Top Gear: axed in 2001, Wilman's 2002 studio relaunch built a £50m-a-year BBC brand
After the old car show was axed, Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson reinvented Top Gear as a live-audience studio format — the BBC's biggest export.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDJapan's 7-Eleven out-ran its own US parent — then bought it out of bankruptcy
Licensed in 1973, 7-Eleven Japan mastered franchise and item-level data, bought its bankrupt US parent (1991), and became the world's biggest convenience chain.
Read the caseMoonshot AI opened Kimi to build a paid open-source business
Moonshot AI gave away Kimi’s model while keeping infrastructure and subscriptions as the paid layer, turning openness into reach and demand.
Read the caseShriram: founder vested his group in an ownership trust; MUFG paid $4.4B for 20%
R. Thyagarajan vested control in an ownership trust run by four professionals in 2021; in 2026 Japan's MUFG paid $4.4B for a fifth of his lending group.
Read the caseStanley, a 110-year-old utility brand, pivoted to women and grew revenue 10x.
By betting on a single tumbler and influencer-led marketing to women, Stanley grew from $70M (2019) to over $750M (2023) in four years.
Read the caseMediolanum's founder made his son CEO in 2008, then handed him the chair in 2021
Ennio Doris groomed Massimo for two decades; the board made him CEO on 30 July 2008, and when Ennio retired in 2021 Massimo took the chairmanship.
Read the caseD&D: 175,000 playtesters and a storytelling-first 5th Edition rebuilt a losing game
After 4th Edition lost the RPG lead to Pathfinder, Wizards ran a two-year public playtest and rebuilt D&D around storytelling, starting six record years.
Read the caseInvestor Radhakishan Damani turned no-frills stores into India's most valued retailer
A billionaire built DMart on discounts and owned real estate; its 2017 IPO listed 102% above issue, FY24 revenue ₹50,789 crore.
Read the caseTencent grew through the 2008 crisis on games and QQ, revenue up 87%
Tencent kept monetizing QQ users with games and virtual goods; 2008 revenue rose 87.2% and 2009 revenue rose 73.9%.
Read the caseIDFC First Bank froze lending for three years, then flipped to a ₹2,957-crore profit
Vaidyanathan merged his NBFC into a deposit-poor infra lender, halted loan growth to rebuild retail deposits, and turned IDFC First Bank profitable.
Read the caseLacoste revived in the U.S. by making the crocodile scarce and expensive again.
After General Mills cheapened Izod-Lacoste, Robert Siegel relaunched Lacoste USA in 2002 at higher prices; U.S. sales grew ~800% and it became a $1.8B brand.
Read the caseMarico's founder gave up the MD seat at 63 — and never took it back
Harsh Mariwala handed Marico's managing-director role to insider Saugata Gupta in 2014 and stayed only as chairman; the board keeps renewing Gupta.
Read the caseHBL rode Indian Railways Kavach rollout to a 4,029-crore order book and 79% profit jump
The Hyderabad battery house pivoted to rail-safety electronics, winning Kavach train-protection contracts as Indian Railways scaled the system nationwide.
Read the casePoland's Allegro was bought by PE for $3.25B — then staged Europe's biggest 2020 IPO
Poland's C2C auction site (1999) went private for $3.25B (2017), was rebuilt, then scored Europe's biggest 2020 IPO on the Warsaw exchange (+63% day one).
Read the caseLinkedIn kept investing through the 2008 recession and grew revenue 52% in 2009
In the 2008-09 recession LinkedIn kept investing in sales and products; revenue grew from $79M in 2008 to $120M in 2009 and doubled to $243M in 2010.
Read the caseOGX escaped a R$13.8B bankruptcy as creditor-owned Dommo, absorbed by PetroRio in 2022
Eike Batista's OGX filed for court protection under R$13.8B of debt, handed ownership to creditors through a swap, exited in 2017 and merged into PetroRio.
Read the caseadidas sold stranded Yeezy stock at cost and beat its own loss forecast
After ending the Yeezy deal, adidas decided to sell the 300m-euro leftover inventory at cost, turning a guided loss into a 268m-euro operating profit.
Read the caseMcCormick's heir took over in 1932 and saved the spice firm with participative management
After his uncle's 1932 death, Charles P. McCormick saved the Depression-hit spice firm with the Junior Board — participative management that became its culture.
Read the caseSeiko revived King Seiko, its 1961 rival to Grand Seiko, as a modern regular collection
King Seiko, the 1961 premium line that died in the quartz era, returned in February 2022 with five models from ¥198,000.
Read the caseShoprite bought its way across Africa — and became the continent's largest food retailer
From 8 Cape Town stores bought in 1979, Shoprite acquired Checkers (1991) and OK Bazaars (1997), expanded across Africa, and hit R256.7bn revenue by FY2025.
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