Not a Second Half Team – First Part is Clearly Stronger
This book seems to lose strength toward the end, and is less compelling in the later chapters.  He guides the reader through five tests to determine whether you have a monopoly, and he talks about defending a monopoly.  At the end, Lele writes “just enough” about discovering and uncovering our monopolies, which should be discussed rigorously – but isn’t.  It really leaves the reader to use the book as just a compass and find the correct path to a monopoly by ourselves.  I finished the book with the impression that Lele purposely left us readers with an implied invitation to hire his consulting firm if we want to learn more.

Ties to Blue Ocean Strategy
I enjoyed how the themes in this book tie to Blue Ocean Strategy.  Blue Ocean Strategy clearly develops the idea of spaces in the market, and Monopoly Rules also addresses the implications of owning a marketspace to make the competition totally irrelevant.  The goal of these two paradigms is to differentiate along key industry or product dimensions to own space and create situational monopolies.  I highly recommend both of these books to small business owners as well as executives and managers at larger companies.

An Important Book – A Should Read
Overall, I think Milind Lele’s Monopoly Rules is important in today’s economic climate and should be read by any person who is or wants to be involved in business.  The idea of being able to charge high monopoly-type rents is a “holy grail” in any industry or business.  The book has many strengths, it’s full of clear and pointed examples, and is suitable for many audiences, including those who are less strategically-oriented, new to marketing, or new to business in general. Monopoly Rules points you in the right direction – it is up to you to choose a path.

I am willing to talk with blog participants live via phone for free consultations.  I am also available to companies, businesses and organizations for consulting engagements and speaking opportunities.  For any of these request, E-mail me .  I will help my readers in any way possible – I want to share my knowledge and expertise.

Mike Bolden marketing expert and blue ocean strategist – writing to inform, enlighten, and inspire.  Author of forth coming book, “Owning Marketspace”.  Available for consulting and speaking engagements.

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Own Space, Not a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Lele claims that ownable space over a period of time is at the heart of every successful business, not “sustainable competitive advantage” (SCA) as Michael Porter expounds on in his book, Competitive Strategy.  Lele sites that business success is not derived from unique products, strong brands, large scale, low costs, but that these factors are a means to an end, with the monopoly of capturing the marketspace for a given period of time being the true end.  Starbucks, until recently, had a dominant “good-tasting-cup-of-coffee” monopoly without any SCA.  Contrary to everyone’s assumptions, Southwest does not have a SCA of being a low-cost producer.  It does, however, have a “cheap seat” monopoly, and thus it owns the budget traveler space.  The high barriers-to-entry in the airlines industry have allowed Southwest to hold this monopoly for as long as it has.  Wal-Mart’s original strategy and success was derived through being a “local monopoly,” and its large investment in small towns raised its barrier-to-entry into that area.

The Monopoly Kaleidoscope and the Dollars and Cents Value of Monopolies
This critical deduction in Monopoly Rules changes the way you can view business and what should be addressed to be successful.  It is an important strategic paradigm shift, and the key strength of the book is how Lele explains his point effectively and simply through these examples.  He also invests time explaining how monopolies develop through three key factors of a monopoly kaleidoscope: industry shifts, competitor shifts and customer shifts.  To illustrate a company’s market value is often much higher than that of competitors in a monopolized space, he uses a simple formula of revenues per share versus share price to develop a ratio.  Companies with a ratio of 3.5 or higher typically have monopolized marketspaces.  In 2005, he sites Microsoft’s ratio at 8.0 and Coke at 4.5.  He contrasts their success with the struggles of Revlon during this period which is reflected with a ratio of 0.61.  As a University of Chicago Business School grad, I liked his quantification of the real dollars and cents’ effect a monopoly has in terms of a company’s value in the marketplace.

I am willing to talk with blog participants live via phone for free consultations.  I am also available to companies, businesses and organizations for consulting engagements and speaking opportunities.  For any of these request, E-mail me .  I will help my readers in any way possible – I want to share my knowledge and expertise.

Mike Bolden marketing expert and blue ocean strategist – writing to inform, enlighten, and inspire.  Author of forth coming book, “Owning Marketspace”.  Available for consulting and speaking engagements.

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