When Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his workshop in Billund, Denmark in 1932 the workshop was a woodworking facility that made furniture and toys. His business was not lucrative and he struggled through the early 1930s. In 1934, he decided to focus on building toys — and changed the name of his company to LEGO, a contraction of the Danish words «leg godt» (play well).
The company expanded into other Nordic countries in the 1960s. The company also invented a smaller brick that was ideal for children with small hands and named it DUPLO in honor of the Latin word duplex (two-fold). This allowed children to create more intricate models.
In the 1970s, Lego began to introduce new features to make their products stand out from competitors. For instance, they introduced a range of different faces to their miniature figures. This change made the figures more realistic and capable of expressing different emotions and facial expressions. The Lego Group added wheels to their bricks, which allowed them to create vehicles and other machines.
The next step was to introduce themes – systems within systems which let customers create a particular world or situation. The company was able increase its brand’s visibility and reach younger customers. In addition the company expanded its production by opening factories in South Korea, Malaysia, and Brazil.