produce has been called “Lego Mursten”, or "Lego Bricks” since 1953.
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was appointed Junior Vice President at the age of 30, when there was around 50 employees worked for the firm at that time. In 1954, Godtfred became the junior managing director of Lego, and he got the idea for a new play platform called “Lego System” including many sets, vehicles and supplementary elements.
In 1958, Lego developed and patented a design that improves the locking ability and versatility of the bricks. Ole Kirk Christiansen passed away that same year, and his son became head of the company.
In 1960, a warehouse fire destroyed almost wooden toys of Lego. Godtfred decided to lead the company to focus on manufacturing plastic toys and removed the wooden line. At that time, more t...
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However, that managing a company with many different subcultures in many countries is not an easy work. The challenge is not only ensure that every department globally is fully aware of the vision, mission and philosophy of the Lego Group but indeed also to ensure they are innovative and understand the globally changing trends of the children nowadays.
Conclusion
The analysis shows that the LEGO Group follows a traditional organization structure. The CEO has the most power in the organization, but with the influence from the shareholder family. The company also encourages a good communication among employees that solves some of disadvantages of the old structure. Nowadays, the structure of LEGO Group has become looser to encourage creativity, but it will take time for a big company like the LEGO Group to change their structure from old organization to new model.
Merlin`s organisational type is a divisional organisation, this means that Merlin Entertainments has a central headquarters which then splits off into different divisions, which in turn make their own decisions and have their own structure. This organisation type is usually found in large and mature organisations that have a large variety of brands and will have products in different countries. This organisation structure allows more control and accountability than machine structures, this means that the structure is decentralised, which allows the central team to focus on the “big picture” and other strategies which would help the business to operate better as well as to help to boost profits for the company however a weakness in this organisations
. G. Toys is a leading supplier of high quality dolls that are manufactured in two plants within Illinois, one in Chicago, one in Springfield. These dolls are sold in retailors throughout the United States and have an established, loyal customer base due to their high quality and popularity (Campbell & Kulp, 2004). In the last few years, due to rising production costs, their most popular doll, Geoffrey, has seen a decrease in profit margin. In this evaluation we plan to address G.G. Toys existing cost system and offer recommendations on whether management should change the costing system in both the Chicago and Springfield plant. We will calculate the costs of the Geoffrey doll, the specialty branded doll #106 and the cradles using the cost
With all of the designing that was happening in the company, it helped to shrink its profits. Lego City was a popular toy for children but the redesigning shrank the sales and attention the product was once getting. A worker of Lego said it well when he said, “Management was to blame, the same people who were doing crappy products then are making world-class products today” (Greene). Essentially the managers and higher up executives didn’t communication what direction the company should be going. They didn’t have a strategy to follow and tell their employees. With no clear strategy and communication in place, things were a free for all. This lead to the declining profits and stability of the company. Lego assumed that if the designers were able to create whatever they saw fit, that somehow it would lead to a breakthrough in the toy maker’s product line. However, this ideology backfired with high production costs and low profit margins.
As a child, Margaret always created things for her brothers. She made them sleds, kites, and other play things. When Margaret was twelve years old, she and her brothers worked in the cotton mill. Margaret witnessed an injury when a steel tipped shuttle fell from a loom. After witnessing the injury, Margaret was determined to create something that would prevent the shuttle from flying loose. Margaret’s first invention at the age of twelve prevented the shuttle from falling from the loom and was adopted by all the cotton mills.
Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in a home that allowed for the two to pursue their intellectual interests. The boys’ parents, Milton and Susan Wright, allowed their children to follow their creative instincts, and helped filter their energy into being creative. Mrs. Wright was a top mathematician in her class and very creative herself; she assembled many household appliances and even built playthings for her children (Garber 1). Both Wilbur and Orville frequently requested help from their mother for counsel on any problems they encountered in their undertakings as children. Their father, Bishop Milton Wright, who would normally bring home toys to help spark their creative interests, gave the two brothers their first material inspiration, a rubber band toy helicopter, early on in childhood (Garber 1). They created ma...
Ibsen, Henrik. The Project Gutenberg EBook of a Doll's House. [EBook #2542]. The Project Gutenberg, 13 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .
Toy World, Inc is a manufacturer of plastic toys for children, founded in 1973 by David Dunton. In the past, the company's production schedules had always been highly seasonal, reflecting the seasonality of sales. Jack McClintock, president and part owner of this company, is considering a proposal to adopt level monthly production for the coming year.
This cell-like structure was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Graham Turner, the founder and CEO of Flight Centre (Dunford et al, 2002). His ideas of rewarding initiative, empowering employees and fostering the spirit of a large tribe throughout the company were developed into the organizational culture. Flight Centre’s culture was formed first and it is comprised of their values, such as their people, their customer, the brightness of future, taking responsibility and egalitarianism and unity (Flight Centre, 2017). Its culture influenced the creation of their unique structure. They had to consider major factors, such as whether the organization would be mechanistic or organic, whether it would stress differentiation or integration, and how its strategy would affect its structure. The culture dictated that the structure would be organic because it promotes cooperation and flexibility. Similarly, the structure is differentiated because the culture values smaller teams. Lastly, Flight Centre had to determine the link between its strategy and its structure. The strategy is the organization’s plans to achieve its goals, which is facilitated by both the culture and structure. Although an organization’s culture influences its structure, together the culture and structure help provide the necessary framework for the organization to achieve its
The LEGO Group organization is famous due to its flagship product – colourful plastic bricks that can be interlocked to form a variety of figures, and then disconnected again. These binding bricks originated in a wooden form when the company was first established in Billund, Denmark by Kirk Kristiansen in 1932 (The LEGO Group, 2012), and today’s well known plastic version was introduced in 1958 (Rosenberg). The company’s head office is located in Billund to this day, and The LEGO Group remains privately owned by Kristiansen’s family (The LEGO Group, 2012). They currently sell toys and teaching materials in over 130 countries worldwide.
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.
Toys R Us is the world's largest children's specialty retailer. The company operates toy stores throughout the world and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In this paper I will give a brief company history, cite where the competitive environment is coming from, strategies that were attempted, and where they stand today.
Every day people read newspapers, magazines, books, comics, etc. and a vast majority of them never stop to think of how these objects are designed and made.
The company was founded on innovation when Hayakawa set up a small shop to manufacture snap belt buckles of his own design. Three years later, he invented the first mechanical pencil, and business grew rapidly until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 wiped out the small factory. When Hayakawa reestablished the business, it was to assemble crystal radio sets that he had reverse engineered from one imported from the U.S.
Nevertheless, Nike is an extremely diverse company with outstanding organizational structure, impressive marketing strategy, and innovative products. The organizational structure of the Nike Corporation helped them become a leading innovator for the world with creative apparels and shoes. Their intelligent marketing strategies assist them in advertising their products to motive their customers and sell them. Their innovative product motivates customers with great performance footwear and quality designs to take on any obstacles. The Nike Corporation discovers various ways to improve their organizational structure to inspire the world.
In modern days, organizational architecture plays a key role in order to allow companies to get success in the market. Organizational architecture, also known as organizational structure, defines as a structure that where the specific company whether works roles, decision making or responsibility are centralized, delegated or coordinated. The organizational structure also identify how the information from level to level within the company. IKEA is one of the international famous firms that designs and produces home furniture such as bed frames and desks. The company also is the leader in retailing furniture and has become the largest furniture retailer over the globe. Therefore the structure of a company is an important factor to achieve a rapidly growth. This paper aimed to describe the IKEA’s organizational architecture and provide analysis that whether any recommendations or changes have to make based on current information.