Most businesses want to be better than their competition. Yet, the vast majority of organizations look towards their competition for ideas. This is a stagnant way of doing business. If any organization wants become peerless, they must be different. Look at what others are doing is only acceptable if you are looking for what to avoid.
Want to be best in class? Well copying what others are doing will only make you a knockoff of the original. Differentiation does not have to be a huge change, it can be small things that set you apart, but it does have to be different.
Differentiation can be seen in any capacity, whether its handing out warm cookies to people that come through your door, providing people with free umbrellas, or merely greeting someone in a genuinely unique way.
There are thousands of examples of people doing things just a little different than everyone else. This is why we must not look at our competition for examples. We have to find our own ways of challenging the standards of our industry. Ask yourself, what can I do that will be completely different from others and how can I make it a positively impactful event for the people I interact with?
We must all strive to be better than our competition not similar or as good as them. Leading any industry is not an easy task, but it is often rewarded with greater customer loyalty and more dedicated employees.
Never settle for good enough. Strive to out think, out perform, and out shine anyone that considers themselves competition. Decide to be different and separate yourself from the pack.
Always maintain your passion for innovation and your enthusiasm for being better today than you were yesterday.