Just a thought: rethinking thought leadership in a global context.

• Author: Young, Laurie
• Position: Essay

"Thought leadership" is one of the most successful business tools that the world has seen. The technique has been used by leading organizations to amplify reputations and draw in clients for many decades. It has set trends, created new professional concepts and launched successful practices.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Yet much of it has come from America and Europe. Is its output applicable in a world that is manifestly not uniform? As politicians grapple with the fallout of the credit crunch and local cultures reassert their influence, is a different conception of this venerable technique necessary?

What Is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is the proactive creation and promulgation of ideas in order to generate revenue. Ideas that resonate with business leaders have a powerful influence, building respect and opening access to the heights of the business elite. The approach works because, in a busy and demanding job, executives do not have time to examine every aspect of every issue that confronts them. Instead they frequently resort to "gut feel" (emotion and belief) to make decisions. Effective thought leadership inculcates this belief system, transforming it into de facto strategies. As a result, it has wide impact, creating interest and demand in the practices that promulgate it.

Many leading practices use this approach to some extent. British Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy, for example, created a thought leadership function based on its knowledge management team. The approach even contributes to the personal franchise of individuals. Richard Susskind ("The End of Lawyers?") and David Maister ("Managing the Professional Service Firm") have become well known to many lawyers (and engaged by them as advisors) because of their own thought leadership.

Going Global

The emphasis among bigger practices, even in other professions, has been on "global" thought leadership. Deloitte, for instance, has an international virtual team whose members in different countries cover an industry and geography in addition to their area of technical skill. They seek out developing concepts that might be ubiquitous and applicable across the globe.

This global approach has been in vogue for several decades. In the 1980s, for example, Harvard professor Theodore Levitt suggested that people around the world have similar aspirations, and developing technologies gave firms opportunities to create a common offer that could serve all equally well. He argued that...