Education, training and strategies for companies that thrive on unique expertise

Thought leadership strategy

Sync or Sink: Navigating the Organizational Politics of Thought Leadership

Internal skepticism, resistance and ownership conflicts are the biggest challenges in our field today. Viewing thought leadership as vital today, a company hires someone to launch a thought leadership group or turn around one viewed as ineffective. The excitement is as high as the expectations. However, months or even a year goes by and there’s […]

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Looking Back (and Ahead) on 30 Years in Thought Leadership Marketing

What’s changed the most: widespread use, competition for mind share, and the ascendance of R&D and new distribution channels. This June I celebrated my 30th year in thought leadership marketing. I didn’t know that was the name of this field I had entered back in 1987, when I left the world of business journalism to run

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Thought Leadership Defined (in a Useful Way)

Thought leadership is the prestige that an individual or organization achieves after developing, delivering and marketing superior expertise that solves a significant problem. With so many marketers exhorting companies to become thought leaders in their domains, many people in those firms are asking a simple question: “What is thought leadership? What are we talking about?” Here’s how we define it:

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Why Clients Love Thought Leadership, But B2B Firms Do Not

Companies producing thought leadership don’t see it to be nearly as important as do the companies they send it to. How can that be? How is it that 90% of executives love exceptional, thought-leading content, but only 60% of the firms that create educational content say it boosts their brand? Why do four out of five C-suite executives (81%)

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Resist the Lure of the Thought Leadership Miracle Cure

When a firm’s view shifts from thought leadership marketing as miracle cure to thought leadership marketing as strong lead generator, built over time, the results can be powerful. If your firm is desperate for leads, thought leadership won’t help in the short term. Anyone who hopes thought leadership marketing will deliver a miracle cure for

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