Industry legend Adi Golad on respecting inventors – and being an I.D.I.O.T. winner

Adi, it’s great to connect. You helped establish Goliath’s reputation with the inventor community – what do you feel is key to positive relationships with inventors?
When we started, we had only one item – Rummikub. I’d see inventors at Toy Fair, walking with their suitcases, and back then I didn’t realise how important they are… Then you start to become humble when your own product is being rejected! And Rummikub was rejected by almost everybody… I learnt very quickly that rejection has nothing to do with quality or appeal of a game – it’s usually a case of right time, right place and right people. But the rejection I experienced helped me to have empathy and respect for inventors and what they go through.

That’s the key to it. Respecting inventors, their inventions and what they’ve put into them. It’s important to recognise that the chance to review an invention before it’s brought to market is a great opportunity – it’s a privilege. And look, without inventors, the industry has no future.

And I know you would absolutely get ‘stuck in’ when it came to reviewing concepts?
Absolutely! I had a unique advantage that sometimes worked against me – I ran the company so I could make the decision… And I’d sometimes make the decision on the spot! I didn’t ask a committee before signing a game. That’s maybe why I won the I.D.I.O.T. Award at the Inventors’ Dinner, because most of these things fail, you know?

Ha! And is there an inventor encounter that sticks out in your mind as encapsulating the importance of engaging with inventors?
I’d say one of the latest inventions that we brought to the market – the inventor just won the Innovator of the Year award at the TAGIEs… The Power Saber, invented by Yair Shilon and brought to us through Nextoy. People have been trying to crack this kind of innovation for 50 years! And Yair was working on this for 10 years before getting it over the line. And it was an item that was rejected by some of the biggest players in the industry. So that’s a good example of a remarkable product – and the perseverance and patience of the inventor community.

Another good example of that is our Doggie Doo game. That was invented by Bruce Lund and it sat in his archive for almost 17 years! I thought it was a great idea and it sparked that whole poo trend that everyone jumped on.

Is there a creation of yours that you’d point to being somewhat underrated?
Ha! There are many and most of them failed! I would say one of my designs – Rolit. It’s essentially Reversi – also known as Othello – but for four players. It features a grid of unique ball-shaped objects that have four colours on them. You roll them to the chosen colour when converting them, as opposed to flipping like in Othello. This game is so good! It still sells everywhere, but not at the numbers we expected.

I invented Rolit with my son Jochanan, who now runs Goliath. When we created the balls for the game, we had a patent on it and we now also have the trademark on it, because it’s difficult to create and to assemble. And that’s the other importance lesson from this game – if you have an idea that’s unique, try and protect it so nobody else can copy it. Most people say “Ah, forget it” because the chance that a toy or game will succeed is so low, but we don’t think like that. We always protect our concepts, because if it is successful, it will get copied. And when a company tries to copy us, they make my day!

Ha!
That’s when my dark side comes out! I really can’t tolerate this kind of thing and I don’t care how much money it costs to go after them, I go after them. It happened once at Spielwarenesse – we saw a copy – and we got a judge to come to show on the Sunday to put a stop to it.

Wow!
Try finding a judge on a Sunday in England!

Ha! You’re not wrong! But thanks Adi, that’s a terrific example of protecting your IP. Last question… Do you still have ideas for games?
Yes! I have a WhatsApp group just with myself where I write down ideas for games. They will come to market, I’m sure of it.

I look forward to playing them! Thanks again.

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