The fourth-generation owner of the LEGO Group is putting measures in places to ensure the Kristiansen family ‘doesn’t become a liability’ if they can’t agree on the company’s direction.
Thomas Kirk Kristiansen fully assumed the mantle of ‘active owner’ of the LEGO Group in May, after gradually taking over responsibilities from his father Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen since 2016. The transition places Thomas as the fourth-generation owner of the Danish company, following founder Ole, his son Godtfred and finally Kjeld. And Thomas’s focus during the handover has largely been on avoiding any potential quarrelling within future generations of the family business.
“In my generation we are three people, in the next generation there are seven, and in the next one there will be even more,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s important to create a structure where the family itself doesn’t become a liability, because we also know that most often it is the families themselves that destroy the companies they own because they can’t get along or disagree on the direction.”
Thomas has now taken on the role of chair at the LEGO Group, Kirkbi and the LEGO Foundation, but does not have a management role within the LEGO Group, as Kjeld decided that the Kristiansen family should instead focus on being an ‘active owner’ of the company across future generations. The family has set up a new fund, designated K2, which will automatically vote with the ‘most active owner’ – now Thomas – to supersede any disagreements between board members.
The fourth-generation owner has also established a ‘LEGO school’, with help from the Swiss IMD business school, to teach future generations not only the LEGO Group’s brand values, but also the day-to-day specifics and challenges of running a family business. “It’s simply about equipping them and preparing them as well as we can,” Thomas said. He added that the school is ‘done in a very playful way so they think it’s fun and want to take an active owner role in the future’.
This ethos has apparently stemmed from the ‘mixed feelings’ Thomas had growing up in Billund, referring specifically to the tumultuous period in the early ‘00s when the company briefly flirted with bankruptcy. “Most of the times it was great when things were good,” Thomas said. “But when things were not so good, it wasn’t fun at all.” According to the Financial Times, some of the job cuts incurred in that time included Thomas’s friends’ parents.
Ensuring future generations of the Kristiansen family are invested in the idea of running the LEGO Group, with a genuine interest in the brand and business, is one way Thomas hopes to keep things running smoothly – and navigate some of those awkward scenarios – in years to come.
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