Subject:
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Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Mon, 7 May 2001 03:54:47 GMT
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Viewed:
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1129 times
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In lugnet.lego.direct, Tomas Clark writes:
> In lugnet.lego.direct, Marc Nelson, Jr. writes:
> > And another thing...
> >
> > Why is there so much secrecy surrounding any information coming from LEGO?
> > It's like dealing with the NSA.
>
> Well, there are probably three questions that need answering:
>
> 1. Why all the "secrecy?"
> Because the subjects in question -- whether they're products, services,
> websites, or whatever -- are not ready to be announced to the public yet.
> There are all sorts of legal and business reasons for not announcing
> something until it's finalized and is ready for public viewing. For one
> thing, a lot of things can change before final release -- projects or parts
> of projects can be canceled, and it's not pleasant to have to cancel
> something that's already been announced. Not to mention disappointing. In
> many cases, we also have to consider other companies, patent issues, and
> licensed intellectual property (think Star Wars, Harry Potter).
>
> To take things to an absurd extreme, you could ask "why don't you tell
> everyone whenever someone at LEGO has a new idea?" But to be less absurd --
> every project is different and it's a judgement call as to when it's ready
> to be unveiled. And that's usually not a decision that's made by one person.
>
> The thing to keep in mind is that we're not taking information that would
> have been public and shrouding it in secrecy -- we're taking confidential,
> unreleased ideas and discussing them with a few people so that we can do a
> better job on the project. It's not that different from a focus group --
> except that a focus group tries to find average "man on the street"
> consumers. For certain projects at LEGO Direct we decided to bring some
> folks who really know trains, for instance, into the discussion.
>
> 2. Why can't you tell more people?
> Well, you obviously can't tell everyone or it would be publicly announced.
> And telling lots of people is not the best way to keep something under wraps
> until it's ready. But mainly, it's because some discussions are better with
> fewer people rather than a crowd, and small numbers make it possible to meet
> in person in some cases.
>
> 3. Why do people have to sign NDAs?
> Well, that's a fact of life for our business. It would be nice if we lived
> in a world where we could do everything 100% on handshakes and trust. And I
> do trust the folks I've had meetings with. But our legal team is more
> hard-nosed and realistic about things (which is an valuable quality in a
> legal team) and they need to get things in writing.
>
> The big difference between a focus group and the kind of summits, etc. that
> we've been having is that if you belong to an active online community,
> there's a very natural desire to jump online and say "I heard about this
> really cool thing!!! ... that I can't tell you about." So that's definitely
> a challenge when it comes to working together and discussing unreleased
> projects, but we're hoping that the benefits will make it all more than
> worthwhile.
>
> So to sum up, it's not more secrecy, it's actually a little bit less. It
> just might seem like more because most of the time, there's no public
> information at all about a project before it's announced.
>
> I'll let someone else field your other question about US/Europe Shop at Home
> because I'm not familiar at all with the feasibility of international
> shipping. But it's my impression that the US S@H is set up to ship to
> certain areas, and Europe S@H for other certain areas. The extra old
> inventory was found in Europe, so they are selling it. Also, I could be
> mistaken, but I believ the US has had "finds" like this in the past, which
> have been exclusive for S@H customers on this side of the pond -- fair's
> fair. Finally, if you read Jake's post yesterday, he did say that they're in
> the process of sending some service packs from Europe to the US. Thanks,
> Europe S@H!
>
> Tomas Clark
> Producer, LEGO Direct
> (only has one aged, slightly-gnawed garage door...)
Understandable, to be sure. But, remember that we are a bunch of junkies
for LEGO product. Posts revealing "Holy Grail" material of sorts drives us
stark-raving-CRAZY!!!!! You might as well through raw meat to dogs, it'd be
the same reaction...
Keep in mind that most of us are not angry, it's just that the development
of the internet has made us all rather impatient. That and the sinking
suspicion that all those bloakes in the UK will get all of the "good stuff"
before we can get our grubby, colonial hands on 'em...
:o)
LEGO makes me crazy! That's supposed to be a good thing.
-Aaron-
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Bad Policy #2 (Why all the secrecy, LEGO Direct?)
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| (...) Well, there are probably three questions that need answering: 1. Why all the "secrecy?" Because the subjects in question -- whether they're products, services, websites, or whatever -- are not ready to be announced to the public yet. There are (...) (24 years ago, 5-May-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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