Nissin made noodles that keep for months and cook in three minutes by frying them.
Momofuku Ando flash-fried boiled noodles, which dried them for the shelf and left a porous web that hot water rehydrates in minutes.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDGoogle made massive data processing into a two-function map-and-reduce chore.
Google's MapReduce let programmers crunch huge datasets by writing two functions; the runtime split the work across cheap servers and retried failures.
Read the caseA Puerto Rico pharmacy made prescription labels glow so seniors can find their pills.
Farmacias Plaza added an FDA-compliant phosphorescent label so seniors could identify their medicines in the dark, becoming Puerto Rico's most trusted pharmacy.
Read the caseAmazon patented shipping a package toward you before you finish ordering.
Amazon's 2013 patent packs an item, ships it toward a region before an order exists, then fills in the exact address while it is in transit.
Read the caseAir India Express turned Indian English into a brand voice with a dictionary.
A playful dictionary of everyday 'Inglish' words let a low-cost airline position itself as India's most culturally engaged carrier, drawing 25M interactions.
Read the caseWal-Mart made a passive tag answer a reader, so pallets scanned themselves.
Passive UHF RFID tags, powered by the reader's radio, let a dock-door reader log every case and pallet at once, without line-of-sight or a person scanning.
Read the caseIBM's UPC gave every product one code and rebuilt retail.
US grocers demanded one machine-readable code; IBM's George Laurer designed the UPC, adopted in 1973, scanned first in 1974.
Read the casePapaya launched a gaming brand with a real 165-foot swing over New York
The debut film had adults swinging over the skyline, shot in-camera; Cannes Lions shortlisted it three times.
Read the caseOreo rode cricket superstition to relaunch its 2011 recipe and grew India sales 46%
During the 2022 Cricket World Cup, Oreo asked India to 'bring back 2011' — the year India won and Oreo arrived.
Read the caseMotorola converted miners' walkie-talkies into two-way voice calls to the world above.
Phones are banned in India's coal mines; Motorola and Dentsu turned the miners' existing walkie-talkie radio signal into a voice call to an ordinary phone.
Read the caseMISO ran its power market on mixed-integer programming and unlocked billions in savings
MISO's OR-based energy markets saved the Midwest $2.1–3.0B from 2007–2010 and an expected $6.1–8.1B more by 2020; won the 2011 Edelman Award.
Read the caseHome Centre broke the adoption taboo and turned a furniture brand into a cause
A furniture retailer championed adoption in the Middle East; 7,600+ orphaned children found homes and the brand grew.
Read the caseWalmart's route optimizer cut 30 million truck miles and 94 million pounds of CO2.
Walmart packaged its own delivery routing and trailer load planning into an AI solver, avoiding 30M miles, 94M lbs of CO2 and 110,000 inefficient paths.
Read the caseVHS beat Betamax by recording two hours of film and licensing the format to every maker.
Sony's Betamax held one hour, the length of a TV show; JVC's VHS held a full two-hour film and was open to other manufacturers, so the industry backed VHS.
Read the caseUSA Cycling's Project 4:05 tuned race tactics and won Olympic team pursuit gold.
Outspent rivals, USA Cycling modelled every rider, rotation and aero gain to target a sub-4:05 ride — then won the Paris gold in 4:04.302.
Read the caseJim Jackson standardised air-cargo containers, and the LD3 turned bulk into unit loads.
Every airline loaded cargo its own way; Jackson led SAE, IATA and ISO to standardise Unit Load Devices, so freight moves as a box, not loose bulk.
Read the caseThe UK made pension saving the default and participation jumped from 55% to 88%
In 2012 the UK required employers to auto-enrol staff in a pension with an opt-out; eligible participation rose from 55% to 88%
Read the caseThe Strathleven froze beef on board in 1879, shipping it instead of live cattle.
Australia had cheap beef and a rich market far away; McIlwraith McEacharn fitted a compressor so frozen carcasses, not live cattle, made the voyage.
Read the caseKorea put all public procurement on one internet portal in 2002 and cut the graft
Korea's KONEPS moved the whole state buying process online in 2002 and published every tender, shrinking the room for corruption
Read the caseCemento Sol built a tactile code into its sidewalks so blind people can navigate alone.
A cement brand invented a cane-readable tactile code — count the raised lines to know what shop you face — and got blind Limeños walking unaided.
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