Zara: how a supply chain kept close to home made fast fashion fast
Zara kept much of its production near Spain and committed only about 15% of stock in advance, which helped Inditex reach €38.63 billion of…
IKEA: flat-pack furniture and the customer as assembler
IKEA moved assembly to the customer through flat-pack furniture in the 1950s, and by 2024 sold EUR 45.1 billion of goods while spending EUR…
Southwest Airlines: a low cost model built on fast turns
Southwest Airlines turned a 1972 cash crisis into a ten-minute gate turn and 47 profitable years, then dropped open seating and free bags after…
Toyota: building a production system around flow and quality
Toyota built a system of just-in-time production and line-stopping quality control after a 1950 crisis cost 2,146 jobs, then tested it in a 1984…
Apple: how the 1984 Super Bowl advert the board wanted to cancel launched the Macintosh
Apple's board disliked the 1984 film and tried to sell its Super Bowl airtime, yet it aired once, earned over $5 million in free…
Airbnb: why a mocked logo and the idea of belonging reset a $30 billion brand
Airbnb's July 2014 Bélo rebrand was mocked within hours, yet 80,000 people drew their own version, and revenue reached $4.8 billion by 2019.
Always: how #LikeAGirl turned a common insult into a film watched 85 million times
Always left its product out of a 2014 film about the phrase like a girl, and it drew more than 85 million views and…
Wendy’s: Where’s the beef? and the limits of a catchphrase campaign
A 1984 commercial with an 81-year-old manicurist lifted Wendy's awareness from 37% to 60% and sales by a reported 31%, yet the chain slumped…
Pepsi Challenge: how blind taste tests against the market leader led to New Coke
Pepsi turned a blind taste test into a national campaign from 1975, and Coca-Cola replaced its 99-year-old formula in April 1985 before bringing it…
Absolut Vodka: how the shape of a bottle became the whole advertising idea
A plain Swedish bottle that importers and experts doubted in 1979 became the top-selling imported vodka in the United States by 1985, and reached…
