Waterstones: a bookseller saved by letting shops act like independents
Bought for £53m in 2011 while losing money, Waterstones was back in profit by 2016 after James Daunt let shops choose stock and stopped…
Volkswagen: one modular toolkit for dozens of models across its brands
VW launched its MQB toolkit in 2012 expecting 20% lower production costs; it built over 32 million cars in ten years, yet the VW…
Volkswagen: a hidden emissions cheat that cost more than €31bn and pushed a carmaker towards electric
Software that ran full emissions controls only on test was found in 11 million VW diesels; a €6.5bn provision grew to €31.3bn by 2020…
Starbucks Australia: why it shut 61 of its stores in 2008
In July 2008 Starbucks closed 61 of its 84 or 85 Australian stores in days, cutting about 685 jobs, and blamed conditions it called…
Unilever: a long-term sustainability plan meets short-term investors
Unilever's 2010 plan set about 50 targets to double sales and halve its footprint, survived a $143bn Kraft Heinz bid in 2017, then saw…
Rolls-Royce: from pandemic rescue to a profit rebuild
After a £4.2bn cash outflow in 2020, Rolls-Royce raised £7.3bn and cut 9,000 jobs; a new chief executive then lifted operating profit to £3.5bn…
Rolls-Royce: selling hours of flying instead of engines, and what that meant when the planes stopped
Rolls-Royce sold engines by the flying hour. When 2020 flying fell to 43% it lost £2bn; repricing and durability work then lifted civil margins…
Norwegian Air: a low-cost long-haul push that ended in a smaller airline
Norwegian turned down two IAG approaches in 2018, then lost its long-haul network in the pandemic and came back as a smaller, profitable Nordic…
Nespresso: how Nestlé kept a premium coffee business growing after its patents ran out
Nespresso built a closed capsule system sold through its own club and shops, then met the 2012 patent expiry with lawsuits, French commitments and…
Levi Strauss & Co.: a jeans maker that closed its own factories and managed suppliers instead
As sales fell from US$7.1bn to US$4.1bn, Levi's shut its last North American plants in 2003 and moved its sewing to contract factories in…
