Classic-Castle meets with Jørgen Vig, CEO of LEGO!

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Classic-Castle meets with Jørgen Vig, CEO of LEGO!

Post by architect »

Classic-Castle meets with Jørgen Vig, CEO of LEGO

At BrickFest 2005, Admins of Classic-Castle were given a chance to have a one-on-one meeting with Jørgen Vig, CEO and President of LEGO. Ben, Lenny, and Troy were able to attend (Tony and Kevin had faulty time information), and give Jørgen an idea of what it is that we do, what sets we'd like, and how LEGO can help us.

The meeting went wonderfully! Jørgen and the others present were impressed and excited about what we do. They asked for an honest opinion of Castle over the past ten years and they got it! We also made a contact with Steve Witt, who is absorbing many of the functions Jake once performed. We have started a few connections with Steve and Jake, which we'll be telling you about more in the future.

But I'd also like to thank you, the CC Member. It is because of your participation that has made CC a club that LEGO knows and respects us.

-----------------------------------------------------------

This is a partial transcript of our meeting written by Ben:

In attendance:

Classic-Castle
· Lenny
· Ben
· Troy

LEGO
· Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO
· Tormod Askildsen
· Jake McKee
· Steve Witt, Intern

Jake showed us into a small conference room adjacent to Christina Hitchcock’s office on the fourth floor of GMU. We shook hands with everyone and said our names. Steve Barile and Lenny began to set up the laptop for the powerpoint presentation. As it was loading up we all spoke about ourselves. Lenny said that he had been building castle since he was 7-8? and his first set was a civilian shop. So I said that it is 6041 Armor Shop which impressed them that I know all the numbers.

I said my name and that I began building with family 1960’s lego, bypassed duplo, and started with Lear Jet. Then, I said that it influenced me to study to be an architect. JVK asked if I am one yet and I said that I have 3 more years of internship. He then asked if I liked the National Trust room/event. I said that I thought it was wonderful. He asked if I built anything and I said that I made the grey tomb and it is quite fragile. They know which one it is (mainly because of the small number of entries in that room @ 30).

Troy introduced himself as the financer/host of the site. They talked a bit about the quantity of LEGO he purchased at fest.

By that time the presentation was ready. Lenny talked about how we started and gave a run through of all the Admins and their duties.

City Standard – talk a bit about shows and events
Sets – archive of old sets with unique pages, photos, etc. We talked about building idea book creations and making instructions to them which impresses the LEGO employees.
Events/Contests – We talked about the Colossal Castle Contest, number of entries, thanks Jake for prizes, said that admins donate prizes too (I mentioned 6080 for this year).
HowTo – Articles on building styles/techniques. They are most impressed with this section and think we fans should make our own idea book.
Highlighted Mocs – main page and written description (they also like this)

Suggestions:

· Minifig packs (castle and vikings)
· More realistic sets and accessories
· Modularity
· Legends – We would like CC members to be able to give feedback to LEGO.
· Surveys for our members to say what products they want
· Keep good sets on SAH longer - Siskind's Shop and BFF disappeared suddenly from USA SAH and we wanted those longer. Tormod, head of North America division, seemed surprised and said he didnt know that we still wanted them.

They also asked what we thought of Castle products from the last 10 years. Some of our complaints were a lack of modularity, lack of realism, juniorized designs, and poor sub models,etc. We said that recent sets weren't as good but kk2 2005 is an improvement over kk2 2004.They are hoping that Vikings and Vladek's castle will sell well this season. We also said that Duplo Castle is awesome and thank them for the KK2 Chess set.

------------------------------------------------------------

We would like to thank everyone at LEGO for meeting with us. Please post your thoughts on our meeting and any things you would like us to pass along to LEGO in the future.

Lenny, Ben E, and the CC Team
Last edited by architect on Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by TheOrk »

Wow that's great news! Now it's official that we're the best LEGO website in the world!
Please post your thoughts on our meeting and any things you would like us to pass along to LEGO in the future.
It looks like all my opinions were voiced at the meeting :wink:
Last edited by TheOrk on Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by LEGO-las »

TheOrk wrote:Wow thats great news!Now it's offical that we're the best LEGO website in the world!
:lol:
and it looks like all my opinions were voiced, to.
EDIT: Wait did they say anything about Sava's stickers or Redbean's custom weapons in the How-To Section?
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Post by eNiGMa »

:D This really made my day, thank you! It's great to know that they listened to us, too. Can this get any better?
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Post by Glencaer »

I should add that both Jorgen and Kjeld were really nice guys. Everyone wanted to shake Kjeld's hand, and he was very gracious. There are a few really great pics of him talking with the kids there.

Jorgen was also super-cool. He listened intently to our presentation and was really interested to hear what we thought.

Everyone from LEGO was immeansely cool to talk to and get a look into the insides of how LEGO works. An awesome experience.

If you guys have any questions for us, feel free to ask!!

-Lenny
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Post by Glencaer »

LEGO-las wrote:Wait did they say anything about Sava's stickers or Redbean's custom weapons in the How-To Section?
Unfortunately, the one-on-one was a half hour, so we didn't get a chance to get into depth on any particular section.

Their responce was basically "Oh nice." I think they were impressed, but without looking at the actual article to see the depth of it, not that impressed ;). They didnt say anything in particular.

-Lenny
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Post by Robin Hood »

Ok, I may just be out of it, but I thought Kjeld was the president and CEO. What happened? If this Jorgen is those, then what is Kjeld right now?

Dan :wink:
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Post by architect »

Ok, I may just be out of it, but I thought Kjeld was the president and CEO. What happened? If this Jorgen is those, then what is Kjeld right now?
Kjeld was in retirement from running LEGO for a few years. After previous management people messed up LEGO the last couple of years, he came back as CEO to get the company on the right track. Jorgen is the new CEO (for the past year or two) and Kjeld is now the Vice Chairman of the Board and the owner of the LEGO Company.

Back in the 70's there was another transitional CEO between when Godtfred ran the company and Kjeld took over. Jorgen may be like this but we do not know if there are other people in the Christiansen family who are interested in running the company.

Ben
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Post by Glencaer »

Robin Hood wrote:Ok, I may just be out of it, but I thought Kjeld was the president and CEO. What happened? If this Jorgen is those, then what is Kjeld right now?
Kjeld took over CEO responcibilities for a while to get the company back on track. He never intended to be permanent CEO. One of his first duties was to find an acceptable replacement CEO, which he found in Jorgen.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is the owner of The LEGO Group (TLG). His grandfather founded the company and invented LEGO bricks. I've heard that Kjeld doesn't have the best of health, so taking an active day-to-day role in the company would be too much stress.

Think of it this way: Kjeld is the king, and Jorgen is his Prime Minister. Kjeld sets the direction of the company, and Jorgen does it and handles the day-to-day business.

Make sense?

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Post by Lord_Of_The_LEGO »

Glencaer wrote:Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is the owner of The LEGO Group (TLG)
Just a little note: Isn't it now officially called The LEGO Company? I think it was The LEGO Group until about 1998, and then they switched the name to The LEGO Company. Personally, I prefer The LEGO Company. It sounds more professional.
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Post by Robin Hood »

Glencaer wrote:Think of it this way: Kjeld is the king, and Jorgen is his Prime Minister. Kjeld sets the direction of the company, and Jorgen does it and handles the day-to-day business.

Make sense?

-Lenny
Indeed it does, thank you.

Dan :wink:
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Post by Glencaer »

Lord_Of_The_LEGO wrote:
Glencaer wrote:Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is the owner of The LEGO Group (TLG)
Just a little note: Isn't it now officially called The LEGO Company? I think it was The LEGO Group until about 1998, and then they switched the name to The LEGO Company. Personally, I prefer The LEGO Company. It sounds more professional.
Jorgen refered to it as the LEGO Group in his keynote address. The idea is that it is a group of companies (I think). There is (or was) the themeparks, manufacturing, company stores, and SAH as individual entities within the larger LEGO Group.

Either way, I think its a arbitrary title difference. You say TLC, I say TLG, you say potato and I say potato. Same thing.

-Lenny
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Post by stuifzand »

It just recently switched back to TLG :)
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Post by ottoatm »

Well, I have to say, two years ago when I signed up for this site, I never saw it becoming as successful as it is now! Indeed, I'd say we are becoming something like a powerful user group, kind of like the "hogs" and harley davidson! (Well, give it a couple years).

I'm really glad and impressed to see that you were able to meet with these guys and share you good suggestions with them. Great work!
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Post by Mr. D »

Good work, admins! I am very glad to hear that the meeting went well and I will hope to see something come of it in a few years.

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