What do we mean by thought leadership?

I’ve recently spent some time looking at the thought leadership produced by a selection of global consulting firms and, to be quite frank, I now need a bit of a lie down.

There is a huge variety in terms of what consulting firms like to badge as thought leadership, ranging from truly thought provoking essays on the global economy, through to thinly disguised case studies. This has led me to question what we really mean by thought leadership – is there a definition out there that consulting firms can agree upon?

It seems reasonable to assume that thought leadership, in the context of what management consulting firms are publishing, should do some or all of the following:

• Say something new and interesting about business, technology, or the economy
• Influence the thoughts and actions of clients and potential clients
• Be based on some kind of empirical evidence, be that trends analysis, research, statistics, etc
• Have some commercial relevance
• Fully support the strategy and business focus of the consulting firm in question

Disappointingly (hence my need for a lie-down) there is an awful lot of so-called thought leadership out there which does none of those things – or which doesn’t do any of them as well as it could. It should go without saying that it needs to be interesting and engaging – but much of what is out there fails this particular test.

Some material is so intellectual or futuristic in content that there is no commercial angle to it, no call to action which clients can respond to. Other material is simplistic, or worse, out of date, providing guidance on some long-passed regulatory deadline. For some firms, much of the material is concentrated around one or two themes which are clearly the pet subjects of white paper writing enthusiasts – but the lack of enthusiasts in other areas gives what may be a very false impression of that firm’s abilities.

The firms who get thought leadership right are the ones who clearly take it very seriously. Having a large budget to spend obviously helps, but a lot can be achieved by focusing on key themes which complement the firm’s specialism, ensuring that there is something original to say, and saying it well. Poor thought leadership can actually be damaging to a firm’s reputation.

Some food for thought here - maybe it’s better not to do it at all than to do it badly?