ORGANISATIONAL DIFFICULTIES IN PRODUCING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Over the past several decades, thought leadership has moved from being individual gurus to organisations operating a considerable budget. We define thought leadership as: “Knowledge from a trusted, eminent and authoritative source that is actionable and provides valuable solutions for stakeholders.”

Today, many organisations have a head of thought leadership and thought leadership industry awards. Here we identify nine such difficulties which such organisations face, and organise them according to where tensions can lie at the individual, organisational and industry level (see inset).

Individual thought leadership tensions

Although thought leadership should intrigue, challenge and inspire through generating new ideas and pushing the boundaries of knowledge, we find that thought leadership is