Deckers bought UGG in 1995 and repositioned the boot from surf to luxury.
Deckers acquired sheepskin-boot maker UGG in 1995, rebuilt it as a luxury fashion brand, and by 2005 saw UGG sales quadruple in a single quarter.
Read the casechange.archiA CASESTUDIES.CHAT ARCHIVE
A different move.
A different outcome.
Pivots, reinventions and changes that made a meaningful difference.
The full archive, in the appPublished cases
2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDChick-fil-A's 2013 handover to Dan Cathy grew the family chain fourfold in a decade
Founder Truett Cathy retired at 92 in 2013; under his son Dan, Chick-fil-A quadrupled to become America's third-largest restaurant chain.
Read the caseSerum Institute: the son who took over at 30 and scaled to four billion doses
Adar Poonawalla inherited the world's biggest vaccine maker from his horse-breeder father in 2011 — then bet $2bn on capacity just as Covid arrived.
Read the casePacific Ethanol's plants emerged from 2010 Chapter 11 and grew into a top-five producer
After its plant subsidiaries' 2010 Chapter 11, Pacific Ethanol restarted idled plants, doubled capacity via Aventine and became Alto Ingredients.
Read the caseGarmin bought Firstbeat in June 2020 and rode a fitness boom to record revenue
Mid-pandemic, Garmin acquired the analytics firm behind its wearables; fitness revenue rose 26% and total sales hit a record $4.19B in 2020.
Read the caseNissan's new COO promised to close five factories and hit profit in a year
Nissan had lost money in seven of eleven years and carried about ¥2 trillion in debt. Renault sent Carlos Ghosn to run it and set a hard deadline for profit.
Read the caseGrainger slashed online prices for volume and rebuilt profit by 2018
To beat low-cost online rivals, Grainger repriced thousands of SKUs, took a margin hit, then returned to growth.
Read the caseApollo Hospitals formalized succession by splitting the group among four daughters
In July 2014, founder Prathap Reddy, 81, formalized leadership: two daughters became executive vice-chairpersons, one managing director, one joint MD.
Read the caseShenmue III: fans put up $6.3M to revive a dead Sega saga 14 years later
Sony announced Shenmue III at E3 2015; the $2M goal fell within a day and the Kickstarter closed at a record $6.3M from nearly 70,000 backers.
Read the caseTata's Trent found a second act selling ₹999 fashion as Zudio
Tata's Trent spent 20 years on premium Westside, then launched value-fashion Zudio (everything under ₹999) — 7 stores to 765, $1B revenue in 7 years.
Read the caseeBay cut costs, sold Skype and rebuilt its marketplace; revenue doubled by 2011
After 2008 stalled growth and a first-ever sales decline, Donahoe cut costs, divested Skype and refocused on the core marketplace, lifting revenue 33% in 2011.
Read the caseBSE hired NSE's own builder and fought back from a 3% share to a derivatives force
Asia's oldest exchange, down to a 3% share versus NSE, hired NSE founding-team member Ashish Chauhan in 2009 and rebuilt into a derivatives contender.
Read the caseUniqlo sold ¥1,900 fleece in Japan's recession and became the country's retail phenomenon
In Japan's 1997-2000 slump Uniqlo bet on cheap fleece, sold 26 million units in 2000-01, and doubled sales to $2.1B.
Read the caseCadila handed the MD job to third-generation Sharvil Patel in 2017
Pankaj Patel handed Cadila's MD job to son Sharvil in July 2017 — a succession under consideration for about a decade — and stayed on as chairman and mentor.
Read the caseMahindra resurrected Jawa, a motorcycle brand dead in India for 22 years
The bike that left India in 1996 came back in 2018 under Mahindra's Classic Legends — and sold 50,000 units in its first effective year on waiting lists alone.
Read the caseGojek and Tokopedia merged, IPO'd, and cut their way to profit as GoTo
Gojek and Tokopedia merged into GoTo in 2021, IPO'd for $1.1B in 2022, and hit first positive adjusted EBITDA in FY2024.
Read the caseZynga bet everything on Facebook games in the recession and revenue hit $597M by 2010
As discretionary spending collapsed, Zynga built free-to-play games for Facebook; revenue grew from $19M in 2008 to $597M in 2010 with a $91M profit.
Read the caseDLF sold 40% of its rental arm to GIC and cut debt from ₹27,000 crore to near zero
India's biggest developer was drowning in debt. Selling 40% of its rental arm to GIC let it inject ₹12,000 crore and reach a record-low net debt by 2023.
Read the caseAdidas pulled the Stan Smith off shelves in 2012, then relaunched it as an icon in 2014
Adidas withdrew the 40-year-old Stan Smith in 2012, then carefully re-released it in 2014 and made it one of the most-worn sneakers of the decade.
Read the caseGrifols handed its CEO seat to a brother-and-son team in 2017, keeping family control
A board-approved plan made Raimon Grifols Roura and Víctor Grifols Deu joint CEOs from 1 January 2017, succeeding founder-family leader Víctor Grifols Roura.
Read the case