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The LEGO
Case Study
2014
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The A
CONTENTS !
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7!
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Introduction!!
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Difficult start to the decade 2001.!
Signs of Recovery 2002.!
Hopes dashed - 2003.!
LEGOLAND parks.!
LEGO Brand Stores.!
The Knudstorp Review.!
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Financial Focus - the !
Oveson addition. !
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Back to basics and the limit to adjacencies. !
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10 ! Developing the strategy ! why do we exist? !
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11 ! First the action plan - first
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things first. !
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12 ! Summary and Conclusions!
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13 !Appendices !
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13.1 Knudstorp on!
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communication !
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13.2 References and slides
The A
1 Introduction !
In 2014, LEGO® announced record results. In the financial year 2013, revenues had increased by 10% to 25.4 billion danish krona. Profits before tax were 8.2 billion DKK. The company had once again delivered an impressive operating margin of 33% before tax.!
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In US dollars, the company had achieved
$4.5 billion of revenues and profits of $1.5 billion. Revenues had increased from just over $1 billion some seven years earlier.
LEGO® had replaced Hasbro to become the largest toy company in the world second only to Mattel. !
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In just eight years, revenues at the Danish toy manufacturer had tripled. The company had turned around a loss of 2.5 billion krona in the financial years 2003 and 2004 to an operating margin the envy of high tech stocks around the world.!
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The transition had boosted prices and gross margins from 56% to over 70%, slashed operating costs from 70% to 37% of turnover and doubled sales per employee. !
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Return on equity had increased from zero to almost 70% and equity values had increased from 400 million to over 11 billion DKK. Valued on par with NASDAQ’s Facebook, the company would be worth over $150 billion. Not bad for a toy company based in Denmark. !
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The future had not always looked so promising. In presenting his report to management in
June 2003, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp,