The Gartner Group identified thought leadership marketing as a major business trend that has rapidly become an established field in marketing and a basis of competitive differentiation when well-informed buyers see little perceived differences between solution providers.*
Today, individuals and businesses need to embrace thought leadership—which is about coming up with new ways of thinking and reinventing—as a strategy for growth.
Fascinating, enthralling, and scintillating. These are some of the attributes we assign to individuals such as Ram Charan, Noam Chomsky, J K Rowling, and Stephen Hawkins; and organizations such as Apple, Google, NASA, and Khan Academy. Not only do these individuals and organizations benefit from ample media coverage and limelight, they are the go-to, top-of-mind people that others seek for inspiration, insight, information, and innovation.
They are the people whose books grab your attention at the airport bookstore; they are the organizations that ignite trends that ripple through industries and shape the future. Their ideas have a viral quality to them and TED is full of them.
But what does it take to become a thought leader and how can organizations develop internal thought leadership capabilities for superior value generation and performance?
Thought leadership in action
Being a recognized authority in a particular field is more than just making great presentations. Credible thought leaders are visible, intensely active, and ‘on the pulse’ around key topical issues emerging in their field of expertise. They use keynote presentations, conferences, high visibility platforms, and relevant pro-bono work as opportunities to amplify their ideas and create a strong, dedicated fan base eager to road-test their insights. Furthermore, they fortify their thinking by providing cutting-edge research that reveals surprising and sometimes counter-intuitive perspectives, new value-generating processes, and operative practices that accelerate the transition from idea to reality.
Denne historien er fra May - June 2017-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
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Denne historien er fra May - June 2017-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
