Is Your Thought Leadership Strategy a Waste of Time?

The editor-in-chief of Strategy & Business, Joel Kurtzman, reportedly coined the term "thought leader" in 1994 to identify people with business ideas that merited attention. Since then, it's become all the rage for consultants and others to vie for that role so they will stand out in a crowded market.

Unfortunately, many consultants' thought leadership marketing strategies, though well-intentioned, fall flat. They are squandering precious resources on a strategy that's destined to fail.

What's Missing?

Thought leadership marketing is shaping up like an arms race, with no apparent goal except keeping up with the competition by churning out more of the same. According to research by SourceforConsulting.com, in just one month the 25 largest consulting firms in the world published almost 500 new books and articles. And their websites already contained more than 16,000 pieces of thought leadership.

Consultants, who are notorious fast followers, respond to their competitors' thought leadership initiatives by launching their own campaigns. The resulting industry-wide escalation has produced an avalanche of articles, books, blogs, speeches, white papers, and so on. And just like an arms race, the ongoing competition to gain recognition as a thought leader continues to intensify.