Where is Thought Leadership Going? | Org TL

Join us today as Bill Sherman, COO of Thought Leadership Leverage and Verity Craft, General Manager and Storyteller of Intelligent Ink talk about where thought leadership is going!

Transcript:

Verity Craft: So, I feel like thought leadership is going to become more and more of a thing as we’re going about, you know, about the way that we do business in the coming years. And it’s been really interesting to look at New Zealand, which is where I am and how it’s gone from being this thing where no one really knew what it was to a little bit of a buzzword. Now people are starting to see it as like a type of content that you might do. And it’s only going to be in the future that people start to see it as a really strategic decision to make.  Which I know is quite different to where kind of the States is. In some parts, some companies. I’m sure. So what I’m going to find really interesting and what I think is cool to see is how more and more businesses are starting to realize that actually it’s a lens that they can put over their entire business and improve the business and then be able to improve the brand as well. Whereas up until now, I think it’s been seen as this, you know, a type of content that you put out or one person out there being a thought leader. So, it’s really interesting to me to see how businesses are picking that up more and more and seeing it as a really strategic approach to take.

Bill Sherman: One of the things that I would add to that is that there’s a need for someone to own responsibility for the thought leadership function in the organization. That’s one of the trends that I’ve seen explode over the last year starting in 2019, now into 2021 is that someone is responsible for curating on a strategic level the thought leadership for the organization. They don’t have to be the one who’s creating all of the content. They don’t have to be the one coming up with every idea. But which ideas get nurtured, which are supported so that they go out to reach the audiences that need to be reached. The second thing that I’ve seen is a lot of organizations are moving to a mindset that thought leadership is everyone’s responsibility to some degree. It’s not just for the c-suite. It’s not for those who have PhDs but everyone can either create thought leadership, curate it, or help deploy it. That sales person who’s talking to your customer in those minutes where you have conversations to talk about the future, you’re actually filling your pipeline  — not for this quarter  — but for years to come.

Verity Craft: Yeah, I think you’re exactly right and that ability to use thought leadership in different parts of the business. It’s so vital because it’s not just about a marketing piece. It’s actually about it being able to move ideas forward. And you can do that by using that through all those different parts of the business as well.

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