Urban Dictionary defines a “tweaker” as someone who constantly makes slight alterations to an object ― typically a very specific one ― such as computers, automobiles and software. Several superrich have been made successful by applying this concept to the corporate world and tweaking preexisting business models as they would a car or software.


Sam Walton

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992, stated in his autobiography: “Most everything I’ve done I’ve copied from somebody else.”

Walton set up Wal-Mart in 1962. He went on to set up Hypermarket USA in 1987 after seeing a building by Carrefour, a French retailer, in Brazil. He later stated that he brought the hypermarket format to the U.S. after seeing its success in European countries. Hypermarket USA also proved successful in the U.S. in following years.

But Walton also sought innovation through his imitations, one example being the barcode. Wal-Mart expanded barcode use from simply checking product prices to analyzing shoppers’ purchasing habits in order to provide a more personalized service, making Wal-Mart one of the largest retail businesses in the world.

Ralph Lauren

“Polo shirts” have become a common noun referring to collared T-shirts and was coined from Ralph Lauren’s brand of shirts. But Ralph Lauren initially made his mark on the polo shirt by tweaking a preexisting item.

The collared shirt was first introduced as “Pique shirts” by Lacoste in the 1960s. However, they only came in three colors and were made from a polyester and cotton fabric.

Ralph Lauren’s Polo shirts, introduced in 1972, provided more variation to the Pique shirt by being made entirely from cotton and coming in 24 colors.

The famous polo-player logo on the shirt’s left breast, also based on Lacoste’s alligator placement, became an iconic identity of the polo shirt.

James Dyson

James Dyson rose to fame through his designs for household objects, which were innovative in that they followed conventional designs ― but with a twist.

Dyson set up a company bearing his name in 1993, where he created a vacuum cleaner after seeing one lose suction after the inner bag was filled with dust.

His vacuum cleaner modified the conventional vacuum by eliminating the bag and replacing it with a cyclone mechanism and clear container to see how much dust it collected.

Dyson also tweaked the design of fans by creating an air-powered, bladeless fan in order to protect children’s fingers.

By The Korea Herald Superrich Team (sangyj@heraldcorp.com)

Kwon Nam-keun, Hong Seung-wan, Sung Yeon-jin, Bae Ji-sook, Yoon Hyun-jong, Min Sang-seek, Kim Hyun-il, Sang Youn-joo