What tech companies can learn from LEGO to outcompete price driven competitors, whilst continuing capturing premium value with an “Owned” ecosystem.
On August 19, 2021, MIT hosted a Webinar, called; “What If a Great Product Isn’t Enough?” that I was fortunate enough to have been invited and that I made the time to invest one hour to listen to David Robertson’s strategic framework on how LEGO’s innovation efforts can be applied in the technology world.
In 2014, David Robertson, a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, penned a book titled Brick By Brick, in which he outlined how LEGO was able to come back from the brink of bankruptcy by what he describes as “customer-focussed” innovation.
The LEGO Story.
LEGO, founded on 10 August 1932 by a Danish Carpenter; Ole Kirk Christiansen (7 April 1891–11 March 1958), evolved his small wood-working shop, into an enterprise that became a global Toy brand. The name LEGO is derived from the Danish words: “leg godt’’, meaning “play well”.
Since its founding, LEGO’s analogue products became extremely successful over a 40 year period, until the 80’s where it’s growth slowed, as it’s “Target Users — Children”, where asking the “Buyers — the Parents”, to buy their children Digital products, such as Video games, and then…
