Musical chairs at the head of the LEGO Group: Bali Padda replaced

This info will not change your daily life as a consumer of LEGO products, but it is a change at the top of the LEGO hierarchy and everyone will see what they want to see there.

Bali Padda, current CEO of the LEGO group installed in January 2017 following the departure of Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, will be replaced from October 1 by Niels B. Christiansen, former CEO of GN Netcom and then of Danfoss, a large Danish industrial group.

Bali will join Jørgen within the LEGO Brand Group, a recently created entity which aims to better understand "the possible opportunities that are sure to be created in the near future around the LEGO brand". He will have spent nine months at the head of the LEGO group.

Some will have seen it as a transitional phase via the promotion to the highest positions of an internal element of the company while awaiting the recruitment of the one who can breathe new life into the brand. Others may see it as an expeditious shutdown after a first semester that has not produced the expected results.

The stagnation of the group's results in the United States in 2016 despite a significant increase in marketing spending in this area was underlined by interim CEO Bali Padda upon his arrival: "...In the United States, customer sales stagnated from a year ago, despite a sharp increase in marketing spend in the second quarter. We will continue to work closely with our business partners to identify new opportunities for innovation, growth and engagement of children in this strategic market.... ".

LEGO must logically work hard on a revival of sales in this geographical area and the recruitment of a CEO who has proven himself elsewhere to replace a promoted from the seraglio can possibly go in this direction.

That's it that's all.

(See the official LEGO press release)