Bridgestone Americas built a continent-sized business around the part of a car most people notice only when it fails. Now it is turning that overlooked circle of rubber into a service network, a data stream and a test of whether mobility can become less wasteful.
A two-person Oregon tire shop became a 600-plus-store network by treating the awkward minutes after a flat as its real product. Now Les Schwab is taking that service ritual east, one acquired shop and free rotation at a time.