I recently have consulted with two executives that left Fortune 500 companies in Chicago to consult in the area of business strategy.  They both share the belief that small and medium sized businesses leaders can consistently make better business decisions if they implement some big business management tools.

Fortunately, after several weeks of working with them on their own business development plans, they discovered that they had incompatible brand ideas.  Their differences were not necessarily obvious.  On the “brand compass,” they were perhaps five degrees apart.  They made the wise decision to build seperate businesses.

If they stayed together, rather than branding themselves well, they risked getting pulled into the ocean current of indistinguishable competition.  Congratulations to them both!

Ironically, they will not be competitors!

Although their expertise, service, and benefits of both can be characterized as the same, they will focus on selling their services to very distinct groups. They may even wind up referring business to each other.

FIve degrees apart matters a whole lot!

So, in areas other than “customer service,” how can you set a course to sail out of the ocean current of indistinguishable competition?  How can you be five “relevant” degrees off course from your current competition?

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