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Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
Brick by Brick takes you inside the LEGO you've never seen. By following the teams that are inventing some of the world's best-loved toys, it spotlights the company's disciplined approach to harnessing creativity and recounts one of the most remarkable business transformations in recent memory.
Brick by Brick reveals how LEGO failed to keep pace with the revolutionary changes in kids' lives and began sliding into irrelevance. When the company's leaders implemented some of the business world's most widely espoused prescriptions for boosting innovation, they ironically pushed the iconic toymaker to the brink of bankruptcy. The company's near-collapse shows 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
Sometimes radical yet always applicable, Brick by Brick abounds with real-world lessons for unleashing breakthrough innovation in your organization, just like LEGO. 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.
Brick by Brick reveals how LEGO failed to keep pace with the revolutionary changes in kids' lives and began sliding into irrelevance. When the company's leaders implemented some of the business world's most widely espoused prescriptions for boosting innovation, they ironically pushed the iconic toymaker to the brink of bankruptcy. The company's near-collapse shows 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
Sometimes radical yet always applicable, Brick by Brick abounds with real-world lessons for unleashing breakthrough innovation in your organization, just like LEGO. 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.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
320 people are currently reading
4502 people want to read
About the author
David C. Robertson
3 books21 followersDavid 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.
Robertson is the author of Brick by Brick: How LEGO Reinvented its Innovation System and Conquered the Toy Industry, and co-author of Enterprise Architecture as Strategy. He has published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and many other journals. Robertson has consulted and led educational programs for a wide range of companies, including EMC, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Georg Fischer, Braskem, Banco Santander, Skanska, Swisscom, Russell Investments, Novozymes, GMAC, Grundfos, BT, Microsoft, Heineken, Philip Morris, Globe Telecom, Tieto Enator, and AXA.
Prior to IMD, Robertson was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a consultant at McKinsey & Company for 5 years, and an executive at four enterprise software companies. David received his MBA and PhD from MIT and BS from the University of Illinois.
To learn more about David Robertson visit: http://www.robertsoninnovation.com/
Robertson is the author of Brick by Brick: How LEGO Reinvented its Innovation System and Conquered the Toy Industry, and co-author of Enterprise Architecture as Strategy. He has published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and many other journals. Robertson has consulted and led educational programs for a wide range of companies, including EMC, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Georg Fischer, Braskem, Banco Santander, Skanska, Swisscom, Russell Investments, Novozymes, GMAC, Grundfos, BT, Microsoft, Heineken, Philip Morris, Globe Telecom, Tieto Enator, and AXA.
Prior to IMD, Robertson was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a consultant at McKinsey & Company for 5 years, and an executive at four enterprise software companies. David received his MBA and PhD from MIT and BS from the University of Illinois.
To learn more about David Robertson visit: http://www.robertsoninnovation.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 264 reviews
June 11, 2017
This is a tricky one. There were parts of the book that were really engaging. The history of Lego and the struggles they faced was fascinating. I didn't know anything about the company so it was neat to learn a bit about this ubiquitous toy. I approached this book with hopes of being mostly entertained and also learning a bit about their approach to business. Unfortunately some of the business analysis got so long-winded and boring that I almost didn't finish the book. I skipped significant parts where the author repeated himself about Lego's various strategies. It's ironic that the author actually tried to set expectations at the beginning that he wasn't trying to write a business book but then ended up getting pretty darn close to it.
December 8, 2013
I bought this book on the recommendation of Christian Faber after he blogged about it. Being a big fan of the LEGO BIONICLE line, his comments convinced me to pick it up. It wasn't until I saw David Robertson speak at BrickCon 2013, however, that I committed myself to reading it ASAP.
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.
The majority of the rest of the book then covers how LEGO reversed its fortunes and became a powerhouse in the toy industry. There's several chapters that could be individual case studies in their own right, looking at different projects the company kicked off and how each one focused on a single aspect of innovation.
My personal favorite, of course, was the chapter devoted to Bionicle, which is described as the line that saved LEGO. Not only was it one of the few profitable lines in 2003, a year when the company was losing money, it was used as a template for future innovation within LEGO moving forward. Themes like Atlantis, Ninjago, and Chima can all trace their core design philosophies back to Bionicle. There's also some interesting insight from Christian Faber and Greg Farshtey, as well as the mention of BZPower, the largest Bionicle fansite.
Overall, if you're a LEGO fan interested to see how the company has become so successful these past few years or a business person wondering the same, you'll find Brick by Brick to be very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
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.
The majority of the rest of the book then covers how LEGO reversed its fortunes and became a powerhouse in the toy industry. There's several chapters that could be individual case studies in their own right, looking at different projects the company kicked off and how each one focused on a single aspect of innovation.
My personal favorite, of course, was the chapter devoted to Bionicle, which is described as the line that saved LEGO. Not only was it one of the few profitable lines in 2003, a year when the company was losing money, it was used as a template for future innovation within LEGO moving forward. Themes like Atlantis, Ninjago, and Chima can all trace their core design philosophies back to Bionicle. There's also some interesting insight from Christian Faber and Greg Farshtey, as well as the mention of BZPower, the largest Bionicle fansite.
Overall, if you're a LEGO fan interested to see how the company has become so successful these past few years or a business person wondering the same, you'll find Brick by Brick to be very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
did-not-finish
July 3, 2013Disclaimer #1: I thought this would be a biography of the LEGO company and toy. It isn't.
Disclaimer #2: Due to disclaimer #1 I only read half the book.
There are some interesting historical tidbits scattered throughout the book but it clearly lives up to its classification as a business/economics book. Even after I discovered that, though, I attempted to persevere to glean insights into my own innovation at work. Alas, the book is more centered around managers creating a plan to encourage innovation rather than helping the workers be more innovative. There is more discussion about "value chains" and other business terminology/buzzwords than the actual design of LEGO products.
I hate giving a book a bad rating, especially when it turns out to be something I didn't expect and want. But the fact is the book disappointed me.
Disclaimer #2: Due to disclaimer #1 I only read half the book.
There are some interesting historical tidbits scattered throughout the book but it clearly lives up to its classification as a business/economics book. Even after I discovered that, though, I attempted to persevere to glean insights into my own innovation at work. Alas, the book is more centered around managers creating a plan to encourage innovation rather than helping the workers be more innovative. There is more discussion about "value chains" and other business terminology/buzzwords than the actual design of LEGO products.
I hate giving a book a bad rating, especially when it turns out to be something I didn't expect and want. But the fact is the book disappointed me.
June 20, 2024
Having grown up as a lego kid, I was interested to learn about the history and working behind what had occupied so much of my childhood. This book has a lot of interesting information and was quite readable, but it did feel a little disorganized. It's a good thing the final chapter is the 'main takeaways' type, because I would not have been able to point them out otherwise.
August 7, 2025
Really interesting tidbits of LEGO history that I lived (and played) through! However, I found the writing to be a bit too repetitive, it could have been streamlined for a more concise reading experience.
January 30, 2014
I am a huge Lego fan and I was excited to get to read about the company and its recent troubles and turn-around. This book is well done and Robertson had excellent access inside Lego. The business lessons and conclusions drawn in the book seem facile and aren't nearly as interesting as the anecdotes, stories, and business history shared by Robertson. A worthwhile read just to find out more about the company behind the brick.
July 10, 2023
Cracking good overview of LEGO as a business. Great whether you want to get lessons in the do’s and don’ts of innovation, or if you’re just a fan of the plastic building blocks.
September 22, 2013
Brick by Brick (2013) by Bill Breen is a business case study book that looks at how LEGO went from nearly going insolvent in 2003 to being a very profitable business half a decade later. It’s not a bad business book. If you like LEGO and tolerate or enjoy this kind of book it’s worth looking at.
As with most business books about successful companies that have invented some kind of money press the key lesson to learn would be to come up with something that is either a market like Ebay or Steam, dominate a market like Microsoft or Google and then you can let the engineers and artists off their leash to go and invent things as they please. This works well for a while until ultimately the rest of the world starts to change. In LEGO’s case computer and screen entertainment started to eat into their profits. LEGO finally started to licence things with Star Wars and this proved to be an incredible success. But while they were doing that they diversified wildly and started producing too many sets that were losing money.
In the late 1980s LEGO introduced a system so that designers could work out the Full Cost of Manufacturing or FCM and thus work out how much each kit would cost but during the late 1990s designers were allowed to untether themselves from this metric and by 2003 this problem became so serious that it threatened the autonomy of the company.
Breen then describes how LEGO was saved by first halving the number of components the company produced, selling the LEGOLAND theme parks and cutting costs and getting back to the core. Then in a second stage the famous LEGO brand DUPLO was resurrected, targets of 13% for each group were introduced and more loss making lines were removed. Once the company was saved better design process was introduced with more reviews. Finally once LEGO was back and working well newer risky design was allowed but in a more controlled way than in the 1990s. Also the internet was used to get feedback and help from the plethora of now more easily accessible LEGO fans.
There is an interesting chapter on the future of LEGO where the author ponders how 3D printing, Minecraft and new internet tools might affect the long term future of LEGO as well.
The book is well written and will appeal to people who are into looking at how companies can transform and who like LEGO.
As with most business books about successful companies that have invented some kind of money press the key lesson to learn would be to come up with something that is either a market like Ebay or Steam, dominate a market like Microsoft or Google and then you can let the engineers and artists off their leash to go and invent things as they please. This works well for a while until ultimately the rest of the world starts to change. In LEGO’s case computer and screen entertainment started to eat into their profits. LEGO finally started to licence things with Star Wars and this proved to be an incredible success. But while they were doing that they diversified wildly and started producing too many sets that were losing money.
In the late 1980s LEGO introduced a system so that designers could work out the Full Cost of Manufacturing or FCM and thus work out how much each kit would cost but during the late 1990s designers were allowed to untether themselves from this metric and by 2003 this problem became so serious that it threatened the autonomy of the company.
Breen then describes how LEGO was saved by first halving the number of components the company produced, selling the LEGOLAND theme parks and cutting costs and getting back to the core. Then in a second stage the famous LEGO brand DUPLO was resurrected, targets of 13% for each group were introduced and more loss making lines were removed. Once the company was saved better design process was introduced with more reviews. Finally once LEGO was back and working well newer risky design was allowed but in a more controlled way than in the 1990s. Also the internet was used to get feedback and help from the plethora of now more easily accessible LEGO fans.
There is an interesting chapter on the future of LEGO where the author ponders how 3D printing, Minecraft and new internet tools might affect the long term future of LEGO as well.
The book is well written and will appeal to people who are into looking at how companies can transform and who like LEGO.
March 31, 2015
The book is an elaborate case study of the journey of innovation in one of the most loved brands of the world- LEGO. The narrative style stems out of extensive research and brings out some valuable insights about how innovation can be captured to develop a business strategy. It narrates at good length how core values of an organization can be concocted with demands of changing times to develop flourishing business acumen.
The core message can be explained with an analogy of -Innovation is like a good short pitched delivery on a bouncy pitch in the game of cricket. It can provide you excellent steam to propel the business, but if not checked and well directed, can lead to wavering endeavors adding up to disappointing results.
The issue with the narrative is it tends to overload with more of a journalistic account rather than analysis, that too not always chronologically, which leaves the reader nebulous in the end. You will not walk out of reading the book with absolute clarity over innovation, instead you will have to build on the nuggets yourselves to covert it into a sumptuous, wholesome meal.
The core message can be explained with an analogy of -Innovation is like a good short pitched delivery on a bouncy pitch in the game of cricket. It can provide you excellent steam to propel the business, but if not checked and well directed, can lead to wavering endeavors adding up to disappointing results.
The issue with the narrative is it tends to overload with more of a journalistic account rather than analysis, that too not always chronologically, which leaves the reader nebulous in the end. You will not walk out of reading the book with absolute clarity over innovation, instead you will have to build on the nuggets yourselves to covert it into a sumptuous, wholesome meal.
July 6, 2014
interesting case study of Lego from 1999 - 2009. around 1999 seems the Christiansen family wasn't particularly diligent in their oversight of Lego, and the empire was grown rapidly in spite of no profits in the new businesses.
they worked it out, and there are some interesting lessons along the way.
that said, the author makes way too much of Lego and doesn't considered similar situations at other companies where the opposite path actually led to success (or his advised path led to failure).
typically writing of a book where the race goes to the swift and the battle to the strong. of course, it's not that easy, and that's why strategy, experience and luck are critical...
if you like counterfactual business books that make people feel good like (the typical stuff for sale in the airport) then you'll probably enjoy this too...
they worked it out, and there are some interesting lessons along the way.
that said, the author makes way too much of Lego and doesn't considered similar situations at other companies where the opposite path actually led to success (or his advised path led to failure).
typically writing of a book where the race goes to the swift and the battle to the strong. of course, it's not that easy, and that's why strategy, experience and luck are critical...
if you like counterfactual business books that make people feel good like (the typical stuff for sale in the airport) then you'll probably enjoy this too...
April 16, 2014
Interesting case study on how LEGO averted disaster in the 2000's (some of it its own making) by innovating within the brick. Bit repetetive at times, and some interesting avenues are not followed up ( how does the click/friction work on putting bricks together?).
P3: there are now 80 LEGO bricks for every man, woman and child on earth
In 2004, there were 14,200 distinct types of LEGO units
P116:...forced to innovate inside the box (...) (CEO) Knudstorp: "Innovation flourishes when the space available for it is limited. Less is more"
P268: T-shaped people; vertical leg of T represents expertise in one particular area, while the horizontal bar signals a breadth of knowledge across multiple disciplines (Knudstrop used to work at McKinsey, where they use T-shape, just like at IDEO)
P3: there are now 80 LEGO bricks for every man, woman and child on earth
In 2004, there were 14,200 distinct types of LEGO units
P116:...forced to innovate inside the box (...) (CEO) Knudstorp: "Innovation flourishes when the space available for it is limited. Less is more"
P268: T-shaped people; vertical leg of T represents expertise in one particular area, while the horizontal bar signals a breadth of knowledge across multiple disciplines (Knudstrop used to work at McKinsey, where they use T-shape, just like at IDEO)
June 11, 2015
The book was ok. The history of Lego innovations was interesting but the format was a bit redundant. As a marketing tool to get adults into Legos, I think the book is a success (the more I read the more I wanted to buy Legos and eventually spent $30 on a starter kit). However, the book left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth since it became very clear that Lego's focus is 90% on the male consumer and most case studies highlighted men at Lego. Both internally and externally it seems like Lego views women as a secondary "other" which was disappointing.
July 23, 2013
LEGO had a near-death experience a few years back when it followed all the best advice of the time and let loose the dogs of creation on the company. Things got out of hand, and the company nearly went under. Then, around 2005, the company got smart and systematic about innovation – creativity with rules. That’s worked brilliantly, and LEGO is now at the top of the global toy heap. The story of how the company did it is fascinating and may just keep you from making the same mistake.
June 29, 2014
Received my copy through a GoodReads giveaway.
This is a very insider look at the Lego company. It does give an overview of the history of the Lego company, but its main focus is on the economic slump and recovery that Lego faced in the early 2000s. This is not a how-to guide either, but a very thorough look at how the company came back from the brink. I think the overall idea of staying true to your original brand and intentions is good advice no matter the organization.
This is a very insider look at the Lego company. It does give an overview of the history of the Lego company, but its main focus is on the economic slump and recovery that Lego faced in the early 2000s. This is not a how-to guide either, but a very thorough look at how the company came back from the brink. I think the overall idea of staying true to your original brand and intentions is good advice no matter the organization.
February 24, 2016
Lego bricks are great. This is the story of Lego. So that's great. But then it's also a "here's what we can learn, here's how they did what they did" business-type book that makes it less great.
Also, the cover of my copy of the book isn't made out of Lego bricks, unfortunately.
Also, the cover of my copy of the book isn't made out of Lego bricks, unfortunately.
March 21, 2014
Interesting but the style is so boring.
November 2, 2015
really interesting history on Lego as a business but it was pretty repetitive
June 15, 2020
Good book that follows some key themes from the "The Toys That Made Us" television series episode on LEGO. Very lively and in-depth case studies with good anecdotes that help you put a name to the stories and specific LEGO innovation periods!
I did not grow up with a ton of LEGO blocks as a kid, but I finished the book with a newfound appreciation for the brand and the leadership team's resilience. And I understood why boys in my class used to feel and geek out about Bionicals and Mindstorm.
In addition, I learned a great deal about how to build partnerships strategically and innovation, profit/loss, and controlled growth. This was helpful. I think there was a structure the innovation and discovery with an emphasis on customer (user) feedback that aligns with lean startup principles. Though I did not like the way they called it "Innovating Inside the Box," this was a vivid way to showcase the challenges a large corporation can face when Innovating and I had a newfound appreciation of how to come back and rebuild a company's culture when it jas moved away from the company's core business values and products and brand. Excellent book!
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.
Finally, the book includes nice charts and drawings illustrating key toys and how they transitioned as LEGO transitioned.
I did not grow up with a ton of LEGO blocks as a kid, but I finished the book with a newfound appreciation for the brand and the leadership team's resilience. And I understood why boys in my class used to feel and geek out about Bionicals and Mindstorm.
In addition, I learned a great deal about how to build partnerships strategically and innovation, profit/loss, and controlled growth. This was helpful. I think there was a structure the innovation and discovery with an emphasis on customer (user) feedback that aligns with lean startup principles. Though I did not like the way they called it "Innovating Inside the Box," this was a vivid way to showcase the challenges a large corporation can face when Innovating and I had a newfound appreciation of how to come back and rebuild a company's culture when it jas moved away from the company's core business values and products and brand. Excellent book!
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.
Finally, the book includes nice charts and drawings illustrating key toys and how they transitioned as LEGO transitioned.
January 10, 2022
Talks about Lego, which emerged from Billund Denmark as one of the most loved toy companies in the world. Lego is still a privately held company(according to me a remarkable achievement till now)
- Initial history about how the company was found. How "brick" became a source of play.
- 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.
- It goes through the main products that were launched and some details about their launch. Like Lego City, Lego Star Wars.
- Then is the recovery phase where it returns to the core products and starts a new phase. Focusing on Bionicle, Mindstorms NXT, Lego Architecture, etc.
- Talks extensively about the innovation culture at Lego. The use of co-creation with fans(basically open-source development), extensive customer feedbacks, also having some room for startup-like projects to explore blue-ocean strategies.
- Focus on organic growth rather than acquisitions.
- Innovation and creativity requires a focus and discipline.
- The fundamental truth about innovation, the more experiments you launch, the more likely it is that one will strike gold.
This book actually talks about ways in which a company can transform itself and also about ways how it can handle the innovation dilemma.
- Initial history about how the company was found. How "brick" became a source of play.
- 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.
- It goes through the main products that were launched and some details about their launch. Like Lego City, Lego Star Wars.
- Then is the recovery phase where it returns to the core products and starts a new phase. Focusing on Bionicle, Mindstorms NXT, Lego Architecture, etc.
- Talks extensively about the innovation culture at Lego. The use of co-creation with fans(basically open-source development), extensive customer feedbacks, also having some room for startup-like projects to explore blue-ocean strategies.
- Focus on organic growth rather than acquisitions.
- Innovation and creativity requires a focus and discipline.
- The fundamental truth about innovation, the more experiments you launch, the more likely it is that one will strike gold.
This book actually talks about ways in which a company can transform itself and also about ways how it can handle the innovation dilemma.
October 11, 2019
LEGO's headquarters is in Billund, Denmark, a small town of ~6,000 described after WW2 as: "a God-forsaken railway stopping point where nothing could possibly thrive.” The closest 'city' of 300,000 is an hour away. Copenhagen around three. The description is not too far from reality today of common Danish perception.. spoken as someone who's been to the airport in the town more times than I can count (closest to my family). LEGO is great story of a company in an odd location that'll likely see 100-years and has stayed on top of its game for about that long. This book's primarily about the early 2000s where the company was seriously in the red after year's of attempting to innovate too broadly, too fast. The company managed to rise from almost ashes, pushing out Mindstorm, and other toys that saved them in the 21st. It's a good business tale about how to re-foster collective innovation, and how not to. Especially in the context of a company that'd been around for decades and decades, needing to occasionally kill old values, or revitalize them! The writing is not superb, and you're going to find yourself skimming through some chapters to not get bored--but some chapters are great. I enjoyed it.
February 10, 2021
One of my new favorites.
Most innovation books talk about trailblazing and finding new grounds to advance creativity, but the author points out that Lego did not do this. In fact, that is what almost bankrupted them.
Instead, Lego learned how to operate within the bounds of the conventional world, and looked how to improve their product, feedback, and people. This was a very slow process, but in the end they rediscovered themselves through realizing that the basics were what made them unique in the first place. From there, the innovation took off (something never before seen, but definitely “Lego”).
Great book for leaders to understand the “7 Truths of Innovation”, which need to be carefully considered as well.
Finally, the author made the great point that, “Strategies can be copied, but people cannot”.
Most innovation books talk about trailblazing and finding new grounds to advance creativity, but the author points out that Lego did not do this. In fact, that is what almost bankrupted them.
Instead, Lego learned how to operate within the bounds of the conventional world, and looked how to improve their product, feedback, and people. This was a very slow process, but in the end they rediscovered themselves through realizing that the basics were what made them unique in the first place. From there, the innovation took off (something never before seen, but definitely “Lego”).
Great book for leaders to understand the “7 Truths of Innovation”, which need to be carefully considered as well.
Finally, the author made the great point that, “Strategies can be copied, but people cannot”.
January 2, 2022
You can tell that this book started out as a project for an MBA and grew into something deeper. While it is a simple and somewhat repetitive read, it achieves its goal of reiterating its points so that they’re easily remembered. The business lessons that are valuable takeaways for any reader are set in a larger tale of the rise, fall, churn, missteps and eventual rebuilding of LEGO that’s sure to captivate any AFOL.
January 10, 2022
Even if it wasnt LEGO, it would be a very interesting bussiness study on a great turnaround of a failing company.
But it is LEGO and all the book´s lessons on productivity "inside a brick/ box" and crowd control as a main ingredient of crowd sourcing are extremely useful. A great one for people working in management of creative industries, can only recommend.
But it is LEGO and all the book´s lessons on productivity "inside a brick/ box" and crowd control as a main ingredient of crowd sourcing are extremely useful. A great one for people working in management of creative industries, can only recommend.
April 26, 2023
Lego has an interesting history of almost going completely bankrupt to the juggernaut that it is now, and this book does a great job of recounting it through the lens of the innovation lessons we can learn from it.
February 1, 2020
i believe LEGO has a lot of great stories to have successfully become my favorite toy, this book isn't doing a great job telling them...
August 28, 2025
Good and interesting history of the Lego company's near-collapse and turn-around, ca. 1990-2010. Framed as a business book but easy enough to ignore that should one wish to do so.
October 11, 2016
In the mid-2000s Lego was the bestselling toy manufacturer in the world.
It also was on the verge of bankruptcy.
This was a surprise to everyone, most of all Lego's management.
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.
In the '90s, when action figures and computers became all the rage in the toy industry, a few bad numbers had convinced Lego's management to take a new direction. Old people with insitutional knowlege were let go, new people with the best, but often unrelated, qualifications were brought in. Multiple new development units had been created that were not providing any benefit to the company. New toys were created that did not really fit with the Lego brand.
Some created that were successes, like the buildable actionfigure line Bionicle, or the robotics supplement Mindstorms, but others fizzled out unloved and unlamented. A media tie with a TV series and action figures that could not interface with the usual Lego bricks was a non-starter. Classic Duplo bricks were replaced with non-brick toys. And sets started to become filled with specialized parts unusable for other models, but costing enormous amounts of money to produce.
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.
Spoiler: it helped that they went back to their roots and started creating high-quality, well-designed brick toys again.
Who'd have a-thunk?
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.
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.
Definitely interesting in parts, but drags.
It also was on the verge of bankruptcy.
This was a surprise to everyone, most of all Lego's management.
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.
In the '90s, when action figures and computers became all the rage in the toy industry, a few bad numbers had convinced Lego's management to take a new direction. Old people with insitutional knowlege were let go, new people with the best, but often unrelated, qualifications were brought in. Multiple new development units had been created that were not providing any benefit to the company. New toys were created that did not really fit with the Lego brand.
Some created that were successes, like the buildable actionfigure line Bionicle, or the robotics supplement Mindstorms, but others fizzled out unloved and unlamented. A media tie with a TV series and action figures that could not interface with the usual Lego bricks was a non-starter. Classic Duplo bricks were replaced with non-brick toys. And sets started to become filled with specialized parts unusable for other models, but costing enormous amounts of money to produce.
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.
Spoiler: it helped that they went back to their roots and started creating high-quality, well-designed brick toys again.
Who'd have a-thunk?
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.
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.
Definitely interesting in parts, but drags.
June 18, 2014
The book covers how Lego, through multiple CEOs and over the course of a decade or so, applied innovation in their business. It is written in what feels like an expanded business case format, with sections based on topics, but somewhat mixed up and overlapping in chronology. To me, this made it a bit difficult to follow to get the story straight. Writing this way also lends itself to repetition, and there is a lot of repetition here. You do learn a lot, though. The company really lost its way, so an extraordinary amount of ink is spent on failures. This was quite amazing to me -- it seems like more than 2/3 of the book is about how something they tried failed and how they tried various times to get back on course, only to come upon the right formula late in the book. This is not a very prescriptive book. There are some rules, or guidelines, provided about how to operate an innovation program, and various different projects described along the way have their own sets of behaviors and rules, but these really aren't earth-shattering. I think the best thing was to read how badly the company was being run back a decade ago, where they didn't have the financial information to understand which products were making money and which were losing money. Ends up most were losing... Also key is that many Lego projects are described in detail, and as mentioned before, only a few were successes. If you are looking for future product information, sorry, you don't find it here.
There were two topics that I wanted to read this book for. The first was to understand how Lego is dealing with Minecraft, and while there is a short chapter describing Minecraft, only a mention Lego licensing Minecraft's name for a kit appears as an action. I see Minecraft all over now - Lego appears to have missed the boat here - but it isn't covered in this book. This leads me to believe the book was written quite a bit before its release date. I also wanted to read about Mindstorms robotics kits. Here there is a chapter that really focuses on how Mindstorms allowed Lego to work with their adult fans, and this is described in detail. Once again, if you are looking for product details, they aren't here, wrong book.
There were two topics that I wanted to read this book for. The first was to understand how Lego is dealing with Minecraft, and while there is a short chapter describing Minecraft, only a mention Lego licensing Minecraft's name for a kit appears as an action. I see Minecraft all over now - Lego appears to have missed the boat here - but it isn't covered in this book. This leads me to believe the book was written quite a bit before its release date. I also wanted to read about Mindstorms robotics kits. Here there is a chapter that really focuses on how Mindstorms allowed Lego to work with their adult fans, and this is described in detail. Once again, if you are looking for product details, they aren't here, wrong book.
December 31, 2017
There’s some probability I read a different book than all these 5 star reviewers – but the one I read was a confused mess. It read like a series of extended case studies looking for a coherent narrative.
The author had hard time figuring out what book he was writing. Was it about the 7 Truths of Innovation in Chapter 1? Or was it about the wave of innovation the new CEO Plougmann brought to the company? Nope. Perhaps it was the Lego in danger of failing story in Chapter 3. Nope. Or the story of the new CEO building an Innovation Culture in Chapter 4? Nope. Perhaps it was about Binacle? Lego Universe? Lego Games? Your guess is as good as mine.
Was this a story about the birth and resurrection of Lego? About lessons learned? Who knows? BTW, it’s hard to believe that author missed the postmortem of Plougmann as CEO: 1) Lego had inadequate financial controls, 2) they stuffed the channel, 3) they lacked the agility to respond to changing consumer and retail channel changes, 4) they had a board of directors that failed in its fiduciary duties. Yet the breathless narrative of the new CEO coming to the rescue read like it was written by someone who was too close to the company for a dispassionate analysis.
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.
All in all a frustrating read from someone who was there but was too close to the details to figure out how to tell the story.
The author had hard time figuring out what book he was writing. Was it about the 7 Truths of Innovation in Chapter 1? Or was it about the wave of innovation the new CEO Plougmann brought to the company? Nope. Perhaps it was the Lego in danger of failing story in Chapter 3. Nope. Or the story of the new CEO building an Innovation Culture in Chapter 4? Nope. Perhaps it was about Binacle? Lego Universe? Lego Games? Your guess is as good as mine.
Was this a story about the birth and resurrection of Lego? About lessons learned? Who knows? BTW, it’s hard to believe that author missed the postmortem of Plougmann as CEO: 1) Lego had inadequate financial controls, 2) they stuffed the channel, 3) they lacked the agility to respond to changing consumer and retail channel changes, 4) they had a board of directors that failed in its fiduciary duties. Yet the breathless narrative of the new CEO coming to the rescue read like it was written by someone who was too close to the company for a dispassionate analysis.
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.
All in all a frustrating read from someone who was there but was too close to the details to figure out how to tell the story.
August 18, 2013
quotes to remember...
"You don't think yourself into a new way of acting, you act yourself into a new way of thinking."
"Putting a survival plan ahead of a growth plan was challenging given that people were clamoring for the strategy - a road map for reviving profits and returning LEGO to the top of the toy industry. ... Right now, our mission is just to survive."
"It's fine to experiment and diversify but behind the scenes, there's a management system that needs to keep its integrity."
"We didn't have the proper feedback loops to get that reality check as we went along. To be frank, there weren't any software experts in top management, or anyone with a deep knowledge of digital technology. It's hard to give qualified feedback if you don't know it."
"The tight link between autonomy and accountability reduces the need for motivation-sapping interventions from upper management."
"The Lego Group's dilemma was one that every forward-thinking company must inevitably face: how to ensure that the effort expended from the core doesn't shortchange the future. Google, for example, answered the challenge by developing as explicit formula for innovation, which it calls "70-20-10." Google puts 70 percent of its engineering resources into enhancing its base businesses, while 20 percent is concentrated on developing services that extend the core and the remaining 10 percent is allocated to fringe ideas that might prove critical for the long term."
"You don't think yourself into a new way of acting, you act yourself into a new way of thinking."
"Putting a survival plan ahead of a growth plan was challenging given that people were clamoring for the strategy - a road map for reviving profits and returning LEGO to the top of the toy industry. ... Right now, our mission is just to survive."
"It's fine to experiment and diversify but behind the scenes, there's a management system that needs to keep its integrity."
"We didn't have the proper feedback loops to get that reality check as we went along. To be frank, there weren't any software experts in top management, or anyone with a deep knowledge of digital technology. It's hard to give qualified feedback if you don't know it."
"The tight link between autonomy and accountability reduces the need for motivation-sapping interventions from upper management."
"The Lego Group's dilemma was one that every forward-thinking company must inevitably face: how to ensure that the effort expended from the core doesn't shortchange the future. Google, for example, answered the challenge by developing as explicit formula for innovation, which it calls "70-20-10." Google puts 70 percent of its engineering resources into enhancing its base businesses, while 20 percent is concentrated on developing services that extend the core and the remaining 10 percent is allocated to fringe ideas that might prove critical for the long term."
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