Komatsu gave away GPS trackers to read demand from fleet data
Komatsu gave away GPS trackers on its diggers, turning the fleet into a sensor that reads demand before orders arrive.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDKumon's father wrote mastery-gated worksheets that scaled into a franchise
Toru Kumon wrote his son daily math sheets that gated progress on mastery, letting ability set the pace and scaling into a global franchise.
Read the caseLEGO turned firmware hackers into co-designers
LEGO, facing hackers who cracked Mindstorms firmware, granted a right to hack and recruited the best into a panel to co-design the next kit.
Read the caseGEICO sold to safe niche by mail, kept agent's cut
GEICO sold insurance only to government employees by mail, cutting agents and using the niche as its risk model to underprice rivals.
Read the caseWizards of the Coast made card scarcity the product
Richard Garfield designed Magic: The Gathering so players buy scarce, tiered cards, turning each game into a recurring purchase.
Read the caseMoviePass sold unlimited movies for $9.95, betting scale would fix the math
MoviePass charged $9.95 for unlimited movies, paying full ticket prices, betting that scale would bring subsidies before cash ran out.
Read the caseMuzak sold music as a factory tool after free radio won listeners
Muzak, beaten by free radio, sold music to factory owners as a productivity tool engineered to lift output ~10%.
Read the caseNarayana cut open-heart surgery to under $2,000 by running it like a high-volume factory
Narayana Health cut open-heart surgery to under $2,000 by running it like a high-volume factory, with surgeons specializing in steps.
Read the caseNFL saved itself with a draft that gave worst teams first pick
The NFL, facing collapse from rich teams hoarding talent, made the worst team pick first in a draft, balancing competition.
Read the caseNS&I sold savings as a lottery to attract small savers
NS&I sold Premium Bonds by pooling interest into a monthly lottery, keeping principal safe, to attract savers who ignore interest but love fortune.
Read the caseHollywood studios sold the slate, not the film, until the court said stop
Hollywood studios forced theaters to license entire slates, so duds got screens and the average set revenue.
Read the casePhnom Penh cut water losses by metering and paying above bribes
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority cut water losses from 72% to 6% by metering all connections, automating billing, and paying staff above bribe levels.
Read the casePinkerton built a private police that crossed state lines
Pinkerton built a private interstate detective agency to chase criminals across state lines when public law couldn't.
Read the casePorto Alegre let residents allocate the capital budget in open assemblies
Porto Alegre let residents allocate the capital budget in open assemblies, using a published formula weighting need and population.
Read the caseRaiffeisen's co-ops lent on village knowledge, audited by co-op-owned Centrals
Raiffeisen's village co-ops lent on local knowledge while co-op-owned Centrals audited and refinanced them, making tiny mutual banks trustworthy.
Read the caseReader's Digest sold condensed best-of articles from other magazines
Reader's Digest sold readers the best articles from all magazines, condensed and pre-read, instead of adding new content.
Read the caseJio gave 4G away free to a billion, then owned the market
Jio gave free 4G to a billion Indians, crashed data prices, and created a market it then owned.
Read the caseRent-A-Center rented furniture to people banks won't score
Rent-A-Center rented furniture to thin-file customers, with return-anytime making default a self-curing repossession.
Read the caseReykjavik piped a hot spring 3 km to a school and never bought coal again
Reykjavik built a 3-km pipe to a hot spring in 1930, replacing imported coal with free geothermal heat and letting each new connection amortize the sunk cost.
Read the caseStack Overflow paid moderators in points, not money
Stack Overflow paid moderators in reputation points, not money, so its police force scaled with the community.
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