Date post: | 10-Feb-2017 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | bolaji-okusaga |
View: | 53 times |
Download: | 1 times |
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
4
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
5
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.
11
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.
12
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
14
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