The Business Strategies Underlying America’s Monopolies:
The Story of Rockefeller and Carnegie
The dice are rolled, all that is left to do is hope the number is high enough to make it pass
go and collect the two hundred dollars that will determine who stays in the game and who
goes bankrupt. Unbeknownst to most, this is exactly the pressure business go through on a
daily basis, ultimately trying to clear the bottom line and stay free of the lethal red. Most
people’s introduction to these pressures and business strategy as a whole is through the
game monopoly. The version of the game that was released in 1970 was intended to
demonstrate the foundations behind both monopolies and the trust busting that followed.
The object of the game is to buy as many properties around the gameboard to force out all
of the other competition or players. Ultimately one must strategize which properties are the
most worthwhile to invest in, if one wants to commercialize that land and which alliances
to build. These decisions relate to the choices business professionals have to make
everyday including the ones that played a big part in forming the strategies of two of the
most famous monopolies in America’s history: John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.
Although they are referred to as monopolies because they strived to be the only company
in their market, both were actually oligopolies because there were still a few companies
competing against their industries. Despite never fully reaching their goals of monopoly
status they did have very effective and efficient method that business professionals can
benefit from.
John D. Rockefeller was a young business professional in 1859 when he entered into the
oil refining industry. After becoming the largest oil refining business in the world by 1870,
he and six partners formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Similar to Rockefellers
refinery, Standard Oil came to control 90% of the market in just few short years. ALthough
Rockefeller contributed much of his success to the darwin’s theory “ Survival of the
Fittest”, most would attribute his success to his strategic business methods. Rockefeller
was a firm believer that the more competition in a market, the more unstable it will
become, therefore he employed a horizontal integration strategy to acquire rival
companies, which he then turned around and used to spy on other competition. He also felt
that the only way to keep a stable business market where profits are high and expenses are
