Carminda+Batista


 * LEGO - Managing cross-cultural knowledge**

__Introduction and Development__ LEGO has come a long way over the past 75 years - from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, global enterprise that it is today.

LEGO is the world’s sixth-largest manufacturer of toys.

The purpose and vision of LEGO Group was always to inspire children to explore and challenge their own creative potential.

__Values and Identity/Cross-Cultural Mangement Issues__ While growing and internationalizing LEGO experienced cross-cultural developments. The big challenge for LEGO - which is strongly bound to its values, identity and brand - was to ensure that a common standard is applied to its products and marketing. Furthermore, to ensure that its managers throughout the world share more or less the same perception of the identity.

In the early 90s the company recognized the need to extend its product range by diversifying into the expanding and highly lucrative software market.

A new company was set up in London to develop interactive software for children and place it on the market.

In accordance with a core model, employees from the old LEGO culture were mixed with young creative British software developers in order to bring together their know-how.

Acting with considerable independence over the evolution of its own company philosophy LEGO Media Intern. sensitively adapted the core company values to the development of educational software.

This gave LEGO a unique differentiation in the crowded software-marketplace. __Conclusion__ That's how cross-cultural learning processes started within LEGO and a shift from a traditional form of management to one that recognizes identity as a knowledge resource took place.