Berkshire Hathaway bought insurers for the float between premium and claim
Berkshire Hathaway bought insurers for their float, investing the cash between premiums and claims as if it were an interest-free loan.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDCalifornia fire agencies built one command system after burning separately
After 1970's coordination failures, California fire agencies built ICS: one commander, modular roles, common terms.
Read the caseCincinnati Children's smoothed its surgery schedule to unclog the ER
Cincinnati Children's smoothed its elective surgery schedule, removing self-inflicted demand spikes so the ER could absorb random arrivals without new beds.
Read the caseDisney moved queues into data so guests could wait without standing
Disney turned ride queues into data with FastPass, letting guests wait anywhere.
Read the caseeBay let strangers grade each other and the market policed itself
eBay let buyers grade sellers publicly and cumulatively, turning one-shot trades into repeated games so the market policed itself.
Read the caseEDF dyed the calendar three colours so France would cook dinner off-peak
EDF dyed the calendar three colours so France would cook dinner off-peak
Read the caseMalcom McLean's steel box replaced hand-loading and remade world trade
Trucker Malcolm McLean cut loading costs 97% by shipping goods in sealed steel containers that never opened between factory and destination.
Read the caseMarriott took airlines' yield management to price rooms
Marriott imported airline yield management to price hotel rooms by forecasted demand and fence discounts, adding $100M yearly.
Read the caseLewis Tappan sold ledgers of who could be trusted, a century before databases
Lewis Tappan, burned by the Panic of 1837, sold subscriptions to a ledger of merchants' creditworthiness from paid local correspondents.
Read the caseLarrey's triage: worst wounds first, rank ignored
Napoleon's surgeon Larrey treated the most wounded first regardless of rank and used fast horse ambulances to reach them during battle, creating triage.
Read the caseNew England’s kidney exchange: matching incompatible donor–recipient pairs
Economists built a matching registry that chained incompatible donor-patient pairs into cycles, turning a kidney shortage into a logistics problem.
Read the caseNext sold restaurant seats like theatre tickets and no-shows collapsed
Nick Kokonas at Next restaurant sold seats as prepaid tickets, collapsing no-shows from double digits to low single digits.
Read the caseNHS clinics cut missed appointments by texting patients the cost
NHS clinics cut missed appointments by telling patients the appointment cost the NHS about £161 in reminder texts.
Read the caseAmerican medicine built one clearing house and the offer wars stopped
American medicine built one clearing house and the offer wars stopped
Read the caseNYC DOE ran high schools like the residency match
NYC DOE hired economists to run high school choice as a deferred-acceptance match, cutting unmatched students from 30k to 3k.
Read the caseReddit's founders faked a crowd until a real one moved in
Reddit's founders faked a crowd by posting under many invented usernames until a real community moved in.
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