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How Lego Built a Comeback

The Editors of New Word City

Today it seems almost unthinkable that as recently as 2004, the Danish toy colossus Lego was mired in debt, hemorrhaging losses, and fearful of a hostile takeover. After three-quarters of a century, how could such an icon of nurturing and creative play be in danger of failing? Its knobby little interlocking bricks were a fixture of nearly everyone’s childhood; churned out at a pace of 16 billion a year, they were so ubiquitous that there are some 62 of them for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Sadly, it was true. “It was a company that had lost its way,” says Jorgen Vig Knudstorp. ...

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