Rebuilding Lego

Air Date: July 17, 2013

Guest: David Robertson

Remember your best-loved childhood toys? Chances are Lego will feature somewhere in your memories. Maybe you had a Lego rocket ship, space station or police station? Or perhaps a box of primary colored Lego building blocks? For children today, there are Star Wars Legos, Hobbit Legos, six Legoland parks and even a Lego movie, scheduled for release next year. Since its invention in 1958, Lego has built a legion of loyal fans. But ten years ago, at the height of the digital toy revolution, the company came close to collapse. It survived by innovation, and went on to become the world’s most valuable toy company. A new book charts the story of Lego; it’s called Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry. Its author DAVID ROBERTSON Professor of Innovation and Product Development at The Wharton School and he joins us in the studio today.

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