I read this on Quora in response to a question about shrewd / brilliant strategic moves in business. The original post was on Cracked

“Back in the 1970s, liquid hand soap was sold by one guy: Robert Taylor, and his small company Minnetonk.  It was his invention, and he knew he was on to something big. Test  audiences loved the product and, despite barely having enough resources  to do so, Minnetonka decided to go all in and make a push to take the  product nationwide.
There was only one problem: Nothing he was selling could be patented.  The concept of liquid soap wasn’t new, and simple pumps had been around  since the dawn of civilization. As a result, Taylor knew several huge  soap manufacturers were ready to happily steal his idea the very moment  it looked like it could succeed on a large scale. Armed with superior  resources and the ability to quickly R&D an imitation product, the  industry giants were ready to crush tiny Minnetonka.
Taylor, however, was ready for this. Before any other company had the  chance, Taylor decided to go shopping one day and bought a few plastic  pumps. And by a few we mean FUCKING ALL OF THEM. There were only two  companies nationwide manufacturing those little pumps, and Taylor ponied  up $12 million — more than the total net worth of his company at the  time — and ordered 100 million of them,  effectively buying every single pump these two companies would be able  to manufacture for the next year or two.

Anyway, without the part required to dispense the soap, there was  nothing the major companies could do but sit and watch Taylor slowly own  the entire market. His product would become known as SoftSoap, Two years after his little stunt, Colgate-Palmolive  would be forced to just buy SoftSoap from Taylor … for $61 million.”

Read the rest of the answers here: http://qr.ae/pcv1K

Tags: Goa, india, quora, startups, strategy