“Thought Leadering” Without Thought Leaders

Britton Manasco has some insightful commentary on a recent piece of research conducted by Bliss PR that focused on the link between apparent thought leadership marketing content and the actual thought leader (person) behind said content. Surprisingly, they found that across 46 different firms that they benchmarked…

Only 19% of firms organized their Web site in a way that directly linked the thought-leader to their body of work for the firm and nearly 30% of Web sites failed to clearly identify any thought leaders at all.

If found this to be surprising because one of the hallmarks of thought leaders and thought leadership, as a marketing vehicle to help them attain trusted advisor status, is a personal connection to the ideas, concepts and advice proffered. According to David Maister in The Trusted Advisor:

The highest level, the pinnacle, is that of trusted advisor, in which virtually all issues, personal and professional, are open to discussion and exploration. The trusted advisor is the person the client turns to when an issue first arises, often in times of great urgency: a crisis, a change, a triumph, or a defeat.

Issues at this level are no longer seen merely as organizational problems, but also involve a personal dimension.

While it should be noted that thought leader and trusted advisors can often be as close or as far apart that the marketing & sales divide, the ideal state would be where a named thought leader is listed alongside his or her ideas. According to Britton, there is a reason why companies may balk at this.

When companies actively promote individuals and turn them into stars, they become somewhat vulnerable. What if that individual leaves? What if that individual must be let go? Hewlett Packard had to deal with this issue when it ousted Carly Fiorina. She had become the IT industry equivalent of Martha Stewart. So who’s the present CEO of HP? I’ll bet you can’t name him — and that’s my point.
In most industries, smart companies recognize they can’t become overly tied to stars. They must build brands — and systems — that scale. , Illuminating the Future: : Thought Leadership w/o Thought Leaders?

All that having been said, I did some digging on the top consulting firms in the US, according to this list, and found that a few notables such as Boston Consulting Group, Gartner, Bain & Co. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. all made the connection between their leading thoughts that their thought leaders. However, as Elizabeth Sosnow of BlissPR stated in a comment on Britton’s blog post,

A related finding that may interest you — the smaller firms were even more likely to have “invisible” thought leaders. What a missed opportunity! The balancing act you describe in your post is especially crucial for smaller/mid-tier firms that depend on leads from rainmakers with reputations.

the smaller firms, of which I checked out several, left much to be desired in connecting their thought leaders with their leading ideas. Truly a shame. They could be so powerful and let their ideas and people lead them into new markets but alas, they don’t.

The net of this discussion and of the Bliss benchmarking study is that even though we often look to professional service firms as the hallmarks of thought leadership marketing execution, many of them are far from perfect, and those that really need to do a great job are the ones who need the most help.

Thought leadership is not “hard” but it requires persistence, a plan, a process and system and the right mindset to pull it off.  Learn more about thought leadership, from our perspective, in the presentation below.

Related articles:

• B-to-B companies have social media capital (socialmediatoday.com)
• It’s Really Simple; Be Valuable and You Will Be Valued (technosailor.com)
• Dana VanDen Heuvel: Thought Leadership Alone Is Not Enough (mpdailyfix.com)