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Leadership Process Two: Building Alliances 73
economy, governments sometimes have to act with a heavy
hand. John D. Rockefeller’s tactics at Standard Oil were so
perfect at eliminating competition and creating a monopoly
that when federal legislators wanted to draft antimonopoly
laws, they just examined Rockefeller’s organization and
strategy and used them to guide the laws that made most of
those activities illegal. To make the U.S. economy a fair
playing field for all, it was imperative to destroy organizations
that impeded fair competition. Today America, indeed
much of the world, has ‘‘free’’ markets unimpeded by trade
barriers, antitrust laws, and limitations on cooperative ventures
such as cartels. The resultant set of alliances has created
wealth worldwide on a scale never heretofore imagined.