Subject:
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Children are our role models - a profile of the LEGO Company, 2001
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Mon, 29 Jan 2001 22:01:22 GMT
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Taken from:
http://www.lego.com/info/pressspecific.asp?PressReleaseId=163&Year=2001
Children are our role models - a profile of the LEGO Company, 2001
Within very short time, the LEGO brick has twice been named Toy of the Century.
Fortune Business Magazine was the first in November 1999; then in January 2000
came the award from the British Association of Toy Retailers (BATR). We are
naturally proud of the honour, which imposes on us an obligation to continue to
do our best in the new millennium to strengthen the famous LEGO brand and to
stimulate children's imagination, creativity and enthusiasm through play and
learning.
The basis for all LEGO products and activities is our belief that children and
their needs must be taken seriously. We see it as our most important task to
stimulate children's imagination and creativity and to encourage them to
explore, experience and express their own world - a world without limits.
We fulfil this task by offering children and young people creative,
developmental and amusing products and experiences:
LEGO playmaterials (http://www.lego.com/info/core.asp)
LEGOLAND parks (http://www.lego.com/info/parks.asp)
LEGO Lifestyle products (http://www.lego.com/info/lifestyle.asp) (e.g. clothes,
watches)
LEGO Media products (http://media.lego.com/) (e.g. software)
LEGO products are sold all over the globe. We are one of the world's largest toy
manufacturers and the largest in construction toys. During the past 40 years,
more than 300 million children have played with LEGO bricks.
Our goal for the LEGO brand is to be known as the strongest brand in the world
among families with children by 2005. It is a realistic goal because today the
LEGO Company is already among the ten most famous brands among families with
children.
Stimulating children's imagination and creativity
We see children as our role models. They are curious, imaginative and creative.
They embrace discovery and wonder. And they are natural learners. These are
precious qualities that should be nurtured and stimulated throughout life.
Lifelong creativity, imagination and learning are stimulated by playful
activities that encourage hands-on and minds-on creation, fun, togetherness and
sharing of ideas.
People who are curious, creative and imaginative - who have a childlike urge to
learn - are best equipped to thrive in a challenging world and be the builders
of our common future.
Therefore, our mission is to nurture the child in each of us.
All LEGO products appeal to children's imagination and creativity by offering
them unlimited possibilities.
Dorothy and Jerome L. Singer, who are both professors of psychology at Yale
University in the USA, have researched children's play for more than 30 years
and are firm advocates of "open-ended" toys like LEGO - i.e. toys without
limits. Toys with which they can use their imaginations. Jerome L. Singer says:
"Children must be able to create their own stories with a toy. They must decide,
otherwise they can't use their imagination."
We promote children's development and learning
When we stimulate children's imagination and creativity, we also promote their
development and learning. Dorothy L. Singer, who is the chairman of the Next
Generation Roundtable, puts it this way: "Children who use their imagination
often do better at school. They play more with other children, they are often
leaders, they can control their anger and can entertain themselves while they
are waiting or are simply alone." Dorothy L. Singer also points out that
imagination develops characteristics that are important success criteria in
modern society and will remain so. They are characteristics such as learning new
things, thinking for oneself and having creative abilities.
Next Generation (http://www.nextgenerationforum.org)
Our goal is to promote children's imagination, creativity, development and
learning. In 1998, therefore, the LEGO Company collaborated with the Danish
organisation House of Monday Morning in establishing an independent global
institution that focuses on creativity, development and learning. The
institution Next Generation acts a world-wide meeting place for discussion of
the latest knowledge in these areas.
Next Generation Roundtable is a panel of international researchers into
creativity and childhood who, on a voluntary basis, make their knowledge more
widely available and present their views on these issues at two meetings each
year.
The Next Generation Roundtable's experts see the new century as the age of
creativity and imagination. Professor Mitchel Resnick, who is also LEGO
Professor at MIT in Massachusetts in the USA and a member of the Next Generation
Roundtable, puts it this way: "Success in tomorrow's society will not be
primarily based on information or knowledge, but on creativity."
Emphasis on high quality
Quality is an area in which we maintain the highest standards.
In our largest business area, LEGO play materials, we associate quality with the
following requirements:
Technical quality:
Our play materials must have such properties as durability, stability,
consistent colours and product safety.
Consumer quality:
Our play materials must provide unlimited opportunities, permitting children to
play with them in many different ways.
Development quality:
Our play materials must be attractive to children and retain their interest year
after year. They must stimulate and develop children's senses, motor abilities,
imagination, creativity and intelligence.
In 1999, for the first time we launched a number of themes based on licence
agreements signed in 1998 with Walt Disney(R) Company and Lucas(tm) Licensing
Ltd. These agreements relate to both the classic and the new Star Wars(tm) space
ships and to Winnie the Pooh, now famous worldwide through the Disney(R) cartoon
film based on A.A. Milne's books. The LEGO Company has enjoyed great success
with both ranges. More exciting and entertaining sets with LEGO Star Wars(tm)
models and Disney figures are being launched this year.
In 2001, the five first sets based on the popular television show, Bob the
Builder(tm), of HIT Entertainment will be launched in the LEGO DUPLO range and
in the autumn, following the opening night of the first Harry Potter film from
Warner Bros., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we will launch the first
nine Harry Potter LEGO sets.
The LEGO Company has successfully manoeuvred through the different eras of play.
In the first era construction and building experiences were at the centre of all
LEGO play. Wheels, small motors and gearwheels added movement to the LEGO
products in the second era. And role play and product themes formed the basis in
the third era where the LEGO characters entered the universe. Now a fourth and
very interesting new era has begun where intelligence and behaviour have become
an integrated part of the LEGO products.
LEGO MINDSTORMS(tm) has become famous all over the world. As the first company
in the world to do so, we have linked the world of computers with construction
toys and thus invented a toy that can "think, see and feel". The LEGO MINDSTORMS
products allow children to design and build their own LEGO creations/robots and
bring these to life via their computer. By means of the camera, LEGO MINDSTORMS
Vision Command, the robots can even see.
LEGO MINDSTORMS has up to now received seven prizes, including the Product Prize
awarded by Dansk Industri, the umbrella organisation for Denmark's industrial
companies. The prize was given to the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention System
1.5 in September 1999. The product prize citation reads "for a brilliant idea,
either a tangible product or a process-oriented solution. In other words, a
Danish industrial product with qualities above the ordinary".
The LEGO Company's President and CEO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, describes the
company's development in the following way: "Over the past almost 70 years, we
have moved from wooden toys to the LEGO brick and now on to intelligent robot
systems. These honours strengthen our resolve to continue on our present path in
the new century, exploiting new technological progress to create new
opportunities and products that stimulate children's imagination and
creativity".
We have also introduced the world of computers in our business category, LEGO
Media, linking the virtual world with the LEGO universe. This has resulted in a
number of LEGO computer games.
In 2000, LEGO Company received a total of 57 product prizes and honours of which
many were awarded by parental organisations. On a long list of award winners the
LEGO Soccer Championship Challenge appears several times. The football game has
received five prizes, e.g. the Belgian Toy Award 2000. LEGO MyBot was launched
in the autumn 2000, and still it received several prizes. Most recently it
received the AIDA Prize awarded for the best product of the year by the
International Association of Retailers, Wholesalers and Manufacturers.
LEGO play materials
In 1963, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen formulated 10 characteristics for the LEGO
Company's play materials. The 10 characteristics are today virtually unchanged
and are as follows:
unlimited play possibilities
for girls, for boys
enthusiasm for all ages
play all year around
stimulating and absorbing play
endless hours of play
imagination, creativity, development
each new product multiplies the play value
always topical
leading safety and quality.
During the past five decades, our adherence to these characteristics has helped
us to sell more than 320 billion LEGO bricks all over the world. This sales
volume is equivalent to every member of the world's aprox. 6 billion population
owning 52 LEGO bricks.
Lego play materials consist of the following product lines:
LEGO BABY
LEGO DUPLO
LEGO SCALA
LEGO BELVILLE
LEGO CREATOR
LEGO SYSTEM
LEGO TECHNIC
LEGO MINDSTORMS
These product ranges are designed for children and young people of different
ages and at different developmental stages. They range from LEGO BABY, which
develops the senses and motor abilities of children up to the age of 18 months,
to LEGO MINDSTORMS, which develops the understanding of complex concepts among
12-16-year-olds, as well as their ability to solve problems along or in company
with others. There appears to be no upper age limit for the popularity of LEGO
MINDSTORMS. Around half the owners of these sets are adults between the ages of
25 and 45.
The product programme is designed to present greater challenges as children grow
older and become more skilled. Thus, all children and young people up to the age
of 16 can benefit from LEGO play materials.
LEGOLAND parks
The LEGOLAND parks are family parks. They offer an entertaining and
developmental world primarily based on LEGO bricks. Our objective for the
LEGOLAND parks is for them to be attractive excursion destinations for families
with children. Today, the LEGO Company has LEGOLAND parks in Billund (Denmark),
Windsor (Great Britain) and Carlsbad (California). A fourth Park, LEGOLAND
Deutschland, will be opened in Gunzburg, southern Germany, in 2002.
LEGOLAND BILLUND
The first LEGOLAND park opened in Billund in 1968. It quickly became Denmark's
most popular tourist attraction outside Copenhagen.
In 2000, the Park attracted 1.55 million visitors. Families from all over the
world come to see the buildings and landscapes in Miniland, to be entertained by
and take part in the park's exhibitions and shows, and to have fun exploring the
world of LEGO play materials. For example, the park has a LEGO MINDSTORMS
Learning Centre, where children have the opportunity to build robots by using a
PC to program intelligent LEGO bricks.
LEGOLAND Billund (http://www.lego.com/legoland/billund/) begins its 2001 season
on 31st March and closes on 28th October.
LEGOLAND WINDSOR
In 1996, we repeated the Billund Park's success by opening another at Windsor,
in Great Britain. LEGOLAND Windsor is 35 kilometres west of central London, with
Windsor Castle as its nearest neighbour. In 1997, the park was named as Great
Britain's most popular new attraction. It was visited by 1.6 million people in
1999.
LEGOLAND WINDSOR (http://www.lego.com/legoland/windsor/default.htm) begins its
2001 season on 11th March and closes again on 7th January 2002.
LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA
The third LEGOLAND Park opened on 22nd March 1999 in Carlsbad, southern
California. This Park has also been a success, attracting more than 1.5 million
visitors in its first season.
LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA (http://www.lego.com/legofinder/legoland.asp) will be open
throughout the year in 2001.
LEGO Lifestyle
Our goal for LEGO Lifestyle is to heighten awareness of the LEGO brand and to
promote the sale of our other products. Licensed products include LEGO Wear
(http://www.lego.com/wear/) - collections of high-quality, colourful and
practical children's wear - bags, books and watches - and in the USA also jigsaw
puzzles. LEGO Wear are being sold all over the world. The new global collection
will comprise around 600 models annually. The range includes clothing of every
kind for boys and girls in the 0-10 years age range.
LEGO Media
LEGO Media (http://media.lego.com/)collaborates closely with carefully selected
partners for the development of interactive games for children and young people.
All games are based on existing universes within our play materials. We take our
obligation to develop reliable and broadening games very seriously. It is our
objective that our software must stimulate children's imagination and encourages
and challenge them to go beyond their limits and explore places they haven't
visited before. We would like our games to give children a unique experience.
LEGO.com
In the autumn 2000, we introduced a new and different web site inviting children
to step into the LEGO universe to play and learn how to exchange information
through the Internet. In addition, the site contains facts about products and
other information for children, adults and educators. To the LEGO Company,
LEGO.com presents a unique opportunity to get into direct contact with our
customers.
"LEGO.com revolutionises our relationship with our customers; the customer
becomes part of LEGO Company in a manner that we haven't seen before. Technology
gives us an opportunity to listen and involve our customers' creativity directly
in the development of new individual products", says Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.
A first taste of the future on the Internet is LEGO Mosaic
(http://www.lego.com/mosaic/). At LEGO.com you can scan any picture or photo
into your computer and send it to the LEGO Company. Then you'll receive the LEGO
bricks required to reconstruct the picture in a two-dimensional LEGO Mosaic.
Today, LEGO.com is visited more than 12 million times each month, which makes
the LEGO web site one of the most visited children and family sites in the
world. The collaboration agreement concluded with Microsoft in January further
strengthens our visibility on the Internet because there will be many links to
our homepage and to elements of LEGO.com. In addition, it will be possible to
buy LEGO products through Microsoft's web site.
LEGO Shop at Home at Home (http://shop.lego.com/gateway.asp) at the address
www.LEGO.com is the largest LEGO store in the world, offering consumers from
Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States the largest LEGO assortment
anywhere. This includes approximately 450 different LEGO sets, 67 different
types of bulk bricks and products not available at retail e.g. bulk bricks, LEGO
Mosaic, LEGO Mini-figure and the Statue of Liberty. In the course of 2001, the
LEGO Shop at Home will also be made available to consumers from Southern Europe
and Asia/Pacific.
LEGO Company's history
The history of the LEGO Company begins in Billund, Denmark, where in 1932 Ole
Kirk Christiansen began to make wooden toys. In the years since, the Kirk
Kristiansen family has transformed the little workshop into a large, successful
company that today employs around 9,000 people. Production of LEGO products is
undertaken at our factories in Denmark, Switzerland, the USA, the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Korea. The founder's grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (his
last name is spelled with a K due to a mistake on his birth certificate), is the
main shareholder, President and CEO.
With a small handful of employees - including his 12-year-old son Godtfred - Ole
Kirk Christiansen begins to manufacture wooden products in his workshop. These
products include stepladders, ironing boards as well as toys, but he sees
particularly good prospects for toys, because children always need playthings.
A couple of years later, Ole Kirk Christiansen hangs up a wooden sign in the
workshop on which he has placed his motto: "Only the best is good enough". That
motto remains a guiding principle for the LEGO Company to this day.
In 1934, Ole Kirk Christiansen calls both his toys and his company LEGO. The
word is a combination of the first two letters of each of the Danish words "LEg
GOdt", which mean "play well". Thus, almost from the start, the name LEGO
proclaims that the company produced toys that children can play well with - i.e.
that stimulate children's creativity, imagination, development and learning
while they are having fun.
In the post-war years, many new raw materials are developed. One of these
materials is plastic. Ole Kirk Christiansen quickly realises that plastic has
great potential. In 1947, he buys the company's first moulding machine for
injecting plastics. Now the company's assortment includes both plastic and
wooden toys.
In 1949, the LEGO factory introduces the first plastic building bricks under the
name "Automatic Binding Bricks" on the Danish market. These bricks have four or
eight studs and are hollow. They are the primitive forerunners of the
revolutionary LEGO building brick.
From 1950, Ole Kirk Christiansen's son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen is the
company's assistant managing director. By this time, the workshop has been
replaced by a little factory and the number of employees has risen to 140. Over
time, the company has developed a successful business selling LEGO toys to
retailers all over Denmark.
In 1954, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen develops the concept further. The LEGO brick
becomes the "LEGO System of Play".
The company's big breakthrough comes in 1958, when the new coupling system for
the LEGO brick is invented. Tubes are added inside the hollow brick that result
in far greater structural stability. This makes the combination possibilities
almost infinite. A patent on the new coupling system is applied for and given in
the same year.
Ole Kirk Christiansen has the satisfaction of experiencing the invention that
crowns his life's work and lays the foundation for the company's future success
before he dies in 1958. He was replaced as managing director by his son Godtfred
Kirk Christiansen the year before.
From 1960, the LEGO Company only produces LEGO bricks.
In 1979, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen becomes the chairman of the company, with
his son Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen taking over as managing director. By 1995, the
year of Godtfred Kirk Christiansen's death, we have achieved unchallenged world
leadership in the production of construction toys. Today we sell our products
all over the globe and are one of the world's largest and best toy
manufacturers.
LEGO Company's next milestone comes in 2005 - the year when the LEGO brand must
be the world's strongest brand among families with children. We are steering a
safe course towards that target. As always, that course is determined by a focus
on our most important task: to stimulate children's imagination and creativity
and to encourage them to explore, experience and express their own world - a
world without limits.
Billund, 2001 This page was updated on January 24th, 2001
(C) 2000 The LEGO Group. All rights reserved. Use of this site signifies your
agreement to the terms of use. Legal Notice.
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