Global PR Blog Week 1.0

Thoughts on Thought Leadership

I'm a big fan of the book "Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces" (see my review here and follow-up here) and found it invaluable in terms of its view of thought leadership and establishing momentum for 'digital products' - that's a broader view than just software companies - it actually encompasses any company with a significant online or digital component. And it's also one of the few books that speaks to 'branding' for B2B companies. If I knew everyone that were reading these posts was coming from that frame of reference, I'd use it as a basis to launch into how to apply Momentum concepts via blogs. But since I doubt that's the case, I'll just share a few tidbits related to thought leadership, which they define also as 'conceptual innovation' or perhaps these days meme creation.

The most important points are that it's crucial to focus on what's relevant to the customers' or readers' world not yours, that ideas not the molecules move customers, and to be as forward-thinking (read: bold) as possible.

My opinion is that Momentum stresses the CEO as the 'personality' too heavily as a key factor to building "momentum" behind a company. Perhaps the idea of personality itself is the key takeaway. Personality and voice are key components of any blog. (The book was published before corporate blogging came on the scene.)

In their view, the CEO is a human face that the public can latch onto. In the snippets below, when the books' authors speak about "scaling the CEO" - you are probably thinking that blogs are a perfect way to do that. Employees should be well-versed (and engaged) in the corporate vision and longer-term road map anyway for their day-to-day jobs and now they also can be the holders and messenagers of the vision.

"The NC [network computer] wasn't the first time [Oracle CEO, Larry] Ellison created news and piqued customer interest by providing a compelling context for, and putting a human face on, a confluence of market forces."

"The personal passion, market insight, and hyperbole of Ellison's view of the opportunities created by the media server and the NC gave them a "bet-the-company" feel."

"In some important way, the media server and the NC succeeded in building customers' belief that Oracle was the right choice for them, even as their strategic technology choices were still evolving in the post-IBM computing world. Ironically, the demise of the media server and the NC validated Oracle's position in customers' minds as the company with the product strategy most likely to overcome whatever future challenges might be required of database technology -- the exact predicament these same customers hoped to avoid by choosing Oracle."

"Clearly Ellison understood how to draw attention to himself and his company by moving beyond simple product announcements. Ellison did two things particularly well in his role as industry visionary. First, he aligned the underlying technology trends of the information technology industry and positioned them as powerful market forces made up of products and companies with a common enemy: Microsoft. Second, he personalized the concepts in ways virtually anyone could understand. In this way, he intuitively grasped, before many of his
contemporaries did, that customers would ultimately reward him for taking risks -- even when his big ideas failed. In looking back on our experiences with EMC, Intel, Sun, and Microsoft, we found similar issues existed for each company; each featured a CEO with a visionary agenda whose public persona was larger than life, especially when compared to our clients who were losing market share -- IBM's John Akers, Motorola's Gary Tooker, Hewlett-Packard's Lew Platt, and Kodak's Kay Whitmore."

"But the most interesting aspect of [Cisco CEO, John] Chamber's view of the future was not its ultimate accuracy. What was different about his vision was the fact that it wasn't a vision for Cisco. Chambers was offering a perspective on the future business model of his customers.

"Until the Marketplace of Ideas, a company's vision typically stayed inside the walls of the organization. Prior to the widespread adoption of digital technologies like PCs, cell phones, and the Web and the accompanying change in customers' expectations for differentiation, companies used vision predominantly to motivate employees, build morale, and strengthen company culture."

"In summary, the world's capacity for executive visibility -- especially for executives of digital companies -- grew exponentially and reinforced the demand for executives with presence and a vision of the future. Our momentum research validated the idea that a company's vision of the future could not be limited to its internal audiences. ...

"In order to achieve momentum, a company has to motivate not just the customers themselves, but also the ecosystem around a customer opportunity. The futures contract that comes with all digital brands must also include the brand extensions in a product or service ecosystem, or the company risks losing a source of differentiation."

"To address the futures contract he had with Cisco's customers, Chambers had to articulate a vision that promised to move its ecosystem partners in the right direction. In speaking to Cisco's telecommunications customers about the revenue opportunity at stake [reference to Cisco's famous 'voice is over' talk to telcos], Chambers was also trying to rally an entire industry around the economic opportunity available to third parties in the voice-to-data business transition. He had seen IBM and Wang lose ground to more nimble competitors as the business opportunity of corporate computing moved to the PC and computer-server business models, and he was certain that the same inclusive, standards-based business model would prevail for the Internet."

"We've said throughout this book that ideas about the impact of technology on business and people's lives are the currency of innovation in the Marketplace of Ideas. Customers expect momentum brands (and their CEOs) to tell them things they don't already know about how to solve old problems in new ways -- what we call thought leadership. In a B2B context, thought leaders illustrate over-the-horizon business concepts that describe the impact of digital technologies on a market's business models, business processes, or customer behaviors. "Conceptual innovation" is how the International Thought Leadership Council defines thought leadership.....The most effective forms of thought leadership extend beyond the "what" to the "how". In other words, customers want to know more than what to expect; they want to know how to understand the impact of digital technologies on their businesses, and what strategies, approaches, or models to deploy in order to take advantage of the new technologies."

"Think of your CEO as a product."

"Encourage your CEO to sacrifice around one of the three key areas of thought leadership: business processes, business models, or customer behavior."

"Look for sources of validation in the academic, consulting, or analyst communities." [Look for sources in trade press and especially blog posts.]

"Scale your CEO."

"Develop deliverables that scale your CEO's vision of the future, especially deliverables that are available via the Web. Include video and radio programs to establish a sense of the CEO's personality and how it aligns with the customer experience. The most common and effective channels for thought leadership are public speaking, best practices, case studies, original market research, white papers, and books. [And now blogs!!] These proven tools put your CEO's ideas in decision-making opportunities and conversations -- even when he or she isn't in the room." [Not the stress on the CEO's ideas….it's the ideas, the vision that need help spreading and the CEO cannot do it alone.]

Author: Evelyn Rodriguez | Jul 13, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: @ Evelyn Rodriguez | Topic 2 Corporate Blogging

 

 

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