Case Studies

Analytical frameworks extracted from real companies. Some are free; others are available individually or as a bundle.

Best Value

The Complete Library

Get every paid case study—current and future additions. One purchase, lifetime access.

$99 $132 Save 25%
Buy the Bundle →

Paid Case Studies

In-depth, company-specific analyses. Buy individually or get the bundle.

J.B. Hunt: The Ride to an Attractive Niche

Transportation & Logistics · 30 min read

How a trucking company escaped commoditization by pioneering intermodal freight—generating a 14% ROIC in an industry most dismiss as a commodity.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Mars Attacks: Forrest Mars Sr. & the Foundation of Mars, Inc.

CPG & Capital Allocation · 35 min read

Forrest Mars Sr. started four businesses from scratch, pioneered scientific management in candy, and built a $50 billion private empire through assiduous reinvestment.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Walmart: A Behemoth Born of Constraints

Retail & Scale Economies · 30 min read

How geographic isolation, capital constraints, and a self-imposed pricing discipline led Walmart to build synergistic investments that decimated the competition.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Circuit City & Best Buy: Adaptation in Consumer Electronics

Retail Strategy & The Margin Trap · 25 min read

One company clung to high margins; the other adapted repeatedly. A comparative study in the margin trap.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Circuit City: Indecision & Capital Misallocation

Capital Allocation · 20 min read

Circuit City had the cash and assets to fix its store base. Instead, it bought back $1 billion in stock and spun off CarMax tax-free.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Circuit City: Looking for Margin in All the Wrong Places

Retail & Margin Myopia · 20 min read

How margin obsession and extended service plans alienated the new self-service electronics customer.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Circuit City’s Credit Bank: A Profitable Diversion

Corporate Finance · 12 min read

An internal credit bank so profitable it masked the true economics of Circuit City’s stores for years.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Cost Structure in 1980s Consumer Appliances

Cost Structure & Deflation · 8 min read

How price deflation affects firms differently based on whether their costs are fixed or variable.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Roper Technologies: Exploiting M&A Market Inefficiencies

M&A & Capital Allocation · 20 min read

Brian Jellison transformed a cyclical pump company into a $30 billion software conglomerate by acquiring niche businesses larger buyers ignored.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Burgmaster: Entrepreneurial Spirit Sapped by Corporate Decay

Manufacturing & Culture · 20 min read

A family-built machine tool company destroyed by arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency after acquisition and an LBO.

Read preview →
$12Buy

United Technologies: Reaching for Profit Growth

Industrial & The Margin Trap · 20 min read

How a myopic focus on margin expansion led UTC from a successful turnaround to underinvestment, accounting gymnastics, and eventual breakup.

Read preview →
$12Buy

Free Case Studies

Shorter analytical pieces and conceptual frameworks. Read the full study—no purchase required.

Costco: Weaving a Rope of Cost Efficiency

Retail & Scale Economies · 15 min read

How many small cost advantages compound into an unassailable position—with 89% of every reduction flowing to members.

Read →
Free

Amazon: Leveraging Costs, Customers & Suppliers

E-Commerce & Strategy · 30 min read

Business float, counter-positioning, and the price-cost structure loop that built a dominant business.

Read →
Free

Big Lots: Muddled Market Positioning & A Buyback Gone Wrong

Capital Allocation · 18 min read

A $418 million buyback gone wrong and the cost of muddled market positioning.

Read →
Free

Buc-ee’s: Making a Pitstop a Destination

Retail & Customer Experience · 15 min read

How clean bathrooms and beaver-branded merchandise built a $2 billion phenomenon.

Read →
Free

Convoy: When Capital Misunderstands Market Structure

Logistics & Industry Structure · 15 min read

What happens when a Silicon Valley playbook meets a fragmented, commodity market.

Read →
Free

RXO Logistics: Using Market Sentiment to Fund M&A

Corporate Finance · 12 min read

Using shareholder backing and a rising stock price to acquire with equity instead of debt.

Read →
Free

Coke & Pepsi: Raising the Bar in Soft Drinks

Industry Structure & MES · 15 min read

How endogenous sunk costs in advertising raised the minimum efficient scale of soft drinks.

Read →
Free

Brands Are Not Always What They’re Cracked Up To Be

Cost Structure · 10 min read

Why brand matters in CPG but not in automobiles—it comes down to cost structure.

Read →
Free

On-Premise to SaaS: The Changing Nature of Scale

Software & Cost Structure · 8 min read

How SaaS shifted scale benefits from demand-side to supply-side.

Read →
Free

Frequency: Coffee, Consumer Goods, Grains, Mattresses & Cars

Customer Captivity · 10 min read

Purchase frequency as a force for customer captivity across industries.

Read →
Free

Constraint-Fueled Creativity at AOL

Innovation · 5 min read

Capital constraints forced AOL to a creative breakthrough.

Read →
Free