Citations › Source ID: 5

C34. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 227.

...as Kjeld saw it, the fact that his father had scaled down—indeed, almost eliminated—product development hadn’t been to LEGO’s benefit. He intended to take the opposite approach, and immediately set about putting his words into action by presenting so many new products that 1979 witnessed LEGO’s widest new selection ever. It was a veritable cornucopia of new LEGO sets, fifty-three of them, all of which fell under the lines set out in Kjeld’s development model.

The widest selection of new products to date was introduced in 1979, as Kjeld took over everyday operations of the company.

C35. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 218.

But in 1976, for the first time in over twenty years, not a single new LEGO element was introduced.

No new elements were introduced in 1976.

C36. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 218.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen: "During several periods over the years, I have been put under pressure, including from parts of this organization. People have suggested that we spread our resources across more products. This has been a natural mindset for those who don’t fundamentally know LEGO. It is my personal conviction—and Kjeld’s, as co-owner of the firm—that we should continue to focus on the idea and philosophy behind LEGO."

This quote from Godfred in the mid-1970s, shows how his perspective shifted from growth to caution.

C37. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 113.

...they decided to limit the new LEGO System products to some cyclists, a motorbike, a scooter, and a moped, as well as various flags that would create more life and movement on the town plan, which was also significantly improved and turned into a rigid, foldable plate. One half of the back was devoted to an image of the entire LEGO System range: thirty-eight elements in all, plus cars, flags, trees and so on.

In 1955, there were only thirty-eight unique LEGO parts.

Based on this source image - https://brickset.com/sets/200-4, it looks like both colors of each part were not included in the image, so it should have said unique parts, not elements.

C38. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022).

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "The major new thing about the LEGO System in Play was that there was suddenly a much wider array of different things you could build. This was Dad’s fundamental concept, that the whole thing should be a coherent system of elements that always fit together. Different bricks bought in different sets could always be combined. In his older years, when I was running LEGO, Dad became very critical of us introducing too many elements. He thought we were moving too fast, and that his old invention had become too wide-ranging and too diverse. He wanted us to stick to the brick, and only the brick, as the core of LEGO. This was his view from the very beginning in 1955, along with the fundamental pedagogical conviction that children develop their creativity through building with toys."

Kjeld explains how bricks from multiple sets could always be combined, creating a "much wider array of different things you could build".

Godfred had conviction that "whole thing should be a coherent system of elements that always fit together".

C39. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 104-105.

From the early spring of 1955, the word “system” was ever-present in the management offices and on the factory floor in Billund, although the term “LEGO System in Play” wasn’t known to anyone but Godtfred himself until the very last moment. ... One month later, Godtfred unveiled the details of the company’s major new investment. It took the form of a town plan printed on a plastic mat that could be placed on a table or the floor. The slogan was, “Build a LEGO town out of LEGO Bricks!”

"LEGO System in Play" was announced publicly in 1955 alongside the release of the first Town Plan set.

C40. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 100.

The “LEGO System” Godtfred had begun to visualize wasn’t just about putting together five, six, or more bricks into a building, but also about collecting LEGO bricks and expanding the possibilities they offered by asking for LEGO gift sets and supplementary boxes every Christmas and for each birthday. Soon, the formula behind Godtfred’s business idea became apparent: the more bricks a child had, the more playing they did. The more playing they did, the more sets and boxes they asked for. The more sets and boxes, the bigger the turnover.

Recognizing the power of a toy that kids want for their birthday or Christmas every year.

C41. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 98.

Once again Godtfred put LEGO’s product offering under a magnifying glass, and this time it was obvious that only one of their 265 different wood and plastic products fit the bill: the colorful plastic bricks that had entranced Ole Kirk. They were still being produced at Billund, and in 1952–1953 were relaunched under the name “LEGO Bricks.”

Recognizing the system in the plastic bricks and adopting the name "LEGO Bricks".

C42. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 98.

After a busy and inspiring week in the seaside town of Brighton, where Godtfred discovered that Hilary F. Page’s Self-Locking Building Bricks still existed but hadn’t apparently become a big commercial success in Great Britain or any other country, he relaxed over a whiskey and cigar in the bar on the DFDS ferry from Harwich.

Also on board were other Danes in the industry who had been at the fair, and Godtfred got to chatting with Troels Petersen, a young head buyer for the toy department at Magasin du Nord. Petersen was far from impressed by the state of the toy industry, expressing exasperation at the fact that there was no system to it. Godtfred pricked up his ears. Petersen had put his finger on a problem he, himself, had been ruminating over for a couple of years. It wasn’t simply about the diversity of LEGO’s products, but also about approaching production and sales more purposefully and systematically.

This conversation on the ferry was eye-opening for Godtfred. Suddenly, his task became utterly clear: LEGO needed to concentrate on a single idea. They had to coalesce around one product that was unique and lasting, that could be developed into a wider range of toys that were easy to play with, easy to produce, and easy to sell.

Godtfred's inspiration for a 'system' of play came from a chance conversation on a ferry.

C43. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 356.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "My grandfather’s motto has always caused us problems when we have to translate it into English. We simply haven’t found the right way of putting it, maybe because “too good” is very Jutish (the Danish phrase is “Det bedste er ikke for godt,” literally, “The best is not too good.” Since this implies something much more negative in English, it is usually translated as “Only the best is good enough”). For me personally, the words have always been a reminder that no matter what you have done and what you have achieved, you must never stop innovating. That, to me, is the truest interpretation of Granddad’s motto. Never forget to be creative and innovative! But I also know that there are many people who have interpreted it as a demand for an almost obsessive perfectionism, which I think is awful."
—Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen

Kjeld explaining the challenges with the company's motto: "Only the best is good enough".

C44. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 342.

"The instructions are an important part of the LEGO System, but they must never replace the free, creative building experience and the kind of play in which people create whatever they want. Deep down, I hope that there are many children and adults who don’t just keep what they’ve built as decoration but constantly remake it and rebuild the world in new ways. That’s what we’ve always wanted with LEGO."
—Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen

Kjeld believes it is important that people take sets apart and "remake it and rebuild the world in new ways."

C45. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 314-315.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "This is the fourth phase of our product development. We’ve gone from just the bricks in the 1950s, to the wheel and motor in the 1960s, which brought movement to the LEGO product, and the Minifigures in the 1970s, which brought life and context to the buildings, and now we see the bricks interacting with computers. For nearly fifty years, we’ve added a completely new dimension each time."

Kjeld sees robotics as the fourth phase of product development (after bricks, wheels/motors, and minifigures).

C46. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 230.

A long memo from 1969, written by Olaf Thygesen Damm from the Analytics Department, described the urgent need to create some humanoid figures for the LEGO universe. Girls wouldn’t accept a toy that only consisted of things, whether they were furniture, houses, or cars, the memo argued. For girls, these things only existed and had purpose in relation to human situations and activities. Boys, on the other hand, were happy simply building houses, cars, and trains and making them work.

Olaf Thygesen Damm in the Analytics department explained that "For girls ... things only existed and had purpose in relation to human situations and activities".

This insight would later apply to how LEGO Friends sets include a lot of accessories to facilitate story-based play.

C47. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 229-230.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "The idea for the Minifigures was originally my dad’s, and in a sense it goes right back to the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1957, when they did a drawing of what they called a “Lego Man”: a chubby little worker in overalls and a cap. Back then, the drawing was used as an illustration in the materials LEGO distributed to retailers, and it became a bit of an icon in the late 1950s.

That sowed the idea in Dad’s head, I think: “Could a figure like that possibly be an element in the LEGO System?” The thought wasn’t realized until around 1970, however, when designer Jens Nygaard Knudsen, the one who also came up with LEGO Space and LEGO Castle, was experimenting with some tall “Building Figures.” There was actually a whole family, and a set that sold really well, in 1974. The following year, Nygaard developed the Minifigures, which were three and a half centimeters [1.37 inches], or four bricks, tall. They fitted the scale of the LEGO bricks, but that version didn’t have moveable arms or legs, so it was nicknamed the “Pillar of Salt.” That wasn’t good enough, and Nygaard, Dad, and I spent ages discussing it. Something had to be done about these figures. They at least had to have moveable arms and legs. Back then I was a 100 percent sure that we would do incredibly well, very quickly, with a figure that size. That came out in 1978."

It took more than 20 years for the idea of the Minifigure to become realized in 1978.

C48. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 229.

Kjeld’s ideas were particularly inspired by the new LEGO Minifigures, which had been in development for nearly ten years. The figures’ “evolution” made him realize that while LEGO had in the past always been a building toy, they now also embraced the possibility of boundless role-play. It was a revolutionary prospect for LEGO, and one which ought to have been actualized long ago, Kjeld thought. Instead, a combination of hesitation, uncertainty, and overly passive management had allowed Playmobil’s somewhat larger plastic minifigures, which hit the toy market in the 1970s, to stake out that ground.

The Minifigure allowed "boundless role-play", despite coming to market after Playmobil's larger figures.

C49. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 225-226.

Kjeld formally took over his mentor’s role as managing director in 1979, but in practice he’d been in the driver’s seat since the prior year, around the same time as the first crop of LEGO Minifigures entered the market, dressed as everyday heroes: police officers, firefighters, doctors, and nurses.

Kjeld became Managing Director in 1979.

C50. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 125.

The three tubes ensured that the tubes and studs firmly interlocked when two bricks are combined. It was almost as though the bricks were glued together, but they were still easy to pull apart. Making each stud on the bricks touch at three points gave them the stability and gripping or clutch power they’d been missing for years. At the same time, it proved to be an aesthetically pleasing solution, because the tubes’ round shape harmonized with the round studs on the top of the brick.

"Making each stud on the bricks touch at three points gave them the stability and gripping or clutch power they'd been missing for years."

C51. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 123-125.

Ever since the very first Automatic Binding Bricks in 1949, LEGO’s small bricks had been hollow, and in January 1958, when Axel Thomsen headed north to Billund to report on the fantastic Christmas sales figures in Germany, they still were. ... The complaints from German customers in January 1958 were a wake-up call. Godtfred reacted instantly, and after a conversation with Axel Thomsen, at which Karl Georg, as head of the Plastics Division, was also present, he sat down that same day and sketched out the various possible options for adding couplings inside the eight-stud brick, several of which had previously been discussed.

Complaints from German customers was the catalyst to find a way to improve clutch power.

C52. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 354.

Ole Kirk wasn’t usually one for slogans, and there’s some suggestion that he got the inspiration for the words on a trip to Germany in the spring of 1937, when he visited the Mustermesse, a big trade fair in Leipzig. There, he seems to have paused by the Steiff stand, displaying the stuffed animals popular with children at the time, and he noticed the German company’s slogan: “Für Kinder ist nur das Beste gut genug!” (“For children, only the best is good enough!”)

The "only the best is good enough" language was probably inspired from Steiff, a Germany company that makes stuffed animals.

C53. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 352.

Lisbeth Valther Pallesen took part in those original debates, and put her finger on the core problem. “We need to reassess how we measure skills. Women are more aware of the process: is it good enough, and are people enthusiastic about what they’re promising? Men think about results: did we achieve our goal and stick to deadlines? These masculine values are most conspicuous because it’s easiest to measure hard facts, but we need to measure both at the company.”

It would be over ten years, however, before the LEGO Group really shook up the company’s patriarchal foundation.

The LEGO Group struggled to create a more diverse workplace in the 2000s.

C54. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 348.

As Don Tapscott wrote in his book Wikinomics, in the late 1990s a new form of global economy was emerging, created through “mass collaboration” between producers and consumers. And LEGO, according to Tapscott, was a flagship company in this regard, allowing Mindstorms fans to have their say, turning them almost into coproducers. When LEGO harnessed its users’ collective intelligence, although users weren’t paid directly, they did get a better product, added Tapscott.

The LEGO Group is credited as a pioneer of crowdsourcing, thanks to their decision to collaborate with fans when producing LEGO Mindstorms.

C55. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 172.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "When I think back, I really didn’t get much time with him as a father. He was always busy, either physically absent or sitting by himself, absorbed in his own thoughts. The only way I could really reach him was by showing him my LEGO buildings. Then he lit up, and we’d have a conversation, while he asked for my opinion, for example about my Scalextric racing track, where I had built stands and pit stops around the track out of LEGO bricks."

Kjeld's only way to connect with his father was through the models he built out of LEGO bricks.

C56. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 345.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "One summer I took Jørgen to BrickFest in Washington, where hard-core fans met up to show off their creations, geek out with LEGO, and give lectures on construction techniques, old, rare sets, and that sort of thing. Meeting these dedicated fans was really eye-opening for Jørgen. It got him thinking about an adult market segment that could be nurtured and much more involved than had previously been the case."

C58. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 169.

At no other point in his life had Godtfred ever thought so radically, or so completely shifted his focus from the LEGO System in Play ... He called the foundation and potential of his vision the “LEGO Column,” entailing a four-step development process he presented to his staff for the first time at a meeting in the System House in 1959.

Step One was the familiar LEGO System for children. Step Two was “the product refined and reworked on another scale, as a hobby for adults.” Step Three was for engineers, architects, and other professionals in the construction industry. And Step Four was an almost philosophical superstructure that looked toward a world, as GKC explained, in which playing with LEGO would lead to a global shift not just in the way we build and construct but also the way we think and behave as human beings, almost along the lines of an evolutionary shift.

1n 1959, Godtfred presented his most expansive vision for the company which drew a clear line from children playing with bricks, to adult hobbyists, to professionals using it as a design too, to rethinking the built environment and how we behave in it.

C59. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 165.

GKC introduced a special forum he called “Worth Knowing.” These evening events, which explored issues related to work, the company, and the LEGO System in Play, were aimed at staff at a certain level of seniority, who were expected to attend lectures, film screenings, and other forms of educational content once a month. The purpose was also to reinforce a sense of cohesion and make LEGO’s growing cohort of middle-managers even better at motivating their teams. As GKC said, if you wanted to create something of quality, you needed motivated employees who understood the demands being made of them. “In a modern organization, it is not enough to hand out orders; the person who receives the orders must understand why they are given, and why they must be carried out in a particular way.”

GKC established learning sessions for leadership called "Worth Knowing", which explored a range of topics.

C60. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 103.

As a young farmhand, his most beloved toy, he later explained in an interview, was a “hwolkow” (meaning “hollow cow”)—a stone with a hole through it and a string threaded through the hole, which children could drag around after them and tether to a post like a real cow. But times had changed. As Ole Kirk remarked, “We are undeniably living in the age of the child. Every year, attentive parents in Denmark spend an estimated fifty to one hundred million kroner on toys for their children. When I think that boys my age only had a rusty nail and a stone with a hole to play with, it’s easy to sigh and feel that you were born too soon.”

Ole Kirk acknowledging that the 1950s were the "age of the child" thanks to toys.