Monopolies claim competition. Commodities claim uniqueness. Welcome to strategy.

Early in my career, I worked for a company with global dominance, in economic terms, a monopoly. The strategy? Convince the world it was just a small player in a vast, competitive market.

Later, I moved to the opposite extreme: a global generics company playing in near-perfect competition. The strategy? Convince the world its products were unique and differentiated.

The irony? Both narratives were lies we tell ourselves, as Peter Thiel would put it.

True creative monopolies aren’t static fortresses. They’re engines of progress, under constant threat from new entrants and substitutes. And true commodity players survive not by pretending uniqueness, but by mastering scale, efficiency, and resilience.

In the end, strategy is the art of telling the story that keeps the machine running, but also knowing where the story ends and reality begins.