---
id: "entity-michelin"
type: "entity"
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "Michelin"
aliases: ["Michelin Fleet Solutions", "Michelin Connected Fleet"]
source_timestamps: ["¶5", "¶6", "¶7", "¶8"]
tags: ["case-study", "manufacturing", "mobility"]
related: ["framework-origins-of-voids", "concept-business-model-void"]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-09-customer-workarounds"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-customer-workarounds-can-reveal-about-your-business-model"
sourceTitle: "What Customer Workarounds Can Reveal About Your Business Model"
---
# Michelin

A tire company used as the primary case study for the origins of a [[concept-business-model-void]] (see [[framework-origins-of-voids]]).

- **2000:** Michelin shifted from selling tires to selling **tire performance** (Michelin Fleet Solutions) per kilometer driven.
- **The void:** customers actually needed tire performance connected to *fuel consumption and routing*, not tire economics alone — so they engineered workarounds (combining telematics vendors, manual data exports) for nearly two decades.
- **2020:** Michelin closed the void by launching **Michelin Connected Fleet**, becoming the platform customers had been assembling — reaching **over a million vehicles under contract**.

Michelin is the archetype of an incumbent that *eventually* preempted void closure — but only after ~20 years, illustrating the cost of slow detection.

**Related:** [[framework-origins-of-voids]] · [[concept-business-model-void]] · [[concept-customer-workaround]]