What is Moat (or “sustainable defensive advantage”)?

A moat designates a structural competitive advantage which allows a business of protect yourself permanently from competition and Maintain profitability over time. The term, borrowed from medieval English (designating the moats surrounding a castle), symbolizes the capacity of a company to erect a natural barrier around its activity.

A moat is not based solely on a punctual innovation or a fashion effect: it is based on foundations that are difficult to reproducesuch as exclusive data, network effects, deep integration into an ecosystem or high customer dependence.

Illustrative example:

Take the example of Dirty In the field of CRM (Customer Relations Management).

  • The company benefits from a Powerful moat Based on:
    • 📊 A Massive and owner customer database,,
    • 🔗 A deep integration with thousands of third -party tools,
    • 🔁 Lock-in effects that make any change expensive for its users,
    • 🧱 A reputation and reliability experienced with large companies.

These are the elements that make the offer that are difficult to replace, even if new players appear with more modern features or more competitive prices.

Retain

The Moat is not what brings a client to enter.
This is what prevents him from leaving – and what prevents others from entering easily.