How monopolies learnt from likes of Hitler, Stalin, Saddam & more?🚨

Welcome to the 149th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more

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Netflix launched web-series on Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Stalin called "How to be a Tyrant?". Here's how Google, Meta & Amazon studied the monopoly business from world’s most brutal tyrants 🔽

Hitler just before he gained power in Germany.

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Episode 1/ "Seize the power" - Adolf Hitler
Contrary opinion - full of hatred was Hitler's weapon to seize the power in Germany before world war II.

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Episode 2/ “Crush Your Rivals” – Saddam Hussein
Saddam even made sure his son-in-law’s death didn’t hinder his regime. No stone unturned.

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Episode 3/ “Reign Through Terror” – Amin Dada
Idi Amin was a resolute soldier with a knack to instill fear which he amplified as he went up the ladder to gain total control of Uganda.

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Episode 4/ “Control The Truth” – Stalin
Erasing the past is a meticulous job for any tyrant. Stalin did it by controlling and everything possible; media, art, literature, economic activities were owned by the state.

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Episode 5/ “Create A New Society” - Gaddafi
Gaddafi’s written Green book was all the education he wanted for the citizens, especially kids. He made himself a god of his society.

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Episode 6/ “Rule Forever” – The Kim Dynasty
Segregating North Korea from the rest of the world is the most crucial aspect of ruling it. Three generations later, the dynasty still stands strong, as the nation embraced the plunder and exploitation.

If you observed enough, clear patterns between tyrants & how Google, Meta, Amazon have conceptualised, built & evolved their business in last 30 years.

Here's the playbook to building a monopoly ⬇️

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1/ Aggravate a problem.
Elon does it by talking about how our planet needs a fix & how EVs will solve for it. He goes from EVs to humans becoming multi-planetary species.

2/ Own the largest distribution.
All 3 players - Google, Meta, Amazon own distribution in their categories like no other. They legit keep crushing their competition on pure scale of distribution.

3/ Build a patent garden.
Google files over 2800 patents every year, Meta does over 1300 & so on. It creates a whole barrier to entry to any new entrant in categories & creates penalties for anyone even thinking of funding their competition.

4/ Own the ecosystem.
Apple does it with the MacOs to lightening cables to what not. Google does it by giving most stuff for free that no one can even try another product. Then it charges businesses cause their employees only know Google ecosystem apps.

5/ Create the narrative.
Apple does it with "Privacy is everything". Amazon does it by "being the cheapest, fastest & maximum variety" & Google just focuses on owning every freaking "let me find this".

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Now, think - what would it take you to compete in a monopolistic product/ category in India? Reply to this email with your thoughts.

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