I have said on this platform that Harvard is the most difficult university in the world to gain admission.

However, it is ten times easier to gain admission into Harvard than to succeed in business.

According to new Oxfam analysis, the richest 1% own more than the poorest 95% of the world's population combined.

This one per cent are those who stood out. They are the ones who laboured to make the difference.

They are the ones who charted their own path and refused to do what others are doing.

So to stand out in business, you have to differentiate through a unique selling point, provide exceptional customer service, and build a strong, consistent brand identity.

Furthermore, since customer is the king, you have to focus on creating memorable customer experiences through storytelling and community building, and maintain a strong online presence.

Let me break it down a bit. The only way to avoid rat race competition in business is to brand your product. Once you are selling what every other person is selling, you must be involved in price war with those selling the same products or offering the same services.

When you are involved in price war, discounts, price reduction and promos, would certainly become the order of the day.

So differentiating your product or service is the easiest way of removing yourself from rat rat competition and position yourself at the top.

When you remove yourself from rat race competition. The next thing is to back it up with story telling.

For those who may be wondering what story telling has to do with business. It is crucial for building emotional connections, fostering trust, and making a brand more memorable to customers, employees, and shareholders. It humanizes a business, communicates its values and vision, and cuts through a noisy market by creating empathy and a sense of purpose.

The next step is creating a unique customer’s experience. There used to be a saying, treat others as you want to be treated.

However, this saying has gone with the dinosaurs. The saying now is, treat others as they (not you), want to be treated. That is why it is called “unique” customers experience.

The word “unique” is something like no other. Something that is personal and not universal.

When you are able to create unique customer experience, nothing in the world would stop you from getting to the top.

A typical example is Starbucks, which is an international coffee company that is popular with writing customers names on its cups.

The practice is intended to create a more personal connection between the barista and the customer.

The idea is this, Starbucks knows you love your name and they know that you would be excited to see it written on a coffee cup and that is what is meant by having differentiated unique selling point.

And with this Starbucks has become one of the biggest brands in the world.

Maintaining online presence is also very important. The truth is that in today’s world, any business that has no online presence would not go far.

If your business is only off line, you can only sell to those who can walk up to your business premise.

But if it is online, you can sell to anybody anywhere in the world and about six billion people are active online.

So when your business is online, the world becomes your chess board .Your potentials and possibilities become unlimited. You can play as much as you can.

In fact your slogan would become, “Catch-me-If-You-Can!”

•Peter Anosike has Ph.D on Consulting and Profit Management. He is the founder of Ultimate Entrepreneurs Academy, an organisation that trains students, undergraduates and even graduates on how to become successful entrepreneurs. His contact number is 08035779230 (Please SMS only)