Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry

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In places I feel redundancy sets in and the book could have been 15% shorter (though, as Robertson drives home in the LEGO Universe retrospective section, I appreciate that Robertson probably felt he could have tinkered more but chose to ship sooner rather than later, and the book is a fine first release). Then it talks about the 7 truths of innovations that Lego used to move the company forward. But here it also talks about how pursuing these truths led Lego to the brink of bankruptcy. Good to hear a company talking about its failures and how it used those failures to turn around. In the end the company arrived at a point where many sets cost more to manufacture than they retailed for, while management was unaware of any issues, not talking to each other. Unfortunately this is also where the book loses its impact. Maybe it is the fact that I am not an economist, but some of the analysis seems long-winded, overly-laudatory, and oddly contradictory in places. Some of the elements seem to come out of the blue with no explanation (e.g the first time we hear about the success of Bionicle is in the chapter about Bionicle). Sometimes economic jargon is used with no explanation whatsoever. This doesn't make the book unreadable, but it lost my interest about 3/4s in, when nothing really seemed to happen anymore, and I had to force myself to go on reading. I think the main problem is that while the topic of the book could be framed as an interesting story, after about the half-way point the author just seems to fill it with descriptions of how all those new and awesome product lines were developed. Three weeks later a little envelope arrived. Adressed to my son (4 year olds love getting letters). It was a personalized letter from Lego to him, explaining how sad he must have felt when his mother had dropped the train. Therefore, Lego was glad to provide him with 3 new parts, no costs. And a free membership to the periodic Lego magazine.

To be very clear, this is first and foremost a business book, essentially a very long and in-depth case study. But for a LEGO fan, it's also a veritable goldmine of information and insight into how the company works. Robertson starts at the very beginning and covers the whole history of the company, focusing on the business aspect but giving some surprising details about the toys themselves. A lot of attention is paid to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the company attempted to innovate to increase sales and almost went bankrupt instead. David Robertson is a Professor of Practice at the Wharton School where he teaches Innovation and Product Development in Wharton's undergraduate, MBA, and executive education programs. From 2002 through 2010, Robertson was the LEGO Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Switzerland's Institute for Management Development (IMD), which received the #1 worldwide ranking by the Financial Times for its executive education programs. At IMD he was Program Director for IMD's largest program, the Program for Executive Development, and co-Director of the Making Business Sense of IT program, a joint program between IMD and MIT Sloan. Throughout time, Ole’s passion for fun and high-quality toys has endured as his legacy. In fact, the “LEGO” name comes from two Danish words “Leg Godt”, meaning “Play Well”. And now, new research from the LEGO Play Well Study shows play as not only fun, but also integral to childhood development, overall happiness and family wellbeing. Our training is neurodiversity affirming, and includes content created by our neurodivergent colleagues and consultants. The exhibition consists of a range of stunning 2D and 3D work in a variety of scales, from jewellery to sculpture, and the show includes both wall mounted and plinth based exhibits.Great book for leaders to understand the “7 Truths of Innovation”, which need to be carefully considered as well.

Showcasing children’s ability to turn mundane moments into playful adventures, and providing inspiration to help parents to do the same as part of the LEGO Foundation’s #PlayPledge movement, Could use an updated introduction or epilogue looking at the future of LEGO which has continued to see revenue growth as well as an increase of gross profit from 13.5% to 30% and what strategies have continued to work for LEGO. processes of how the company lost its financial way and the painful steps necessary to recreate itself. I was fascinated to learn how theyPeople tell us they love this course, with over 60% saying their expectations were exceeded and 100% saying their expectations of the course were met. Reading this book was like playing business school buzzword bingo. While it is possible that Lego was one of the most buzzword compliant companies of all times with Blue-Ocean Strategy, Clayton Christensen, Open Innovation, Innovation Matrix all making appearances. But given the short shrift the author spends in describing how these strategies were used in the company it’s impossible to tell. You get to learn with our very own Dr. Gina Gomez de la Cuesta, Clinical Psychologist and author of the LEGO therapy manual and several research articles. It took the work of a group of talented analysts to convince them that while some of their recent business decisions were quite successful to say the least (Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Bionicle), altogether the company was losing money on developing and even selling their products.

Gave its world-class design teams enough space to create and direction to deliver built a culture where profitable innovation flourishesInviting LEGOLAND guests in select parks* to Play YOUR Way as they experience five different types of play activities and collect badges as they explore LEGOLAND, First, a caveat on this review. I am a literal card-carrying AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO), so my review is biased. I read this book more because it was about LEGO than as a business book, even though it is a business book first, which happens to examine an iconic toy company. That said, there are two main things that I enjoyed about the book. were hired. I think adults who have used Legos would be interested in the book. I think the book could be very valuable to companies who Opened its innovation process by using both the "wisdom of crowds" and the expertise of elite cliques

The book laid out the journey that Lego went through in their quest for innovation. The 7 principles of innovation were clearly laid out, and demonstrated how when poorly adopted can bankrupt a company. The exhibition will require approximately 250 to 350 sqm but can be adapted to fit a range of spaces. In the lead up to its 90th Anniversary, the LEGO Group will be celebrating fan creativity and 90 years of LEGO play with a range of activities to help those of all ages experience the joy and benefits of play for themselves. These activities include: This book is about the history of Lego and how they first became famous and successful, but it mostly is about the business decisions that lead to their near-collapse, and what the company did to turn itself around. This means this book has a lot of interesting parts about the company itself and the philosophy that drives it. It also has some long and astute observations about business decisions that are analyzed in how they can affect a company, and how they actually worked out for the company in question. The tight link between autonomy and accountability reduces the need for motivation-sapping interventions from upper management."

Discovered uncontested, "blue ocean" markets, even as it thrived in brutally competitive red oceans I never played with LEGO, and neither did my children. But hundreds of kids do, judging by the demand for books about LEGO at the library I work in. Inspired by an Australian librarian (and with a donation from a customer) we were able to buy some LEGO kits and pieces and now run LEGO holiday activities at the library - they are really popular. Brilliant. First visit and will now visit regularly. Lego exhibition best day ever for a 7 year old. Our team have been involved in the first large scale randomised controlled trial (called the I-SOCIALISE trial). This study has shown collaborative LEGO play to be cost effective with a high level of acceptability and with a small positive outcome for autistic children's social skills.