Brick by Brick
How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
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Narrated by:
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Thomas Vincent Kelly
About this listen
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 (10-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 oceansGave 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.
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Critic reviews
"A fascinating book. The story of how Lego came perilously close to disaster but then transformed itself into one of the most successful and innovative companies in the world serves both as an inspiration and an object lesson." -Chris Anderson, bestselling author of The Long Tail and Makers
" Brick by Brick is a fascinating study of an iconic toy company that figured out how to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market by returning to its core values and the guiding principles that made it a success in the first place. A must-read for any executive struggling with change." – Bryce G. Hoffman, journalist and author of American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
"In an era filled with so many disheartening stories of corporate failure its refreshing to witness the turn-a-round success of one we have all grown up with during our childhood and that will continue for generations to come." –Adam Reed Tucker, LEGO Architectural Artist
“David Robertson and Bill Breen have done a wonderful job explaining brick by brick why Lego is loved around the world and what it took to keep this product at the center of toy industry for so long. Like Disney, Lego’s success can be attributed to their drive for innovation, creativity and persistence. While the bricks are loved by children, Brick by Brick is for any business person wanting to understand what it takes to be great.” –Lee Cockerell, executive vice president (retired and inspired), Walt Disney World Resort, author, Creating Magic and The Customer Rules
From the Hardcover edition.
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Play Bigger
- How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
- By: Play Bigger LLC, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and others
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game - defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you're going to lose. In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of "category kings".
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The most impactful new thinking of the year
- By Chris Guest on 12-21-16
By: Play Bigger LLC, and others
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The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
- By: Carmine Gallo
- Narrated by: Sean Mangan
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, best-selling author Carmine Gallo reveals the qualities that make the Apple co-founder the most innovative leader in business today. Each principle is backed with research, quotes, and first-person interviews with experts and business leaders, as well as specific ideas for applying those principles to every business, large or small.
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awful
- By Thomas on 10-15-11
By: Carmine Gallo
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Attacker's Advantage
- Turning Uncertainty into Breakthrough Opportunities
- By: Ram Charan
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Attacker's Advantage, Charan reveals the upside of uncertainty for those leaders who are nimbly positioned to anticipate the catalysts of disruption and embrace change. He updates and adapts the principles of his previous best sellers to address the current turbulent business environment, cutting through the veil of complexity to concentrate on the new customer needs and expectations and providing the tools for corporate leaders to take their companies to a higher level.
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Fantastic book - volume lower than usual
- By James Gajewski on 06-14-15
By: Ram Charan
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Designing for Growth
- A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers
- By: Jeanne Liedtka, Tim Ogilvie
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie educate listeners on one of the hottest trends in business development: "design thinking", or the ability to turn abstract ideas into practical applications for maximal business growth. Jeanne Liedtka's recent book, The Catalyst: How YOU Can Lead Extraordinary Growth, was named a Top Innovation and Design Thinking Book by Business Week. Tim Ogilvie has been hailed as a visionary for his pioneering contributions to service innovation, business model innovation, and customer experience design.
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Audiobook requires regular book
- By GoingGoingGone... on 07-01-18
By: Jeanne Liedtka, and others
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Design a Better Business
- New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation
- By: Patrick van der Pijl, Lisa Kay Solomon, Justin Lokitz
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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This book stitches together a complete design journey from beginning to end in a way that you've likely never seen before, guiding listeners (you) step-by-step in a practical way from the initial spark of an idea all the way to scaling it into a better business. Design a Better Business includes a comprehensive set of tools (over 20 total!) and skills that will help you harness opportunity from uncertainty by building the right team(s) and balancing your point of view against new findings from the outside world.
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Good for people who don't have an experience with Agile and Lean Startup
- By Jovan Vidic on 08-26-17
By: Patrick van der Pijl, and others
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Disruptive Marketing
- What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal
- By: Geoffrey Colon
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Colon
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Now that 75 percent of screen time is spent on connected devices, digital strategies have moved front and center of most marketing plans. But what if that's not enough? What if most people ignore company messages? What if consumer engagement never goes further than the "like" button? A sobering reality is hitting marketers. Technology hasn't just reshaped mass media, it's altering behavior as well. And getting through to customers will take some radical rethinking.
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Needed. Valuable. Welcome contribution.
- By Oliver Nielsen on 04-26-17
By: Geoffrey Colon
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Shortcut Your Startup
- Speed Up Success with Unconventional Advice from the Trenches
- By: Carter Reum, Courtney Reum
- Narrated by: Carter Reum
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Courtney and Carter Reum have years of experience in the field, from investing in over 130 companies, including Lyft, Pinterest, Warby Parker, and ClassPass, to driving the success of their own liquor brand, VEEV Spirits. The Reum brothers have learned from every triumph and tribulation and over the years have developed an effective and easy-to-understand guide to help entrepreneurs through the startup journey from inception to sale.
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A must read for start ups
- By Dave on 02-09-18
By: Carter Reum, and others
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Group Genius
- The Creative Power of Collaboration
- By: Keith Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this authoritative and fascinating new audiobook, Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, tears down some of the most popular myths about creativity and erects new principles in their place. He reveals that creativity is always collaborative: even when you're alone. Sawyer's audiobook is filled with compelling stories about the inventions that changed our world.
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Worth reading
- By Glenn on 12-29-10
By: Keith Sawyer
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Moments of Impact
- How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change
- By: Chris Ertel, Lisa Kay Solomon
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Moments of Impact is an audiobook on a mission: to eradicate time-sucking, energy-depleting workshops and meetings. In our fast-changing world, organizations have important challenges and opportunities to address - and no time to waste. Moments of Impact delivers the single most useful resource for managers and leaders who need better strategic conversation - now - to shape the future of their organizations.
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Another audiobook failure. Buy the real book
- By Jonathan on 02-08-15
By: Chris Ertel, and others
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Lead and Disrupt
- How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma
- By: Charles A. O'Reilly III, Michael L. Tushman
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In the past few years, a number of well-known firms have failed; think of Blockbuster, Kodak, or RadioShack. When we hear about their demise, it often seems inevitable - a natural part of "creative destruction." But closer examination reveals a disturbing truth: Companies large and small are shuttering more quickly than ever. What does it take to buck this trend? The simple answer is: ambidexterity. Firms must remain competitive in their core markets, while also winning in new domains.
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Very very inspirational to me.
- By Fábio on 06-12-17
By: Charles A. O'Reilly III, and others
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Good to Great
- Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
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Built To Last, the defining management study of the 90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
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Good info, over-the-top narration
- By Anaxamaxan on 08-31-10
By: Jim Collins
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The Wide Lens
- A New Strategy for Innovation
- By: Ron Adner
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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How can great companies do everything right - identify real customer needs, deliver excellent innovations, beat their competitors to market - and still fail? The sad truth is that many companies fail because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, and then neglect the innovation ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners - some visible, some hidden - deliver on their promises, too.
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Great book
- By Kindle Customer on 12-25-21
By: Ron Adner
What listeners say about Brick by Brick
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Mark Schwanz
- 06-09-24
Innovate to success
This account of Lego's journey to one of the world's top companies and most recognizable brands can inspire others to greatness. Honestly assess your core values to get a starting point for your own or your company's transformation.
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- James
- 07-09-15
A great business book with Lego insights
This was more a business case study than a discussion of all things Lego. Nevertheless is was very interesting.
I got both some great business insights AND some good Lego insights.
I did occasionally seem (as some reviewers noted) that it was a set of distinct case studies "smoothed" into a coherent narrative, but it generally flowed well.
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- Patrick
- 03-11-14
Okay read but gets long near the end
Would you recommend Brick by Brick to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes. Some great background and business lessons on a private and somewhat sheltered iconic company.
Have you listened to any of Thomas Vincent Kelly’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No
Was Brick by Brick worth the listening time?
Yes
Any additional comments?
I thought the author tried to force the story a bit into his innovation framework, which is overly generic in my view.
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2 people found this helpful
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- al4phun
- 12-29-20
Legos
I love Legos so it was a great recent history of the company and some bad business habits to steer clear of. Great narrator.
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- kevin
- 07-28-22
enjoyable read
wonderful read. lots of fun and insights. țruly worth the time! definitely recommend it, both as a lego fan and business case.
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- PC
- 02-03-14
Good read for LEGO fans
This book shared interesting insider story of how the company turned around from the downturn in the 90s to revival in the 2000s. As the author tried to criss-cross the history in various cuts, the story was repetitive to significant degree, but as a LEGO enthusiast, it was tolerable. I would not recommend this book to people who just wants to understand the cause and effect of how the turnaround occurred, as the author could not crystallize it himself either.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 02-03-17
nice to listen to, but not that insightful
nice and easy to listen to, but not as insightful as I had hoped and not very compelling storytelling
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- Adrian Amparo
- 10-22-16
Not for kids but interesting
This book tells about the rise and near fall of Lego from the point of view of a business.
My kids turned off after a couple of hours but I always enjoy turn around business stories about products I know.
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- 1genxer
- 08-09-20
Great for business leaders
This was a well written, and we'll researched book. The insights on innovation should be read and applied by every business leader today. Fans of LEGO will likely enjoy it for the anecdotes, but the story and history of LEGO is only weaved into the business perspective... so fans may find the majority of the book boring. That said, I found the business side fascinating and frankly brilliant.
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- Dana A. Peterson
- 11-24-21
Great Case Study for turning around an entrenched firm
Interesting view of the rise of Lego that fast forward to its crisis in late 90’s. Offers a glimpse of the tough command and control management that prevented a bankruptcy that developed a stricter creative process that spawned decentralized creative processes.
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