How Cost Advantages Compound Into Massive Profits
In commodity-type businesses, the low-cost operator wins. Not sometimes. Not usually. Always. This is not theory – it is arithmetic. If you and your competitor sell the same product and you produce it for 20% less, you can do one of two things: pocket the difference as profit, or cut your price and take their customers. Either way, you win. And the longer this plays out, the wider the gap becomes. I have spent years looking at businesses across industries, and the pattern is remarkably consistent: companies that build genuine cost advantages early tend to compound those advantages over decades until competitors simply cannot catch up. Understanding how this works is one of the most practical edges an investor can develop.