Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
By David Robertson and Bill Breen
3.5/5
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About this ebook
As LEGO failed to keep pace with the revolutionary changes in kids' lives and began sliding into irrelevance, the company's leaders implemented some of the business world's most widely espoused prescriptions for boosting innovation. Ironically, these changes pushed the iconic toymaker to the brink of bankruptcy, showing that what works in theory can fail spectacularly in the brutally competitive global economy.
It took a new LEGO management team--faced with the growing rage for electronic toys, few barriers to entry, and ultra-demanding consumers (ten-year old boys)--to reinvent the innovation rule book and transform LEGO into one of the world's most profitable, fastest-growing companies.
Along the way, Brick by Brick reveals how LEGO:
- Became truly customer-driven by co-creating with kids as well as its passionate adult fans
- Looked beyond products and learned to leverage a full-spectrum approach to innovation
- Opened its innovation process by using both the "wisdom of crowds" and the expertise of elite cliques
- Discovered uncontested, "blue ocean" markets, even as it thrived in brutally competitive red oceans
- Gave its world-class design teams enough space to create and direction to deliver built a culture where profitable innovation flourishes
Whether you're a senior executive looking to make your company grow, an entrepreneur building a startup from scratch, or a fan who wants to instill some of that LEGO magic in your career, you'll learn how to build your own innovation advantage, brick by brick.
David Robertson
Dr. Robertson graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1969, with a B.A. in Germanic and Slavic Languages. He attended the Arnamagnaen Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark before receiving his medical degree from Vanderbilt University Medical School in 1973. He went on to complete an internship and residency in Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Robertson was a postdoctoral fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt for two years before accepting a position as assistant chief of Service in Medicine and instructor in Medicine at Johns Hopkins in 1977. In 1978, Robertson returned to Vanderbilt as assistant professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, became an associate professor in 1982, then rose to professor in 1986. He spent one year as a visiting professor in the Department of Molecular Endocrinology at National, then served as a visiting professor in the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at University College in London. In 1993, Robertson became director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt University and also took the position of director of the Division of Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology, which he held until 2000. Along with his current roles as professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and professor of Neurology, Robertson is currently the Elton Yates Professor of Autonomic Disorders, director of the General Clinical Research Center and director of the Center for Space Physiology and Medicine for Vanderbilt University. Robertson currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the World Life Foundation, the NASA Microgravity Human Research Committee, the Merck Advisory Board, and the editorial boards of American Journal of Medicine, Autonomic Neuroscience and Clinical Autnomic Research. He is also associate editor for the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
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Reviews for Brick by Brick
24 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Too much about certain broad, canonical business strategies ("reach for blue ocean markets") and the failures, or rather the failed timing, of these, but maybe that is just how business book are. Interesting because of the topic - the Lego brick.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found the history of lego from its beginnings to close demise and finally it's meteoric rise a very interesting read. When it comes to shaping the how's and whys into a clear set of achievements and how to's is another thing.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found the history of lego from its beginnings to close demise and finally it's meteoric rise a very interesting read. When it comes to shaping the how's and whys into a clear set of achievements and how to's is another thing.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brick by Brick contained more business jargon than I cared for (which is, I suppose, none) - yet Robertson explains in great detail how LEGO lost its way in the late 90s and early 00s and how, on the brink of bankruptcy, the company refocused on its strengths and reconnected with its core customers.