How LEGO solved
its business problem
through design
LEGO was founded in 1932, and has been immensely successful ever since.

Problem
Kjeld Kristiansen, the owner at the time, was dissatisfied with the company’s strategy-building sessions. His business was built on imagination—but the results from these sessions were decidedly unimaginative.
Something was missing… LEGO needed to find a way to channel employees’ creativity and innovation in the workplace.
Solution
LEGO realized that in order to unleash the imagination of their employees, they also needed to play—with LEGO!
Around the same time, Johan Roos and Bart Victor, professors at IMD business school in Lausanne, were also concerned about the poor results from traditional strategy-development techniques.
They began experimenting with using LEGO® bricks to tap into people’s unconscious knowledge and creativity.
Together with Robert Rasmussen, director of product development for the educational market at LEGO, they realized these concepts had real-world potential.
They started developing the strategy-building process, completing the methodology and making the results reproducible.


