Lego replaced its CEO after eight months — and said it was because of his age

At the start of 2017, Lego's board handed the chief executive's job to Bali Padda, a company veteran who became the Danish toymaker's first non-Danish CEO. He succeeded Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the architect of Lego's celebrated turnaround, who moved up to chairman. When Padda took over, Lego said the search for a successor would begin immediately.

Eight months later, on 10 August 2017, Lego announced that Padda, then 61, was stepping down, to be replaced in October by Niels Christiansen, the 51-year-old former boss of the engineering group Danfoss. The reason Lego gave was unusual: Padda, it said, was never expected to remain in the post long-term because of his age.

Lego framed the short tenure as planned — a combination of Padda's own wishes and a clear understanding with the chairman that the role would not be long-term. The search for a permanent leader, it said, had gone faster than expected. But the optics were awkward: a chief executive installed and removed within eight months, his age offered as the explanation.

The case was less about Padda than about how the board handled the succession. Appointing a leader you do not intend to keep, and then citing his age for the short tenure, turns a transition into a revolving door. A handover that was always meant to be brief could have been designed as a transition from the start — and spared the company two chief executives in eight months.