Thought leadership piece on Corporate Social Responsibility

I believe the right CSR intiatives act as a strong reputational shield during a crisis.

I was invited by the editor of the UN Global Compact International Yearbook to submit an article on whether CSR can lessen the impact of a crisis or lead to a faster recovery.  It came off the back of a presentation I gave in Sydney at a Crisis Communications Conference hosted by Frocomm a little while ago.

While thought leadership is a particular niche and passion of mine, I have been involved in the PR business for 23 years and have had a lot of exposure to crisis communications, corporate communication strategies and CSR.  The issue of brand fascinates me – how to build it and how to protect it.

This article explores whether CSR can lessen the impact of a crisis and assist in a faster recovery for the brand involved.  I think it can – read why by clicking the link below.

UN Global Compact Year Book article by Craig Badings 2011

DuPont’s little secret is out of the bag

Only last month they announced they were trading in their TV spots for editorial content and advertorials.  Their reason: to become a thought leader around global concerns like fuel, protection and food.  

One of the ideas was a TV series, Horizons, documented by BBC World News.  Essentially this is about how businesses, government and organisations are tackling macro issues around population growth.

DuPont’s thought leadership play

Du Pont’s director of strategic corporate communications, Erich Parker has said that it is a thought leadership play in which they hope to solve large issues collaboratively with intelligent, experienced people no matter where they’re from. 

DuPont has a history of being brave.  Once considered one of America’s worst polluters, it started a concerted focus on sustainability way back in 1989.  They realised that while they were legally compliant, they had to go well beyond compliance to be successful in the eyes of their target audiences and the public.

Not surprisingly they didn’t achieve overnight success.  But they put in a lot of hard work and importantly it was owned and driven from the top as a strategic business imperative.  They even appointed a director of sustainable development.

The result is that today sustainability is part of very essence of the company and how it operates.  Even their vision and mission statements have sustainability woven into the wording.

Their thought leadership is part of their culture

It is a classic case of thought leadership with a strategic business imperative becoming part of the culture of the organisation and infiltrating every level of the business.

And now they are breaking the mould again.  I say good on them.

I’ve always maintained you have to be brave to be a thought leader.  Large corporations are seldom good at this.  They tend to lean heavily towards the risk aversion side of the spectrum.  Of course there are exceptions.  Du Pont is one.

You can check them out for more information here twitter at @DuPont_News and @DuPont_ability. Horizons is also on Facebook and Twitter at Facebook.com/horizonsTVseries, @horizonsbiz and @adamshaw_biz.

By the way I don’t work for DuPont – never have.  I would love to hear from you if there are any other firms you know of who have taken a similar plunge.  You can follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy

DuPont's brave thought leadership move

It takes a brave firm and especially one the size of DuPont to dump their advertising and focus on content driven editorials and advertorials…and an even braver one to cede control of the message to a media outlet.

Great thought leadership job offered in London

Most professional services firms are very sophisticated in their approach to thought leadership.  The advert I found online at The Times for a global thought leadership position at PwC based out of their London office is testimony to this.

In particular I love this line: “We are committed to taking our thought leadership to new levels with the implementation of a new thought leadership strategy, which has been fully endorsed by leadership.”

One of the keys to success for any thought leadership campaign or effort is the endorsement and buy-in of the leadership team.  Without that your thought leadership is doomed from the start.

The one thing I found curiously absent from the job description is any reference to or a focus on the customer or client.  There  lots of excellent stuff in there about collaboration, content management, research, third party endorsers, etc but all of this comes to nought if its not focused on the client and their needs, issues and challenges. 

But then maybe that’s a given and they saw no need to reference it in their outline?

If you fit the bill I suggest you apply – sounds like a dream job for those who believe in the power of thought leadership.

Bookmark this savvy thought leader

Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Bookmarketer displays some great thought leadership characteristics

Every now and then you come across an example of a campaign, a company or an individual who exemplifies great thought leadership practice.

Dana Lynn Smith is the women behind the Savvy Book Marketer and the author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides.  She specializes in developing marketing plans for nonfiction books and teaching authors how to promote their books online. 

In doing so she displays all the marks of a thought leader in her niche.  She is an expert in how authors should market and promote their book/s. 

Characteristics of a thought leader

Some of the thought leadership characteristics she displays include:

·         A clear understanding of the challenges and issues authors face in raising their profile.

·         A single-minded focus on an area she can own and one which plays to her expertise more importantly one which she is targeted at her clients’ needs.

·         Deep diving i.e. she has done a really deep dive into her niche providing insights across all the challenges faced by authors.

·         Saying something new – the information she provides differentiates her from the competitors and in the process, she has positioned herself as a trusted advisors or ‘go to’ expert in her field.

·         Leveraging and packaging material and content across every touch point of her target audience and her prospects.

·         And while I can’t say this for certain, as I haven’t met Dana, thought leadership and providing new, insightful information to her audience seems to be very much part of the culture of who she is and how she does business.

Thought leaders share

What I love about Dana is her willingness to share and give away heaps of useful content.  Visit her site, subscribe to her enewsletter and you will see what I mean.

Besides her blog, The Savvy Bookmarketer, Dana has authored The Savvy Book Marketer Guides, a series of ebooks on book marketing topics. 

She has a heap of useful guides which you can download for a minimal fee.  These include topics like: Sell More Books on Amazon; Successful Social Marketing; Twitter Guide for Authors; Facebook Guide for Authors; Selling Your Book to Libraries and Texas Book Marketing Handbook.

In addition, she has a treasure trove of free articles on how to market and promote yourself – great stuff for all those aspiring or already published authors.  

Finally, Dana is making maximum use of social media to deliver her content far and wide from her ranch in Austin, Texas.

For aspiring thought leaders, Dana is a great example of how you can set out and become a thought leader in a niched area.  Visit her site to take a look and learn.

Have you carved a niche for yourself in a particular area?  Do you know someone who has?  Is there someone you admire as a thought leader?  If so let me know.

Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy

PwC – your dream thought leadership job?

Could this be a dream thought leadership job?

A job offer that appears in The Times for a thought leadership manager at PwC is a great illustration of this.

In fact this alone should send a clear message to all those thought leadership naysayers that given the right resources, time, commitment and effort thought leadership works and delivers very real business value.  The PwC job is testimony to that.

Just take a look at some of the language they use in their advert to see what I mean: 

“One of the main elements of the role is to create and manage connections between various thought leadership teams and practitioners, and it offers a high level of exposure to what happens around the networks in the thought leadership arena, as well as to the network of thought leadership practitioners. The successful applicant will be reporting into the Director of Global Thought Leadership…”

I also like some of the bullet points in their role description:   

• Overall project management of the key milestones for the implementation of the global thought leadership strategy, including planning and development of internal communications
• Management of various thought leadership tools and major projects
• Set-up and management of the global thought leadership governance bodies
• Management of the thought leadership internal and external online presence
• Interim management of the CEO Survey in-depth interviews programme involving working with engagement teams and marketing/TL practitioners from different geographies and industries to source 20-25 CEO interviews
• Management of the thought leadership community
• Project management of selected thought leadership initiatives done in conjunction with the World Economic Forum

And among others the applicant will need:

• Bachelor degree in marketing/communications is essential, a Masters would be desirable
• A good grasp of thought leadership content and related issues
• Passion for thought leadership and understanding of its value in positioning the brand, creating client relationship and intellectual capital for the network
• Strong verbal and written communicating skills
• Strong track record in project management

Now that’s what I call a serious commitment to thought leadership at the highest level.  It sounds like the successful applicant is going to have a very fulfilling and rewarding career ahead of them.

May the best person win. 

Manpower Milwaukee gets thought leadership

I won’t cover all of it – you can read the entire ad in the link above but I just love the way these guys have advertised for a thought leadership position.  The fact that a Manpower dept is doing this says volumes for them and where they are on the marketing continuum.

This is how they start the ad:  “This position reports to the VP of Thought Leadership (wow they even have a VP of Thought Leadership) and is responsible for developing and executing thought leadership materials in support of business goals and to increase revenue. “

And then I love this bit.  Why?  Because it is all about the client and candidates precisely the focus a brand’s thought leadership strategy should have:  “This position will work cross functionally with all of the marketing team in support of the lines of business in their dealings with clients and candidates.”
 
It gets even more interesting.  Under the heading Thought Leadership Strategy, it says

·        Develop and implement an overall thought leadership materials strategy to support Manpower’s business objectives as well as enhance sales and revenue.

·        Design and manage consistent process for collecting topic ideas, tracking subject matter experts, and measuring the success of various communications channels

Well done guys, I hope you find the dream candidate.

Is there anyone else out there who has seen actual thought leadership positions advertised?  Let me know.

Law firms lag thought leadership landscape

Law firms and thought leadership

I had the privilege of speaking at the 4^th (Legal) Managing Partners Conference at Sanctuary Cove on the Queensland Gold Coast in Australia this weekend.  The topic “What do you want to be famous for?”  The angle I took on how you get there – thought leadership of course.

Thought leadership in the legal industry

The interesting part of the talk was what I discovered during my research and information gathering phase in the weeks preceding the presentation.  I spoke to some of the heads of communication at some Australia’s largest law firms about their views on thought leadership in the Australian legal industry.  This was followed by some desktop research on what six of the leading global legal firms are doing online with their thought leadership properties.    The six included Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Skadden, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Freshfields.

The legal industry spokespeople were unanimous that thought leadership across Australian legal firms is still in its infancy.  While there are some great pockets of thought leadership it is generally ad hoc and not a lot of time or resources are spent on it.  Contrastingly when I explored the global big six law firm, or Magic Circle firms as they are known, they seem, based on my online observations anyway, to be well on their way with their thought leadership properties.

Australian legal firms and thought leadership

Before I touch on the Magic Circle firms I want to illustrate what is happening in the thought leadership space for the legal industry down under.

This probably best illustrated by snatches of the conversations I held with four of the leading communication professionals across Australia’s leading law firms.

“It’s unsophisticated; we’re not nearly there yet.”

“Partners often have competing interests.”

“Our partners are more like media champions than thought leaders.”

“Most lawyers are reticent to stick their necks out.”

“We worry about upsetting clients.”

“It’s a time issue – the billable hour is king.”

“I don’t think the partners have seen the benefit of thought leadership yet.”

“There’s a feeling we’re giving our intellectual property away.”

Thought leadership is a growing trend in Australian law firms

It wasn’t all bad though, there were some positives.  For example, there were a number of comments which indicated that thought leadership is growing and becoming more of a recognised marketing and communications tool.  These included:

“Thought leadership is starting to seep through the firm.”

“The legal market is changing rapidly, there is increasing competition globally and locally and we will have to differentiate.”

“There is a golden opportunity to use older partners to drive our thought leadership efforts.”

“We’ve seen some fantastic benefits using our website for our thought leadership content.”

A mixed bag but some really positive noises for thought leadership around the corner.       

The Magic Circle and thought leadership

I need to preface this by saying that my analysis is only based on quick desktop analysis of the Magic Circle firms thought leadership properties online and it is therefore limited by what I could find on their websites.

That said, all six had great content unfortunately I didn’t have the time to explore whether this content was genuine thought leading content – I am a firm believer that content alone does not make you a thought leader.

Here’s my quick summary of the six firms websites I visited:

·        Linklaters– have “Year in Review”and “The Year to Come” which summarises major developments in English law and expectations for the new year.  They also have Hot Topics which hosts papers across wide ranging issues.

·        Freshfields– have what they call “Briefings” which are papers on various issues.  They also have a separate microsite called Mobile Matters site which discusses all things mobile.  It is one of the best examples of legal practice thought leadership I have seen.  In addition, they have collaborated with The Economist Intelligence Unit to report on the opportunities and risks in Africa for the extractives industry.

Some great thought leadership from these two firms but there was something nagging me when I viewed these sites and it is probably best illustrated by a quote from an interview I conducted last year with Ken Blanchard.  Ken is the author of over 50 books including “The one minute manager” and he said: “You can have the greatest, most innovative thoughts in the world but if nobody hears about them they’re worth squat.”  

And therein lies the issue with the two firms I have just mentioned – I had to search and sift through layers to find their thought leadership material.

Make your thought leadership stand out on your web

The following firms had their thought leadership front and centre on their web sites.

·        Clifford Chance – great scrolling content blocks, big and bold across the front page.  They also have a very impressive webinar series covering numerous topics and featuring panels and interviews with third parties.  In fact they label it their thought leadership impetus.  The topics include, among others: remuneration reform in the financial services industry, trends in M&A, cross border tactics in takeovers and inbound investment in China.    

·        Allen & Overy– slap bang on their front page they have something called Insights.  What’s great is that when you click into this you can search by topic, by country, by practice area or merely enter a search term and it will kick out all their content on that. They’ve made it very easy.

·        Skadden– on their home page they have big and bold their “2011 Insights”, an annual issue of critical legal issues its clients will face in the year ahead across key areas such as governance, M&A, Capital Markets, Corporate Restructuring, Financial Regulation and Global Litigation to mention a few.

·        Baker & McKenzie- front of centre of their home page they have a large title block “one step ahead of Dodd Frank”.  For me though the coup de grace is that the first button top left on their home page is something called “Supporting your business”.  I love it!  This is not the typical me language you find on website i.e.  “About Us” “Our services” “Who we are”, rather it’s all about you the client and your business.

What’s more, they have heaps of great, useful content and very easy to find – they even have a whole International negotiating handbook on their site chapter by chapter.

I would have loved to have the time to find out more about how these firms use their thought leadership material with their clients and in other forums but another time for that.

The wonderful thing is about all this content online is what it is doing for their Google rankings – I just hope they are optimising it accordingly.

BMW sets great example for thought leadership

BMW fast tracks its thought leadership

If you’re interested about how we will all get around in the future put these dates in your diaries – February 1^st, 8^th , 15^th, and the 22^nd.  On each of these days BMW will release one part of its four part documentary series on future technology, culture, cities, etc and how it relates to the future of mobility.

This is a great example of thought leadership from one of the world’s leading car brands.  Fellow PR practitioner, Trevor Young alerted me to it in his blog and it was too good an opportunity not to follow up and analyse in more detail.  

The BMW microsite dedicated to this thought leadership piece describes the project as follows:

“Wherever You Want To Go” is the first release under BMW Documentaries—a new franchise dedicated to crafting original, thought-provoking and entertaining content. The film aims to take audiences to a place they’ve truly never been: the future. From the minds of some of the most influential scientists, academics, pioneers, and entrepreneurs of our time, this four-part documentary paints a unique picture of technology, culture, cities, our past, present and how it all relates to the future of mobility.

“Wherever You Want To Go” is not meant to provide definitive answers, but rather, to ask the right questions from the right people in an attempt to generate discussion, provoke thought and stir the imagination. As part of the Activate the Future website, viewers are also encouraged to click and comment on various points throughout the documentary.

BMWActivatetheFuture.com was created to get users actively involved in the ever-evolving conversation on the future of mobility. Over the coming months, this site will continue to explore new ways to shape the future of mobility and will encourage users’ opinions and participation along the way.

Hitting the thought leadership button on its head

In every way the intentions of BMWActivatetheFuture.com hits the right thought leadership buttons – time will tell whether this truly is a thought leadership platform or just a great PR gimmick.  My instincts tell me that this campaign goes to the very culture of the organisation and is one that will grow to become a great thought leadership piece.

One only need examine the explanation above to realise in principle, it ticks all the right thought leadership boxes i.e.

·         it is not overtly product focused

·         it aims to generate discussion

·         it maximises the use of third party experts

·         it proactively promotes discussion and interaction with the brand through multiple channels

·         it is a conversation and encourages debate

·         it is clearly of interest to most of us who drive cars

·         it will provide a great platform for BMW experts and leaders to talk about the future of mobility.

But there are some key thought leadership questions that need to be asked

As the campaign progresses, there are some key questions that will need to answered in order to measure its efficacy:

1.       Does it/has it met its objectives and what were these?  Have these been clearly set out?

2.       Are these objectives measurable?  If so what measurement criteria have been put in place?

3.       Will it directly impact sales or brand awareness over time and how is this being measured?

4.       Is it going to become part of the culture of the entire organisation right down to the sales guy on the floor of BMW dealership and how is this being achieved?

5.       How is the content being stretched and leveraged across multiple audiences and channels?

6.       What commitment (time and resources) are the BMW executives giving to this campaign?   

These are for starters, I’m sure you probably have a whole lot more and I would love to hear them if you do.  These six questions will drive rigorous focus and, I believe, greater success for the campaign in the long-term.

Well done BMW, I can’t wait for the first documentary tomorrow.  FYI, it is entitled “The new city” and according to the website, it is about the way we live and how it will impact the way we move.

Productivity Indicator is a thought leadership winner

I need to declare up front that the thought leadership case study I am about to share was run by two sister companies in the Ogilvy Public Relations stable in Australia, Howorth and Parker & Partners.  It is a great example of thought leadership in action and it recently won the WPP Communications WPPED Cream award for best PR campaign.

Background

In late 2008, Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, Telstra, approached the team at Ogilvy PR Australia to devise a communication strategy to support its reinvigorated business-to-business offering.

The ensuing ‘Telstra Productivity Indicator’ campaign, not only successfully generated positive coverage in target business news and technology media, but the communication platform laid the foundation for all of Telstra’s marketing collateral: internal communications, website content, existing customer communication, advertising material and sales tools. 

The successful execution of the brief was demonstrated through increased sales figures and improvements in independent brand and media audits. Telstra’s positioning was so relevant to target business and government audiences that the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, quoted key research findings developed for the campaign during a national press conference in April 2009.

The campaign

Telstra’s largest division is Telstra Enterprise & Government (TEG), which provides network based solutions and services to organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

In a crowded marketplace, Telstra was finding it difficult to achieve neutral or positive media coverage, despite its world leading information and communication technology (ICT) offerings.  The Ogilvy team wanted to present TEG as a leader in ICT and an expert in productivity.  It followed research which showed that while Telstra’s competitors and other key stakeholders in the ICT space were all fighting for a share of the ‘innovation’ space, everyone was ignoring the driving force for potential customers – productivity.

There was a distinct lack of conversation around the topic presenting an ideal opportunity for TEG to embrace productivity and use it as the platform for the campaign.

The target publics

In order to communicate with their tier one target audiences: senior decisions makers, key influencers and IT executives within Australian business and government organisations, the campaign first had to reach business and technology media, industry associations, business groups and government stakeholders.

Implementation

1.       Research – Survey Report

An independent research company was commissioned to conduct a survey of senior decision makers at Australian business and government organisations on their approach and treatment of productivity and how it was defined, measured, managed and funded. The findings were compiled in a report titled: ‘The Telstra Productivity Indicator: A Report on business attitudes towards improving productivity in Australia’.

2.      Research – Whitepaper

Supplementing the report was a 36-page white paper, commissioned from a second independent organisation. The paper, ‘ICT as a driver of productivity’, examined in detail the impact of ICT on productivity and economics in Australia and around the world.

3.      Branding the insights – identifying Australia’s ‘productivity gap’

The research not only provided interesting content for media engagement, but uncovered insights to underpin the campaign.  Critically the results showed that while 78 per cent of Australia’s largest organisations said improving productivity was a high priority, only half had any systems to measure improvements or set targets.

This was termed the ‘Productivity Gap’ – the gap between the importance placed on productivity improvements and the lack of measurement and management around it. With productivity a large part of the rationale for ICT investment, the findings provided framework for new conversations with Telstra’s target audiences.

4.      Key messages identified, spokespeople briefed

Senior spokespeople were comprehensively briefed on the research with a series of key messages designed to deliver the productivity story.

5.      Direct mail to business and government

A personalised letter from the CEO detailing research findings and implications was sent to government officials and the heads of leading Australian business associations.

6.      Strategic media outreach

An extensive media outreach plan was implemented including:

·         Embargoed media interviews with Telstra’s most senior spokespeople and tier one media

·         An embargoed media release distributed to IT and telecommunications media the day before the launch

·         A general news release distributed on launch day

·         Targeted, long-lead media outreach  with tailored byline articles for vertical press 

7.      Speaking opportunities

Speaking opportunities were set up at corporate events for senior Telstra spokespeople.

8.      Employee Communications

The research was launched internally to employees through Telstra’s intranet.

9.      Sales Tools

The sales teams were armed with new diagnostic tools to present to existing and potential clients to quantify areas for productivity improvement.

10.  Advertising

The insights were supported by an above the line campaign including print, outdoor and online with a budget edition wrap of the Australian Financial Review newspaper.  

Measurement

 An independent media analysis company compared the analysis to Telstra’s competitors across reach, impact and favourability. From January to March 2009, TEG significantly increased its share of voice over competitors, holding 55 per cent of the brand mentions (with 96 per cent favourable). A spike in coverage was traced against the launch of the productivity campaign.

The Telstra Productivity Indicator dominated media discussion, with 29 per cent of coverage directly related to how Telstra could help enterprise and government improve productivity through the innovation and functionality of Telstra services. The analysis tracked an overall increase in the number of key messages appearing within campaign coverage.  More than 60 per cent of TEG coverage featured at least one of the pre-agreed key messages.

Importantly, the PR campaign set the foundation for all of TEG’s marketing and communications collateral and the messaging was adapted seamlessly for internal communications, existing customer communication, website content, an advertising campaign and sales tools.

The campaign drove online traffic to Telstra’s productivity website, becoming the second most visited site after the Telstra homepage.  At the time of the campaign, Google click-through increased by 72.3%.  There were 178 whitepaper registrations and site interactivity (clicks, print-outs and forwarding of content) increased by 200% month on month.

Over the campaign, Telstra sold and activated thosands of new PDAs and smartphones, migrated thousands of 2G devices to the NextG network and sold a number of fleet deals. The campaign elevated the Telstra brand to one synonymous with improved business productivity that in turn has driven demand for its product and services.

The integrated campaign directly affected perceived brand value. Telstra outperformed competitors in the ‘Customer Value Analysis’ brand positioning benchmark study in May 2009 on all performance drivers (service delivery; product; brand; Account Executive performance) showing a significant spike in approval. ‘Brand’ recorded the largest increase (up 11%). Besides improved buyer preference, Telstra was able to focus customer discussions away from price and towards value.

Thought leadership case study – Booz & Company on innovation

Every now and then someone stands out for delivering a clear, compelling thought leadership position.   Booz & Company’s thought leadership position on innovation is one such instance.

I need to state up front that I have not met anyone from the business nor have I chatted to anyone in their corporate communication or innovation team – all I’ve had to go in is what I discovered on their website.  This in itself is interesting because I have always been an advocate of openly sharing information with your markets.  The web is a great way for people to find that information and Booz & Company has done just that for me.

Thought leadership in action – the Global Innovation 1000 study

According to their website, the company has conducted the Global Innovation 1000 study every year since 2005.  The research investigates the relationship between how much companies spend on R&D and their overall financial performance. Every year, they reinforce the conclusion that there is no correlation between the two.  You can see the research here http://tinyurl.com/25yz5rz

These findings as well as their analysis of what makes the most successful innovators led The Economist to call the Global Innovation 1000 “the most comprehensive assessment of the relationship between R&D investment and corporate performance.” Tom Peters called it a “provocative, research-based article that is sure to get you thinking.”