Wing On Department Store took deposits to fund itself
Wing On, denied bank loans, took public deposits to fund itself.
Read the casegenius.wikiA CASESTUDIES.CHAT ARCHIVE
Good problems.
Brilliant solutions.
Ingenious ideas that solved difficult problems. Explore what made them work.
The full archive, in the appPublished cases
3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDSandia designed a nuclear warning that works without language
Sandia designed WIPP's 10,000-year warning as menacing spikes and earthworks, with text only as backup.
Read the caseYe Chengzhong proved his honesty by returning a lost briefcase
Ye Chengzhong, a 17-year-old sampan peddler, proved his trustworthiness to foreign merchants by returning a lost briefcase full of cash and refusing the reward.
Read the caseZheng He's fleet grew mung bean sprouts to prevent scurvy
Zheng He's fleet prevented scurvy by sprouting mung beans in trays on deck, creating a fresh vitamin C source.
Read the caseZiggo Dome built restroom walls that move
Ziggo Dome's architects built a movable wall between men's and women's restrooms so staff can adjust stall counts to each event's crowd.
Read the caseZigong drillers solved wood shortage by burning gas from same wells
Zigong's salt drillers, facing wood shortages, drilled deeper to reach gas in the same borehole and piped it to boil brine.
Read the caseZigong's salt merchants split well risks into separate contracts
Zigong's salt merchants split a well's drilling, brine, and gas into separate contracts, letting each party bear only the risk they chose.
Read the caseRwanda and Zipline fired blood by drone to beat road delays
Rwanda and Zipline centralized blood storage and delivered it by catapult-launched drones, eliminating the stockpile-vs-speed tradeoff.
Read the caseZTO made franchisees shareholders to stop price wars
ZTO's founder gave up 20% of his shares to make its biggest regional franchisees shareholders, aligning their incentives with the network's.
Read the caseKenya's road-safety campaign gave passengers a script to yell at reckless matatu drivers
Kenya's road-safety campaign gave matatu passengers stickers that authorized them to reprimand reckless drivers, cutting crashes.
Read the caseAccessible Icon Project changed the wheelchair symbol by sticking it over old signs
Hendren and Glenney stuck new wheelchair symbol stickers over old signs in Boston, letting public use drive adoption.
Read the caseAhlgrim Funeral Home built a mini golf course to get families in the door
Ahlgrim Funeral Home built a public mini golf course in its basement to give families a fun reason to visit before they ever needed funeral services.
Read the caseAIGA fixed confusing ballots by bringing in typographers
AIGA's Design for Democracy brought graphic designers into election offices to redesign confusing ballots, fixing the butterfly ballot problem.
Read the caseAirbnb founders sold $40 cereal to prove they could sell the implausible
Broke Airbnb founders sold $40 cereal boxes to prove they could sell the implausible, convincing Paul Graham to invest.
Read the caseAl-Biruni measured Earth's size from one mountaintop
Al-Biruni measured the Earth's radius from a single mountain, using its height and the horizon's dip angle, avoiding a long desert survey.
Read the caseAldi made customers return carts with a refundable coin deposit
Aldi fitted carts with coin locks so customers get their quarter back only by returning the cart, eliminating retrieval labor.
Read the caseAmazon met wholesaler minimums by ordering an out-of-stock book
Amazon padded each single-book order with nine copies of an out-of-stock lichen book to meet the wholesaler's 10-book minimum without paying for unwanted stock.
Read the caseAmex invented Small Business Saturday instead of advertising on Black Friday
American Express invented Small Business Saturday, a new day between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and sponsored its infrastructure to own it.
Read the caseAmundsen marked depots with crosswise flag rows to catch lost parties
Amundsen marked depots with crosswise flag rows so lost parties would cross them.
Read the caseGreek sea lenders forgave loans on sunken ships
Greek sea lenders financed voyages by forgiving the loan if the ship sank and charging a high premium on successful ones.
Read the case