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 Pointers to stories about Market Basket, Pebble, Tim Hortons, Equipment Marketers, and DMI

From Jena McGregor: Market Basket employees fought for weeks to bring back their former chief. They won.

“The two sides in Market Basket’s epic grocery battle have finally reached a deal. And in a historic turn of events, it’s the employees who won.”

From Alec Scott: How Pebble is taking over Silicon Valley by slaying the giants

“A giant in flip-flops and a T-shirt ambles toward me—’Probably taller than you’ is one of the lines in an online bio that Eric Migicovsky wrote for himself, and it’s true, in this instance. His 6 feet 5 inches undermine the way he sometimes gets described, as David taking on tech’s Goliaths–Samsung, Apple and Google. The smartwatch that the Vancouver-born, Waterloo-educated engineer and entrepreneur invented and marketed has taken a sizable chunk of the burgeoning wearable computer market–a market that will top $1-billion (all currency in U.S. dollars) this year, according to the U.S.-based Consumer Electronics Association.”

From Claire Brownell: Tim Hortons takes on the world: How going global could change the soul of Canada’s coffee chain

“The chain is well known for its success in corporatizing Canadian nostalgia, linking its brand more directly with winter mornings and kids’ hockey games than any other. That’s its magic. Its food products are decent enough, but no one exactly raves about them.”

From Diane Mastrull: South Jersey couple cleaning up with Maytag washers business

“In down-on-its-luck Atlantic City, just days before the Showboat and Revel casino hotels were to close, dignitaries gathered Wednesday to rejoice over a business opening. That same week, in Dallas, Pa., two hours north of Harrisburg, 3,141 students at Misericordia University began a new school year with an introduction to a technological revolution on campus. In each case, the source of the excitement was . . . laundry.”

From Thomas Heath: Everything’s bright for Bethesda apps firm; clients include ESPN, Bacardi, Coast Guard

“Jay Sunny Bajaj has been making work fun since he was a 12-year-old being dragged by his mother, Kavelle, to the office where she was building a technology company.”