Czech insurers stopped the Prague clock 13 minutes to make speeding look pointless
National Delay Day delayed real events by the 13 minutes speeding saves — and speeding accidents fell 10%.
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
2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDSAS Institute's no-layoff pledge made 2009 its third-most-profitable year
In January 2009 CEO Jim Goodnight promised SAS employees no layoffs if they cut spending and hiring; productivity rose and revenue hit a record $2.3B.
Read the casePila made backup power a plug-in appliance so renters could adopt batteries
Instead of a $12k+ hardwired Powerwall, Pila sells 1.6 kWh batteries that plug into a standard outlet, mesh across rooms and back up appliances with no permit.
Read the caseNorthwestern cured mouse Lyme with an approved drug at 1/100th the dose
A mechanism-first screen of ~500 drugs found piperacillin hits Borrelia's unique cell-wall synthesis, curing mice at 1/100th the standard dose.
Read the caseCoca-Cola Sabco handed Coke's last mile in East Africa to pushcart entrepreneurs
Bottler Coca-Cola Sabco replaced delivery trucks with independently owned micro-depots, and pushcarts now carry most of its Coke in Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Read the caseRAF Bomber Command blinded German radar with foil strips
RAF Bomber Command defeated German radar by dropping aluminum strips that flooded screens with false echoes, blinding night fighters.
Read the caseNSO Group sold governments a zero-click spyware that hacked encrypted phones
Pegasus turned smartphones into silent listening posts: licensed to 60 agencies in 40 countries, it infected iPhones with no user action
Read the caseSan Francisco priced curb parking so one or two spaces always stayed open
SFpark set meter prices to hit a 60–80% occupancy target, cutting cruising for parking by about half without raising average prices.
Read the caseNescafé Egypt's Ramadan ad sold the first post-fast cup by showing no coffee at all
During Ramadan, Nescafé aired an ad with zero coffee — just people craving their missing ritual — and won Effie MENA 2025 Gold for the idea.
Read the caseLagrange Point beat Apple's AirPods region lock by faking the Wi-Fi air
A Bengaluru trio teleported a Wi-Fi-only iPad to California inside a foil Faraday cage, microwave as jammer, to unlock AirPods Pro 2 hearing aids in India.
Read the caseThe FCC's first spectrum auction sold all ten licenses at once, in rounds, for $617m
Milgrom and Wilson answered Congress's problem of selling radio waves with the simultaneous multi-round auction; the first one raised $617m.
Read the caseIBM pledged 500 software patents to open source and kept the rights
In 2005 IBM promised never to assert 500 patents against open-source software; the commons grew without IBM surrendering ownership.
Read the caseHarley-Davidson tied prostate screening to its 500-mile bike check-up — and men showed up
Harley-Davidson UAE attached a free prostate exam to the bike's mandatory 500-mile check-up, reframing screening as maintenance — screenings rose 56%.
Read the caseZoho moved the office to the talent: software hubs in Indian villages
Instead of pulling rural engineers into Chennai, Zoho opened spoke offices in villages like Tenkasi — and built product teams there.
Read the caseANZ's Mr Humfreez sheep made damp homes visible; searches jumped 5x
Mr Humfreez, a no-battery sheep, shows damp or cold homes with his horns and nose; ANZ's giveaway drew 5x the searches of any past campaign.
Read the caseCRDTs let replicas diverge and still converge without locks
Conflict-free replicated data types make concurrent edits commute, so offline replicas merge safely — the foundation under Figma-style multiplayer.
Read the caseNorway's Project Japan talked raw salmon into sushi and built a global craving
A 1985 Norwegian delegation stopped selling 'Norwegian salmon' and started selling salmon sushi, turning Japan's taboo into the world's default topping.
Read the caseRome undercut Rhodes by making Delos a free port
Rome punished Rhodes by making Delos a free port, so merchants abandoned Rhodes's 2% tax, collapsing its revenue and naval power.
Read the caseproject44 became the one API between 142,000 carriers and every shipper
project44 built one API layer that connected once to every carrier, fixing freight's blind spots — the connective tissue of global supply chains.
Read the caseBritain replaced its electricity pool with bilateral trading and prices fell.
In 2001 Ofgem scrapped England & Wales' central power pool for self-scheduled bilateral trading plus an imbalance price; forward prices fell within months.
Read the case