Book Review: Brick by Brick {Blogging for Books}

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Brick by Brick* by David C. Robertson with Bill Breen

ISBN: 9780307951618

Paperback, 320 pages

Publisher: Crown Business

Retail: $15.00

About the book (from the back cover): 

Go Inside the LEGO Like You've Never Seen.

With insider access, Brick by Brick reveals how LEGO- faced with the growing rage for electronic toys, few barriers to entry for competitors, and ultra demanding consumers (ten-year-old boys)- reinvented the innovation rule book and transformed itself into one of the world's most profitable, fastest-growing companies.

Learn how LEGO's leaders resolve the trade-offs confronting every organization:

• How do you give people the room to innovate while retaining focus?
• How do you allow autonomy while ensuring accountability?
• How do you deliver over the short term while building for the long term?

Whether you're a senior executive looking to make your company grow, an entrepreneur building a start-up from scratch, or a fan who wants to instill some of that LEGO magic in your career, Brick by Brick will teach you how to build your own innovation advantage, brick by brick.

About the authors (from the back cover):

David C. Robertson is a professor of practice at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and was the LEGO professor of innovation and technology management at IMD from 2002 through 2010. For more on David's background, and to contact him for speaking and consulting engagements, visit www.RobertsonInnovation.com

Bill Breen is a founding member of the team that launched Fast Company magazine. He speaks to business audiences on leadership, innovation, and sustainability and has appeared on CNN, Fox, CBS, NPR, and other media outlets. Connect with Bill at bbreen@BillBreen.net.

This book was reviewed by my soon-to-be 15-year-old son, Fox.

Fox's thoughts:

The author first went to the LEGO group when studying innovation efforts at various companies. LEGO stood out to him and he wrote a case study on it. Later he wrote this book. The book follows the entire history of the LEGO company, from founding to 2013. The company was started by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish master carpenter from Billund. He named the company after ‘leg godt’ or ‘play well’ in Danish. The first things LEGO made were wooden toys. Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred Christiansen, who had worked with his dad from when he was twelve, decided to save money by only using two coats of varnish, instead of three, on their wooden ducks. Ole Kirk had a motto. It was ‘only the best is good enough.’ Godtfred had to get all the ducks and spend the night adding the third coat. 

This motto stayed with the company for years, and there is still a picture with the motto in the Billund Headquarters building. In 1942 the workshop caught fire and all the equipment was destroyed. Ole Kirk didn’t give up. He begin rebuilding. In 1944, they had a new factory. In 1946, Ole Kirk made the most important decision of the company’s history. He purchased a plastic molding machine, the only toy manufacturer in Denmark to have one. Using this, the LEGO building brick was created. The company grew and when Godtfred became CEO of the company he made the LEGO sets the only product of the company. Major leaps for the company were coming.

Godtfred’s son, Kjed Kirk Kristiansen, (his last name was misspelled on his birth certificate) had some ground-breaking ideas. He introduced themed LEGO sets. Castle and Space were released and were wildly popular. LEGO was skyrocketing its profits. Just when it seemed like the company was invincible, video games and computers hit the market. In the 1990s, LEGO had become a slow company. Now having branches all over the world, LEGO got an idea from an American worker. Peter Eio suggested to partner up with Lucasfilm and to create LEGO Star Wars. At first his idea was rejected harshly. It took two years of insisting and convincing to get the go-ahead from the top. The move was very beneficial, but it didn’t stop the company from going downhill. 

In 2000 an article from the London Independent stated, “Today’s instant gratification child does not want to go through the bother of constructing something with several hundred plastic bricks, when a virtual pet comes to life with a stoke of its back.”  This was proving to be true, as LEGO went into the red. In hopes of saving the company, Kristiansen brought in Poul Plougmann to double the company’s sale by 2005. 

Plougmann fired hundreds of workers shortly after arriving. In hopes of getting the video game loving children to buy LEGO sets, he initiated some new projects. There was Jack Stone, an action figure of sorts who didn’t even use the LEGO bricks in his sets; and there was Galidor, a sci-fi series that, like Jack Stone, ignored the brick. Neither worked. The only thing that came out good during this time was Bionicle, a series that would provide all the companies profit for the next few years.

With Plougmann, the company went even farther into the red. So, Plougmann was booted. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp came and saved the company. He took the old castle and city sets and had them renewed. They were redesigned. Knudstorp decided to focus on the child Plougmann had ignored; the child who already played with LEGO bricks. The company got back on its feet and excelled. 

That brings us to now. 

The book was very business oriented, but not even slightly boring; very well done. You don’t have to have a degree in finance to understand the book. The author explains as he goes. All in all: 4.8 out of 5

I would recommend this book for people 12 and up.  

***Disclaimer: This book was provided free through Blogging for Books for the purpose of this review. No compensation was given. See Disclosure/Policies.