Some of the best learning happens when you read stories about real people and real companies. Read them for ideas, for lessons, and inspiration. This week’s stories and strategies from real life are about Danaher, Solavore, Apple, Nestle, and Harley Davidson.

From Industry Week: Danaher Got the Job Done Yet Again. Now What?

“How to operate an industrial conglomerate: Step one, copy whatever Danaher is doing. Step two, repeat.”

From Neal St. Anthony: Baking a carrot cake on a boat led to buying a company

“Years ago, businesswoman Anne Patterson ate some whole wheat bread baked by a friend in a solar oven on the deck of her sailboat. Patterson, who didn’t like cooking with propane in the boat’s cramped, one-burner galley, tried her hand with carrot cake.”

From the Economist: Shake it off

“The world’s most valuable company needs another mega hit.”

From Erika Fry: Nestlé’s Half-Billion-Dollar Noodle Debacle in India

“Nestlé spent three decades building a beloved noodle brand in India. Then the world’s biggest food and beverage company stumbled into a public relations debacle that cost it half a billion dollars. A cautionary tale of mangled crisis management on an epic scale.”

From Rick Barrett: Harley cracks the millennials’ code with bikes, events

“In 2015, for the eighth straight year, Harley was the No. 1 seller of new highway motorcycles in the United States to adults ages 18-34. It was also the top seller of those bikes to women, African-Americans and Hispanics, as well as Caucasian men ages 35-plus, according to motorcycle registration data. Harley says its strategy to focus on growth among ‘outreach customers’ lines up well with U.S. population trends.”