In an age where products and services are often viewed as commodities, where price sensitivity drives selection, and where critical differences between the providers of professional services are too often couched in either jargon or claims to such ephemeral and universal pursuits as “excellence,” what really distinguishes one professional, one service, one product from another?

Increasingly, the answer is “thought leadership.” How inventive is a company or firm when it’s solving problems? How well does it understand not only current trends but trends that have yet to emerge? Is the company or firm braving new worlds, charting new paths, or merely trodding the tried and true?

Of course, a company’s track record can answer many of those questions. But history can only give limited insight into how a company will apply the thinking that fueled its previous successes to a potential client or customer’s specific future needs. A better predictor is a focused and targeted one-on-one interview, a presentation at a seminar or conference—or coverage in a custom publication