Your strengths are different from your competitors. So are your weaknesses. Even though you sell exactly the same thing, many of your processes are different. You have different capabilities and different limitations. You produce different results, sometimes markedly different.
How you create value is different (Think Wal-Mart and Tiffany’s).
The people within your organizations are very different. You have a different view of the world (Think Southwest Airlines and Virgin Airlines). The leadership is different (Think Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer). The management is different. The sales force is different. The guy that unloads the trucks at the backdoor is different.
Your company has a different culture (Think Goldman Sachs and Google). You have different beliefs about what matters. Your companies have different personalities, different goals, and different ambitions. Your view of the world is very, very different (Think the political Left and the political Right).
With so many—and so many important—differences, why on earth would you compare your goals, your ambitions, your pricing, your strategy, your benchmarks, your key performance indicators, your sales process, or your messaging with your competitors?
Your goals are your own. Measure yourself against your progress in reaching your goals, not someone else’s.
