Thought Leadership as Lever for Business Growth

Changing the Rule of Engagement

Bolaji Okusaga

1. Starting the Journey

Business Case

• The need to cut through the clutter and capture the popular imagination thereby beating competition

• In this era of fast paced business when corporations are leveraging their People for competitive advantage, a coordinated Thought Leadership process has the potential to build a distinctive and desirable organisation.

• A unique and identifiable corporate personality can help build the needed differentiation for leveraging offerings, attracting market attention as well as gaining and sustaining a perception of superior used value.

The Old Rule to Growth

Sales

• Make Sale• Grow numbers • Consolidate Business

Traditional Marketing • Create a Brand, • Target a segment of the Population• Build love on Essence

Produce

Create a Product,

Service or Solution

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Limitations of the Old RuleCommunication

Overload

• Too many marketing messages competing for the Consumer’s attention

Product Parity

• All products n a category becoming just as good as each other

Consumer Apathy

• The Consumer becoming more informed and sophisticated and so cannot be cajoled by straight or emotional messages

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The New Reality

Engendering knowledge based conversations targeted at procuring predetermined

outcomes…

New Innovations

Stretching the Norm

Disrupting Old Beliefs

Reverse Engineering

Creating New Industry

Articulating a New Direction

2. Building Knowledge Capital

Thought Leadership as a Business Enabler

• Thought Leadership gives expressions to Corporate initiatives, Culture and Values.

• To reflect Corporate positioning and seen to operate on a world-class platform while making excellence the hallmark of interactions with target publics, there is the need to deploy Thought Leadership as a tool engaging the market.

• To out-run, out-deliver competition and exceed market expectation, Company’s Staff must be the epitome of excellence not just in character and intellect but in relating with the market.

Emerging ContextEmerging G-Zero World

• The move to break down economic and political blocs given threats of migration and terrorism

• Manifestation of this move is seen in the success of the Brexit campaign and threats to other regional economic and political blocs

• This will fundamentally alter global trade flows and disrupt trans-national business

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

• The birth of internet of things, connected cars, autonomous driving, next generation manufacturing, robotics and automation

• This will ultimately reduce layers of stakeholder relationships given the crossing of boundaries that will come with artificial intelligence

Opportunities

Creating Awareness• Cultivation of the

environment

Cultivating the Tribe• Building Cause

Communities

Curating rather than Imposing• Continuously

Engaging and Refining the Message

The Credibility Question

• Thought Leadership serves not only to create awareness, unlike advertising, it helps to confer credibility

• The power of Thought Leadership is built through frequency and consistency, as each encounter heightens the visibility of the Organisation, brand or person, adding another layer of credibility.

• This credibility in turn creates a desire among viewers and listeners to pay attention to the subject.

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Knowledge Sharing as Investment

In the process of conferring credibility Thought Leadership follows a systemic

process which involves the use of knowledge as invetment.

Thought Leadership therefore differs from marketing as it aims not only to sell the strong sides of a product or

service but to advance new perspective around an industry or product thereby conferring credibility on the Thought

Leader.

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3. Navigating the New Reality

Unleashing the Power of Thought Leadership

Here's how it works: • Thought Leaders monitor the media and

the social space for news and events that may aligns with their message.

• Then they call the writers, editors or event organisers with a new angle. They answer the question the media always wants answered: "Why you? Why now?"

Once that is done, they follow-up other leads that helps keep you in the news and in peoples

minds for the right reasons.

Thought Leaders use on and offline platforms heighten

interest and confer credibility on a subject, person, institution or

product.

Thought Leaders use Content Calendars to plan their roll their

messages

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Promoting a Media Policy

Amplify corporate appeal by creating a guideline for

relationship with the market which captures company’s

essence.

Promote a Company Corporate statue and limit distractions

caused by provocative or inappropriate publications.

Standardize the company’s procedures and processes in

terms of the relationship with the market

Enable company build and sustain values which emphasize the role of corporate positioning

in the value delivery process.

A Thought Leadership policy serves as guidance of to entire staff of Company. It is intended to, among other things, achieve the following:

Public Opinion: The Actors

•The media

•The public

•The Company

Public opinion

Elements of Public Opinion

Public Opinion

Beliefs

Values

Norms

Knowledge

Public Opinion is usually an effect of perception:

1. Influence the decoding by audiences: the setting of Thought Leadership agenda and framing

2. Influence audience decoding via effect on knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

The Actors and the Outcome

The Medi

a

The Public

The Company

The Perception

Different platforms, premier outlets, media personalities

General public, civil society groups, business, individuals.

The maker and the implementer

The Outcome of the choices we make in the communication process

Seeking a Platform

Strong and active Professional / Trade Group involvement.

Involvement of Key Opinion Leaders

Drive participation of Economic Centres

Surreptitiously position it as Open Forum as Opposed

to Sponsored Forum

Key into current issues in operating

environment

Great emphasis on the importance of Professional alliances

Draw Partnership from Credible Platforms

Sharing Best Practice

Community and Business

Companies are increasingly engaged

in strategic partnerships with

stakeholders within communities in which

they operate.

How to Build the Future Enterprise

How to align Business Process and

Management of supply chain reflecting consumer concerns in the quest at Building a

Social Enterprise

Becoming a Point of Reference

Discussion PointsEmphasis on

importing good practices, which can be emulated

Key drivers are the requirements

of tomorrow’s practice

Showing Example

Knowledge Equity

New Perspective

Business Equity

Moving it From Plan to Implementation

Start with a Agenda

Push for Partnership

Select Activities

Thank You