If you see Robin Smith carrying a Lego-branded bag through the airport, send your kids over to say hello. She’ll give them a small set of Lego blocks to play with and keep. Smith, general counsel of Lego Systems Inc., the American subsidiary of Denmark’s The Lego Group, said her job is as much fun as kids and even adults think it is. During meetings at company headquarters in Enfield, Conn., employees are encouraged to dip into bowls of Lego blocks on the tables and build to their hearts’ content.
The company dates back to 1932, when Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys. Lego’s name is derived from the Danish words "leg godt" ("play well"), and in Latin "Lego" means "I put together." Lego produces approximately 19 billion colorful, interlocking bricks per year, each endowed with a feature its employees call "clutch," which enables the blocks to snap securely together. The privately held company reported $1.32 billion in U.S. sales last year, an increase of 26 percent from 2011. The Lego Group has 10,000 employees, about 2,200 of whom work in the United States.
