Beyond traditional Market and/or Media Relations, Organisations are finding new vent for building corporate stature and reputation. One of such platforms, is Thought Leadership.

1. Thought Leadership as Lever for Business Growth
Changing the Rule of Engagement
Bolaji Okusaga

2. 1. Starting the Journey

3. 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.

4. 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

5. Limitations of the Old Rule
Communication
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

6. 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

7. 2. Building Knowledge Capital

8. 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.

9. Emerging Context
Emerging 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

10. Opportunities
Creating
Awareness
• Cultivation of
the environment
Cultivating
the Tribe
• Building Cause
Communities
Curating
rather than
Imposing
• Continuously
Engaging and
Refining the
Message

11. 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

12. 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

13. 3. Navigating the New Reality

14. 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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15. 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:

16. Public Opinion: The Actors
•The media
•The public
•The Company
Public opinion

17. 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.

18. The Actors and the Outcome
The
Media
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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Becoming a Point of Reference
Discussion Points
Emphasis on
importing good
practices, which
can be emulated
Key drivers are
the requirements
of tomorrow’s
practice

22. Showing Example
Knowledge
Equity
New
Perspective
Business
Equity

23. Moving it From Plan to Implementation
Start with a
Agenda
Push for
Partnership
Select
Activities

24. Thank You