Case Studies Showing Innovation in Action

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest. Nike was struggling. Its stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, & Reebok were all selling more shoes. In a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest. The winner was a corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield. “Two days after the competition,” he said, “I wasn't even asked—I was told that I was now a footwear designer for Nike.” As he got to work in the shoe department, Tinker quickly noticed a problem: Nike was doing a terrible job educating consumers about their innovative “Air” technology. One ad attempting to hype up “the revolutionary Air-Sole,” for example, featured a shoe alongside some confusing, technical copy, “The pressurized interconnected channels of the Air-Sole are encapsulated in our PolyCushion.” “So,” Tinker said, “most people didn't understand what Air was.” Thinking about how to better communicate what Air was, Tinker thought about a building he studied in architecture school: The Pompidou Center in Paris. It's an inside-out building: the structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are all exposed. “That building,” he said, “was describing what it was to the people of Paris. And I thought, ‘Well why not do that with a shoe? Let’s cut a hole in the side and show what’s in the shoe.’” So Tinker designed an inside-out shoe: The Air Max 1. The Air Max 1 was a massive success, steering Nike’s design direction from then on. “To this day,” Tinker said, “Phil Knight says I saved Nike.” Takeaway 1: My favorite definition of creativity is Robert Greene’s: “Creativity is a function of the previous work you put in.” “If you put a lot of hours into thinking and researching and reading, hour after hour,” he says, “creativity will come to you.” In architecture school, Tinker put hours and hours into studying The Pompidou Center, reading everything he could about it, and saving up to eventually visit it as well. Had he not put in that work, he said, he couldn’t have designed the Air Max. Creativity, he likes to say, is a function of the “library in your head.” “When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.” Takeaway 2: Tinker’s transition from corporate architect to one of the world's best shoe designers made me think of a counterintuitive discovery made by psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904. Before Spearman, the assumption was that the more you specialize in one thing, the worse you’ll be at other things. Instead, Spearman discovered “the positive manifold” phenomenon—the idea that different abilities tend to be positively correlated. That the expertise gained through specialization is transferrable. That the cognitive and creative abilities cultivated as an architect could positively correlate with being a shoe designer. - - - “Creativity comes to you, but only after tedious hours of work and process.” — Robert Greene

Ever thought your daily commute could help power the lights overhead? In Japan, this is a reality. Across busy train stations, sidewalks, and even bridges, engineers are installing special materials that turn everyday movement into usable electricity. At the heart of this innovation are piezoelectric sensors - substances that create an electric charge when squeezed or pressed. By embedding these sensors into flooring or pavement, the simple act of walking applies enough pressure to generate a small trickle of power. Multiply that by thousands of steps every hour, and all of a sudden you have enough electricity to illuminate signs, run displays, or help reduce a building’s energy needs. Real-World Examples - Train Stations: In some of Tokyo’s most crowded stations, footfall on these sensor-embedded tiles helps power LED screens and lighting. There’s often a running display showing commuters exactly how much energy their footsteps are producing - turning a routine commute into a mini science lesson. - Roads & Bridges: Japan isn’t just collecting energy from pedestrians. Bridges outfitted with piezoelectric devices capture vibration from vehicle traffic, which then powers streetlights or signage. - Public Spaces & Commercial Hubs: Heavy foot traffic in shopping centers and airports is also being harnessed. Every suitcase roll or hurried step contributes a small, clean energy boost to help offset electricity consumption. By generating electricity on-site (in a station or on a bridge), these systems draw less from the main power grid, helping to balance energy demand. Caveats and Considerations - Not a Complete Replacement: Kinetic harvesters can’t singlehandedly power an entire city. They’re an extra layer in the broader push toward greener energy. - Cost & Maintenance: Specialized floor panels and road modules can be expensive to install and keep in good shape, so widespread adoption may take time. While this technology isn’t perfect - yet - it’s an example of creative problem-solving, making use of energy that would otherwise be lost. At the very least, it’s opening a larger discussion about how we might design cities that interact more symbiotically with the people moving through them. Is this a promising way to build sustainable infrastructure, or do you see potential downsides to turning our everyday steps into electricity? #innovation #technology #future #management #startups

Despite 84% of executives agreeing innovation is important… Only 6% are satisfied with their innovation, according to a McKinsey survey. Companies that prioritize innovation outpace their competitors and can reshape entire industries. innovation → productivity → competitive advantage → growth Let's dive into two such companies: Zara and Moderna. 1/ Zara Back in the '80s, the fashion industry was slow. It took an average of six months to get a design from drawing board to store. Zara decided to break all the rules and innovate every aspect of the business. They adopted Just-in-Time production, pioneered the Agile Supply Chain, favored in-house production over low-cost outsourcing, and adopted data-driven decision making. And it paid off massively: Zara gets designs to stores in 2 weeks, compared to 2-3 months for competitors. They can make 24 collections a year, compared to 4-10 for the industry. And as a result, customers visit Zara stores 17 times per year compared to 3 times for competitors. Zara earned $23B in revenue in 2022 (over 2x from a decade ago) and continues to grow even after large growth in the 80s and 90s. 2/ Moderna Moderna capitalized on mRNA technology to respond fast to COVID-19. And it wasn’t a fluke. Moderna's culture encourages people to think creatively and share their craziest ideas. This comes top-down, all the way from the CEO. They invest heavily in R&D, and even have their own fellowship program that encourages graduates to think outside of rigorous scientific constraints. Moderna's approach paid off when their vaccine was authorized for emergency use in less than a year. This speed was unprecedented and shows the power of innovative culture and processes. Companies like Zara and Moderna are living proof that when innovation is ingrained in your DNA… It’s not about doing different things, it's about doing things differently. Would love to hear more stories of companies that excel at innovation. How do you cultivate it? #innovation #growth #productivity

Instead of spending millions to fix a problem, they made millions turning the problem into a product. Here's how a train company built a $50M water brand... Sometimes, the most ingenious ideas start with a problem. In the 1990s, Japan Railways (JR) East faced a major setback while building a bullet train tunnel under Mount Tanigawa in preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics. Water kept flooding the tunnel. The logical solution? Build costly drainage systems to remove it. So a team of brilliant (highly paid) engineers analyzed the problem and drew up extensive plans for a multi-million dollar drainage system to divert the water from the tunnel. But ingenuity rarely follows logic. A maintenance worker, frustrated but observant, tasted the water and found it pure and refreshing. Instead of discarding it, he had an idea: bottle it, brand it, and sell it. And JR East listened. Soon, Oshimizu bottled water was in vending machines at over 1,000 stations, raking in over $50 million annually. What started as an engineering headache became a cornerstone of the company’s diversification strategy. So, how did they turn a problem into profit? • Empowering Observations: ↳ Frontline employees often see what executives miss. By valuing their insights, JR East unlocked a lucrative opportunity. • Turning Problems into Products: ↳ Instead of asking, “How do we fix this?” they asked, “How do we use this?” That simple mindset shift created an entirely new revenue stream. • Quick Execution: ↳ JR East didn’t let the idea linger in endless meetings. They acted decisively, recognizing the value in speed when an opportunity presents itself. Key Takeaways: 1. Inspiration is Everywhere: Your next big idea might be hiding in plain sight—if you’re willing to look at challenges differently. 2. Listen to Your Team: Sometimes, the most innovative solutions come from the people closest to the problem. 3. Act Boldly: Ideas only matter if you follow through. Hesitation kills innovation. JR East could’ve spent millions fixing a problem. Instead, they made millions turning that problem into a product. The question isn’t, “What challenges are we facing?” It’s, “What opportunities are they hiding?”

When I think about transformative DTC case studies, AsWeMove stands out for challenging every conventional assumption about scaling premium brands. Through close collaboration between Arjun Rastogi, Head of Growth at AsWeMove, and their team, they've demonstrated how premium brands can actually improve performance metrics while deepening their luxury positioning using FERMÀT. Here’s how they did that: 1. Educational Journey Engineering → Developed product education flows highlighting their proprietary innovations → Created comparative guides between collections to drive informed purchase decisions → Built value-proposition-focused experiences that justify premium positioning 2. Format Experimentation Architecture → Tested video shops against advertorial landing pages → Compared 3D-rendered product creative with lifestyle photography → Iteratively refined product presentation hierarchies 3. Product Presentation Optimization → Refined hero product selection through continuous testing → Optimized default color and size variant presentations → Iteratively enhanced product descriptions and image carousels based on performance data In just three months, they launched 19 new funnels that delivered: • 64% reduction in customer acquisition costs • 21% increase in conversion rates • 19.5% lift in RPS I find myself returning to this customer story often because it challenges a fundamental assumption in DTC: that premium brands must sacrifice performance metrics to maintain their luxury positioning. The partnership between AsWeMove and FERMÀT proved that with the right AI-driven merchandising and strategic collaboration, you can architect experiences that deliver both.