Big Business & Thought Leadership – Helping Thought Leaders-Dropping Bombs Ep 217-Peter Winick

So how come these huge companies that are spending huge dollars, quote-unquote training, when you peel back the curtain, they’re not even training they’re just exposing.

Well, I would say there’s a couple pieces there.

Now is that thought leadership? Because that’s what I’m adding to the conversation. I’m saying guys…

That’s a perspective.  If we had some research behind it, and so that is a kernel that could be evolved into some thought leadership. Right. So for example, most professional services firms today are following the mantra of what software firms have done for a long time which is: do we buy it, or do we build it. Right. So the Microsoft of 30 years ago was building stuff that no one can build. Why? Cuz they had these great minds, and it’s great research, and great whatever. Now, it’s an amazing company but it’s, I don’t know, a 100 billion dollar, fat, bloated, bureaucratic whatever, that is probably not the center of entrepreneurship it was 30 years ago. But they got cash, man! Right. So if you’re doing something cool with software, they can buy you. And they can buy you at a big premium. That’s cool.

Professional services firms, consultancies, the Deloitte’s of the world, the Accentures of the world, the Ernst & Young’s of the world. They used to invest more time and energy into the development of internal thought leadership. They’ve become more billable hour focused, more client billable centric. So they’ll see somebody out there doing some really really cool stuff, in a space that they know their clients could use, and they’ll just go out there and buy it. Right. They have their cash or I have the resources to invest in the development of thought leadership.

It is a prime time right now to be developing thought leadership for the specific purpose of being acquired by a large professional services firm. If you understand their history, how they’re trying to be embedded. And what I would add to that is consulting firms are selling analog dollars. Right. I’m selling a body doing some stuff at some multiple. If I’m lucky it drops 20% to the bottom line. A lot of the consulting firms are trying to migrate as many of those analog dollars into digital dollars. Right. How do they buy tool based companies, assessment based tools. Those things drop 70,80 points to the bottom line it’s just a better. Not every dollar is created equal. Bomb!

Yeah.

I happen to agree that’s a bomb. But I don’t know if you listen, but I decide when they’re bombs. But that was one. You nailed that one because that is a bomb.