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6 Jul 2010
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.”
Thought leadership = conversations and coverageUnfortunately I cannot tell you how Booz has used it internally or how they have leveraged it with customers and prospects. No doubt there are some examples of how powerful it has been in these instances. What I can gauge is that since its inception, the study has been mentioned in more than 150 publications in 27 countries, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. It has also received numerous awards and has no doubt been presented at numerous conferences.
Every year the study has produced quantifiable insights and lessons for companies so that they can make more productive use of their R&D dollars. How this translates practically is supported by a page of case studies that outline how the company’s innovation insights, advice and solutions have helped clients.
On the face of it Booz is using this thought leadership position to good effect. They are sharing it online, they are giving it to clients and prospects to help their businesses and they are no doubt leveraging it to great effect internally and with their clients and prospects. Importantly, they continue to build expertise around the topic for the company and for the team involved.
The innovation experts
For example Barry Jaruzelski, who leads the company’s innovation practice is frequently quoted in publications like The Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Financial Times, and The New York Times on the technology industry and the challenges of innovation. He often appears as an expert commentator on ABC News, CNBC, NPR and the BBC.
What a great position to be in to be able to share insights and knowledge that will benefit your client or prospect instead of having to try and ‘sell’ to them. What a great way to build trust and confidence in your brand and your people’s expertise. What fertile media material to generate coverage and what a superb platform and position - the innovation experts.
This is thought leadership that ticks just about every box.
More importantly, innovation is a wonderful value with which to be aligned as a business and because of the work they have done in this space, Booz & Company has achieved just that.
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15 Oct 2009
SKM's achieve magazine - a flagship for its thought leadership campaign
I had the pleasure of chatting to Dale Bryce the other day. Dale is the head of capability marketing at engineering firm Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM). I must take my hat off to him because he contacted me out of the blue after reading my book to share his and his company’s experiences of their thought leadership campaign. Professional services firms often lead on the thought leadership front but I was struck by the truly client-centred nature of SKM’s approach and have to say that their program certainly ranks up there with the best I’ve seen.
When Dale first started talking about their ‘relationship clients first’ approach I have to admit I did think to myself here we go again, another company talking about how client centric they are – aren’t they all. However, as Dale explained their approach, the way they grow with their clients, the depth of understanding they develop about their client’s businesses and the deep insights they develop as a result about the short, medium and long-term trends impacting these businesses, I realised that they truly go live the client-led relationship mantra.
The closeness of these relationships and the deep understanding SKM has developed as a result of this of their clients’ businesses and the sectors within which they operate has enabled them to craft a thought leadership campaign supported by content which delivers something of value to their clients well beyond the services they sell. By leveraging these insights into client-specific and useful information, SKM has positioned themselves as a partner of choice, in their and their client’s space.
As Dale put it to me: “We’re building reputations to win work but this should always be linked to a genuine desire to work with the client.”
SKM rolls out their thought leadership in many ways, and I cover some of those below but at the face of their campaign is their magazine achieve. Produced quarterly, each issue centres on a common theme which is of interest to a global audience across the areas of engineering, sciences and project delivery. You can check it out here http://tinyurl.com/yko2or6
As Dale explained, achieve is more than a magazine - it is a holistic, integrated, branded, multi-channel client engagement program. At the core of it are the “big picture” issues and thinking which SKM identifies thanks to their client-led relationship culture.
In order to roll out their achieve thought leadership campaign, SKM employs a number of tactics including:
· Online articles: Development of stand-alone thought leadership articles and news relevant to particular SKM client groups. These are translated into local market languages as required.
· Targeted emails to distinct client groups: Thought leadership articles are dispatched to a selected group of clients depending on the topic and in line with client preferences captured in their CRM system. Email “news” stories are also issued to clients in the same way.
· Video: A series of achieve branded videos with leading thinkers made available via links embedded in emails to clients, and with links also posted to the SKM website.
· Events/Conferences: achieve branded thought leadership events across all SKM markets.
· Advertising: achieve branded advertising campaigns developed and delivered
for a specific SKM region where awareness building is required (for example United Kingdom or Malaysia).
Dale did make the point that the constant challenge with any professional services business is to convince the “fee-earners” to overcome their reluctance to “sell” their capabilities.” While dispatching thought leadership content is one thing, proactively following up with a client is another. For this reason Dale sees SKM’s “thoughtware” as a conversation starter but getting some of the engineers to engage with clients around this is in fact the biggest challenge.
It was great to hear from Dale and I must say quite refreshing to hear about how a truly client first led relationship culture can result in something of such obvious mutual benefit and value.
If there is anyone else out there who is keen to share their thought leadership program with me please feel free to e mail me at cbadings@cannings.net.au I look forward to hearing from you.
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9 Sep 2009
In the past 24 hours I have come across two great examples of thought leadership aimed at the SME market.
The first is blogger, Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ I subscribed to his newsletter and in his latest article, he recommended a site called Small Biz Survival http://www.smallbizsurvival.com/ . What struck me about both these sites was the wonderful abundance mentality when it comes to sharing useful information. Both characteristics of true thought leaders.
For all those aspiring thought leaders out there I suggest you visit these sites to gain a view as to how powerful a) online can be as a repository for thought leadership content, and b) how generous both sites are in the way the discuss and share solutions with their target audiences - no strings attached.
Chris advises businesses, organizations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships and deliver value. Becky McRay started Small Biz Survival because as she says on her site, she is “a small town entrepreneur. I write about small business and rural issues, based on my own successes and failures.”
Here are two thought leaders who have built a niche for themselves in their respective areas of expertise by following the basic steps of driving a thought leadership position.
If you have any other examples you’d like to share of people like Becky and Chris, please let me know.
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16 Aug 2009
Dove - the quintessential thought leadership case study:
When Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty, little did it realize the global impact it would have on women and the debate around real beauty, let alone double-digit growth for the brand in the second business quarter of 2005, a sales increase of 11 percent in the first quarter of 2005 and a total US dollar sale increase of 6 percent to $500 million.
This was a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) product launched in a truly unconventional way, through a website that does not carry one advertisement nor mention any of Dove’s products. It took very brave marketing executives at Dove to make that decision and hats off to them, because this has to rank as one of the world’s best examples of a great thought leadership campaign.
Effectively what the campaign did was create a forum for women to participate in a dialogue and debate around the definition and standards of beauty. The campaign aimed to ‘change the status quo and offer in its place a broader, healthier, more democratic view of beauty’. The dedicated website http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com is a wonderful example of how to engage with a target audience online.
The campaign started with a research paper, ‘The US Dove Report: challenging beauty’ , http://tiny.cc/Fu4Sf which was followed by publication of a second major research report: ‘The real truth about beauty: a global report’ http://tiny.cc/VTxv4 . And while there are many elements to the campaign, Dove initially invited women to the website to participate in a conversation about beauty stereotypes. Advertising, billboards and a PR campaign helped direct women to the site, but it was the website which became the spiritual hub of the campaign.
Thought leadership in action - engaging with your consumer
The site was designed to be a ‘starting point for societal change’ as well as a sanctuary for women, and it represents what Dove believes. Dove invited women to engage in a global dialogue about beauty stereotypes that it says had a ‘profound effect on the self-esteem of women’. The website is personal and private, and encourages women to express how they feel, while giving them the opportunity to have their voice heard through an online voting system. It also has a variety of tools to help improve the self-esteem of girls and women.
To this end, the Dove Self Esteem Fund was recently launched to help free the next generation of women from self-limiting beauty stereotypes. It aims to reach five million young women by the end of 2010.
Long-term thought leadership
Dove tapped into something deep and enduring. It engaged with its customers in a way it never has before and in a way many products never will. In so doing, it has created customer evangelists and great word-of-mouth for the brand. It is also used in presentations around the world as an example of a company truly engaging with its customers on issues which really matter to them.
The Dove campaign for real beauty is the quintessential thought leadership campaign for four key reasons:
- It taps into the needs and hits the hot buttons of its target audience
- It identifies the passion and emotion in the brand
- It readily provides great content
- It cuts the umbilical cord with its products and focuses on issues which matter to its target audiences.
The issue, real beauty and self esteem, became synonymous with the brand and Dove now owns that space.
The Dove campaign is a great reminder to all of us marketers, brand, advertising or public relation professionals about why we should be brave with our work.
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