Business

Schumpeter

Unpacking Lego

How the Danish firm became the world's hottest toy company

IT IS getting harder to go anywhere without stepping on a piece of Lego-related hype.

The Lego Movie is number two at the American box office, after three weeks at number one.

Model kits related to the film are piled high in the shops.

They will add to the already gigantic heap of Lego bits:

86 for every person on the planet.

The toymaker has enjoyed ten years of spectacular growth, almost quadrupling its revenue.

In 2012 it overtook Hasbro to become the world's second-largest toymaker.

The number one, Mattel, is now seeking to buy the Canadian maker of Mega Bloks toy bricks, to fend off the challenge from Lego.

This is remarkable for many reasons.

Lego's home town, Billund in rural Denmark, is so small that the company had to provide it with a hotel—an elegant one, unsurprisingly.

The toy business is one of the world's trickiest:

perennially faddish and, at the moment, convulsed by technological innovation.

Children are growing up ever faster, and abandoning the physical world for the virtual.

To cap it all, the company almost collapsed in 2003-04, having drifted for years,

diversifying into too many areas, producing too many products.

and, in a fit of desperation, flirting with becoming a lifestyle company, with Lego-branded clothes and watches.

Lego's decade of success began when it appointed Jorgen Vig Knudstorp as chief executive.

This was a risky move:

Mr Knudstorp was a mere 35 years old and had cut his teeth as a management consultant with McKinsey rather than running a business.

But it proved to be inspired.

Mr Knudstorp decreed that the company must go back to the brick: focusing on its core products, forgetting about brand-stretching, and even selling its theme parks.

He also brought in stricter management controls, for example reducing the number of different pieces that the company produced from 12,900 to 7,000.

Under Mr Knudstorp Lego has struck a successful balance between innovation and tradition.

The company has to generate new ideas to keep its sales growing:

customers need a reason to expand their stock of bricks, and to buy them from Lego rather than cheaper rivals.

But at the same time it must resist the sort of undisciplined innovation that almost ruined it.

Lego produces a stream of kits with ready-made designs, such as forts and spaceships, to provide children with templates.

But it also insists that the pieces can be added to the child's collection of bricks, and reused to make all sorts of other things.

Lego has got better at managing its relationships.

The Lego Movie demonstrates how it can focus on the brick while venturing into the virtual world:

Warner Bros.made the film while Lego provided the models.

During its years of drift it relied too much on other firms' blockbuster franchises,

such as Harry Potter and Star Wars.

This time its intellectual property, not someone else's, is the star of the film.

It has also got better at tapping its legion of fans—particularly adult fans of Lego, or AFOLs—for new ideas.

Can the company continue its winning streak?

Its growth is slowing: its net profits grew by 9% in 2013 compared with 35% in 2012, and its revenues rose by 10% compared with 23% in 2012.

Mr Knudstorp suggests that harder times are ahead: When the company is getting bigger and the market isn't growing,

it's a pure mathematical consequence that growth rates will have to reach a more sustainable level.

Lego is now at an inflection point, building its organisational capacity and embracing globalisation, to help it find new sources of growth.

Last year the company invested DKr2.6 billion in production facilities and added more than 1,300 full-time workers, a 13% increase.

It is expanding two existing factories—in Kladno in the Czech Republic and Monterrey in Mexico—and building two new ones—in Nyiregyhaza in Hungary and,

most important of all, in Jiaxing in China.

Its management is being globalised too, with regional offices being opened in Singapore and Shanghai.

The aim is twofold: to replicate in the rapidly growing east Lego's success in the west;

and to transform a local company that happened to go global into a global company that happens to have its head office in Billund.

Late to the party

Globalisation, as we point out at length in our business section this week, is fraught with difficulties.

Lego is relatively late in making its China play—jumping in when some other western firms are jumping out with nothing but regrets to show for it.

Lego also owes its identity to its roots in small-town Denmark:

Ole Kirk Kristiansen, its founder, made up the name from the first two letters of two Danish words, leg godt, or play well,

and committed his company to nurture the child in each of us.

An earlier attempt to move some of the responsibilities for designing products to an office in Milan proved to be a disaster.

But the logic of globalisation is nevertheless compelling.

The Chinese middle class is exploding, the toy business in the west is stagnant,

and Lego needs a global workforce if it is to serve a global market.

Lego also has one important force on its side in its battle to globalise:

parents in emerging markets, just like those in the rich world, are convinced that the company's products are good for their children.

Grown-ups everywhere welcome it as a respite from the endless diet of videos and digital games that their offspring would otherwise consume.

Chinese adults, including those very grown-up ones in government ministries,

hope it will provide the secret ingredient that their education system sorely lacks:creativity.

The Lego Movie may be providing the company with a welcome boost during the toy industry's post-Christmas doldrums.

But Lego's long-term success rests on the way adults feel reassured at buying a toy whose roots lie in an age before video games, mobile apps and toy-themed films.

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全文翻译：

商业报道

熊彼得

拆乐高

来自丹麦的乐高如何成为全球最畅销玩具公司

无论走到哪儿，要想不碰到关于乐高的宣传，真是越来越难了。

《乐高大电影》现在位居美国票房第二位，这之前它已连续三周成为美国票房冠军。

和该电影有关的工具箱模型在商场大卖，

让这个世界又多了一大把乐高积木。

据估计，平均每个地球人拥有86块乐高积木。

这家玩具制造商在过去十年中飞速发展，收入翻了两番。

2012年，乐高追赶上美国的孩之宝公司，成为世界第二大玩具公司。

排名第一的美泰为了应对乐高的挑战，正在寻求收购加拿大的美家宝积木。

这实在是了不起的成就。

理由有很多。乐高的家乡比伦德是丹麦的一个小乡村，因为实在太小，乐高还得专门为它盖一座宾馆—当然是非常高大上的那种。

玩具是世界上最难搞的产业之一。

潮流永远是来得快去得也快同时又饱受新技术的冲击。

现在的孩子成长得越来越快，并且越来越多的抛弃现实世界，投向虚拟世界的怀抱。

最要命的是，乐高在03年到04年已经走到破产的边缘。

那时的乐高已迷茫多年，涉足领域过多，产品线过长。

绝望中，它甚至起了念头想要变成一家生活方式公司，开始生产乐高牌的服装和手表。

乐高十年的辉煌开始于任命Jorgen Vig Knudstorp为首席执行官。

这是一招险棋。

当时的Knudstorp只有35岁，商场上的历练也仅限于在麦肯锡做管理咨询，并未管理过一家公司。

然而事实证明这招棋走对了。

Knudstorp命令公司回到积木生意，专注于核心产品，忘掉品牌拓展，甚至卖掉主题公园。

他还采用了更严格的管理制度，比如将组件从12900个减少到7000个。

在Knudstorp治下，乐高在创新与传统中找到了平衡。

为保证销售量持续增长，它必须不断推出新的创意，

才能给顾客足够理由买更多的积木，而且是从乐高而不是从更便宜的对手那儿买。

但同时它又必须避免没有章法的创新，当年它就是栽在这一点上。

乐高生产有各式各样的工具箱，里面装有现成的设计，比如城堡或者太空飞船，孩子们可以把它们当做模板。

不过它坚称，这些积木也可以和已有的积木混在一起，拼出其他的东西。

乐高也学会了如何更好地处理与其他产业的关系。

《乐高大电影》展现了它如何一方面专注做积木，一方面打入虚拟世界。

华纳兄弟拍电影，乐高提供模型。

在迷茫的那些年里，乐高过度依赖其他公司的系列大片，

如哈利波特或星球大战。

这次电影的主角换成了它自己的创意。

同时它还懂得了如何更好地利用强大的乐高粉丝团，尤其是成年粉丝，来获取创意。

乐高能够保持其辉煌的战绩吗？

它的增长正在放缓：2012年乐高净利润增长35%，2013年下降到了9%。2012年总收入增长23%，2013年只有10%。

Knudstorp也暗示未来的路不好走：当公司不断扩张而市场却保持不变时，增长率肯定得回到一个可持续的水平，

这纯粹就是个数学问题。

如今的乐高正处在转折点。通过提高管理水平，主动适应全球化，它在努力寻找新的增长点。

去年乐高在生产设备上共投资26亿丹麦马克，增加全职员工1300多名，增长达13%。

如今它正在扩建捷克共和国克拉德诺和墨西哥蒙特雷的两家工厂，位于匈牙利尼尔吉哈萨

和最为重要的中国嘉兴的两家新工厂也在施工当中。

管理层也日渐国际化，地区办公室已经开到了新加坡和上海，

目的是在快速增长的东方复制乐高在西方的成功，

并且将一个不小心走向全球的地方性公司转变为一个偶然把总部设在比伦德的跨国公司。

派对去晚了

全球化的路非常难走，本刊在这周的商业板块花了大篇幅阐明这个道理。

乐高进入中国的时间相对较晚—正当一些西方公司一无所获充满悔恨的离开中国之时，它进来了。

乐高的根仍在那个丹麦小镇：

创始人奥勒取了两个丹麦单词leg godt前两个字母，拼在一起有了Lego，

他给公司定的宗旨是养育每个人心中的那个孩子。

乐高曾将一些设计任务交给米兰的一间办公室来做，结果出了大问题。

然而全球化的诱惑仍让人无法抗拒。

中国的中产阶级正呈爆炸性增长，而西方的玩具市场又停滞不前；

如果要打入全球市场，乐高也必须拥有一批全球性员工。

在全球化的战役中，乐高还具备一支有生力量：

和发达国家一样，新兴国家的父母们相信乐高产品对他们的孩子有好处。

世界各地的成年人都喜欢可高，因为它能将孩子们从无休止的电玩和数码游戏中解放出来。

中国的成年人，包括政府部门的官员，

希望乐高能够提供中国教育体系中匮乏的东西、也是国家发展的秘方：创造力。

圣诞节过后是玩具业的淡季，《乐高大电影》也许在短期内能给这家公司注入一剂强心针。

然而从长期看，乐高若要成功，就必须让成年人能够放心地购买一个来自另一年代的玩具，那个没有电玩、移动应用或玩具主题电影的年代。

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词汇解析：

1.step on 走在…上面；伤害（某人的）感情

But I might step on you by mistake.

但是可能不小心我会踩到你们。

A little over eight years later, when neil armstrong became the first man to step on to the lunar surface, the snowy images beamed down to houston stamped an indelible memory on a generation of earthlings.

八年多以后，当尼尔阿姆斯特朗成为第一个踏上月球表面的人类，发回休斯顿的信号在满是雪花的画面中显现出他的形像，成为一代人永不磨灭的记忆。

2.relate to 涉及；同…有关系

Share something I can relate to.

分享一些与我的兴趣有关的东西。

Cutting costs is not easy: the bulk relate to promises already made.

削减成本并不是件容易的事：大部分成本与已经做出的承诺有关。

3.add to 增加，加强

What provisions would you add to this one?

你会为再添加什么乐观信条吗？

Mr obama offers only to add to its complexity.

奥巴马的提议却只会增加它的复杂性。

4.fend off 避开

The theory presumably is that a few carefully targeted barriers will fend off more acute protectionist pressure from congress and shore up political support for free-trade deals.

理论上估计小心谨慎有针对性的障碍会避开国会猛烈的贸易保护主义压力，同时会得到赞同自由贸易政治力量的支持。

Mr saleh needs new ones quickly if he is to fend off the rising tide of opposition at home.

如果萨雷先生想挡开国内风生水起的反对大潮，他迫切需新的招数。