In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at leveraging thought leadership for greater profit, hear what Malcolm Gladwell has to say about defeating industry giants, and uncommon tips from one thought leader’s personal experience.
Two Keys To Unlocking The Profitability In Thought Leadership
From Forbes:
“The rationale for pursuing a thought leadership position is straightforward and logical; by attaching one or more executives to a critical subject, a firm (or a subset of its professionals) is able to increase its profile and, in turn, attract more clients. However, thought leadership is about more than being identified as an expert in a specialized field. These days, effective thought leadership must also take the extra step to thoughtfully and consistently convert that positioning into increased financial and strategic value.
Based on wide-ranging experience building thought leadership campaigns augmented by extensive research on the topic, I can see when these programs are effective and when they fall short of their objectives. Let’s take accounting firms as an example. Many of the larger firms have a number of exceedingly erudite and talented partners that possess unique expertise and intellectual capital that can form the basis of high-impact and differentiating thought leadership campaigns. The initial packaging, usually in the form of whitepapers, media outreach and educational forums, is then systematically undermined by critical errors that impede progress and deter new business. In short, while most accounting firms can demonstrate their expertise they are simultaneously unable to monetize their newly created stature.
Why? The most common mistake is failing to fully leverage the intellectual content.”
Our take: Business is business, and — despite what other goals you may have, altruistic or not — making money is a big part of what you’re after. That means that any initiative you take on is at least loosely tied to growing profits; what better way to kill two birds with one stone than by building valuable thought leadership content that not only positions you as an expert, but that also clearly drives ROI?
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What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Underdogs
From Inc.:
“New Yorker staff writer and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell talks to Inc.’s Issie Lapowsky about business lessons from his latest book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.” Watch the video here.
Our take: In this video series, Gladwell breaks down the major concepts of one of his most well-received business books, wherein he uses the traditional story of David and Goliath to exemplify how businesses can stay competitive, even in the face of what appears to be certain failure. The lessons here are particularly important as the global, digital network makes transparency and limited resources not only difficult to avoid, but necessary components of successful business.
Check out all of the video excerpts or Tweet this!
Some Non-Obvious Advice on Thought Leadership
From Moz:
“For the first 10 or so conference speaking spots I earned (at new conferences, not those that invited me back), the invitations didn’t come based on my stellar scores from prior events (in fact, conference organizers don’t do a whole lot of sharing of speaker scores between one another). Most of the new conference invitations came from my work on the web – from blogging, videos, participation in forums, and mentions on other sites. I can say, without a doubt, that my first few speaking spots were fairly horrific. Today, there’s no chance I’d have earned an invite from Mozcon or Searchlove (two of the most selective and high-expectation events in our space for speakers).
That said, about 3 years into my speaking appearances, I watched Avinash Kaushik present. He blew me away. And after his talk, he told me something that’s stuck with me ever since. Avinash said “Everywhere I speak, I always work to be the best speaker at the event.” Simple, but it blew my mind. Of course. Of course being the best speaker would build and build on itself. Because at every conference, the conversation between any two attendees in any given hallway is always the same — “so, which speaker did you like best?'”
Our take: Finally: a thought leadership advice piece that doesn’t align with the status quo or regurgitate popular advice. The info in this article comes directly from a true-blue thought leader’s personal successes, failures, and findings, and offers some never-before-seen tips that have very little to do with concept, and everything to do with application.
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The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Unlocking Profitability, Learning from the Underdogs, and Some Non-Obvious Advice appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad.