Everything Thought Leadership

Why did Spotify's head of global brand strategy push for thought leadership? Jenny Haggard has been with the music streaming juggernaut for over 12 years, and since 2023, has overseen the development of research and marketing campaigns that attract advertisers to the platform. The research includes The Sound-On Era , a study on the rise of digital audio as an advertising channel, and how AI is...

Why did Spotify's head of global brand strategy push for thought leadership? Jenny Haggard has been with the music streaming juggernaut for over 12 years, and since 2023, has overseen the development of research and marketing campaigns that attract advertisers to the platform. The research includes The Sound-On Era , a study on the rise of digital audio as an advertising channel, and how AI is poi...

Since 2017, ServiceNow has increased revenue sixfold to $13 billion and become highly profitable. In rebranding the company from its IT help-desk roots to a cross-functional business platform, thought leadership has played a sizable role. On this episode of Everything Thought Leadership, we are joined by Richard McGill Murphy, who until January was head of research innovation at ServiceNow. He bui...

IT services has become the largest sector in the $5.4 trillion global IT industry. But it’s also become a highly competitive sector. In the U.S. alone, the number of IT services firms increased 37% between 2002 and 2022 (Census Bureau). The result? The companies that hire IT services firms have more trouble determining which ones to use. That's why many IT services firms are turning to thought lea...

Steve Jobs, the McDonalds brothers, and Henry Ford changed the world through innovations that disrupted industries and ways of living. But how does disruption actually work for innovations of such great magnitude? ​With AI and other innovations shaping the future of work as we speak, it's once again important for thought leadership professionals to understand what drives epic disruptions—so they c...

Thought leadership has become a game-changer in the tech services industry for standing out amongst competitors. In the 49th episode of “Everything Thought Leadership," we will be joined by Euan Davis, who has studied the global IT services industry for 14 years at IDC, Yankee Group, Forrester and HfS. And since 2013, he has headed thought leadership research programs at two IT services firms: fir...

It's harder than ever to convince customers to buy your products and services. Thanks in part to the explosion of “thought leadership” content, the marketplace is crowded with often helpful insights on how to solve business problems. Enter: the co-founders of A to B Insight, a firm with deep insights to help B2B sellers win over buyers. Brent Adamson is a bestselling author, speaker, and advisor t...

It can feel tempting to avoid questioning a thought leader's vision when you're the professional executing on their value offering. But that fear of confrontation can lead to bigger problems if you don't discover what the thought leader actually needs from the get-go. Enter Bill Shander, information designer and author of "Stakeholder Whispering," a new book on how to work with stakeholders to unc...

How can you build a firm that is a standout player in software for architecture firms? Chris Parsons is a great person to ask. The founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture has achieved positive results through a focus on building a customer community. And he has helped his firm stand out through their signature AEC product: an AI search system called Synthesis. Today on Everything Thought Leaders...

Specialist firms have carved out niches in the thought leadership industry in tech, real estate, asset management and other sectors. One stand-out in the legal industry is Harrington Communications, a thought leadership PR firm founded by Jay and Heather Harrington. Their motto: Deep and narrowly focused expertise is more valuable than vague and undifferentiated knowhow. In this episode of Everyth...

What is it about Korn Ferry's video-podcast series, the Briefings Podcast, that has attracted more than 16,000 email subscribers just one year after launch and as many as 120,000 views per episode? In this episode, Bob Buday speaks with returning guest Jonathan Dahl, Korn Ferry vice president and chief content officer, about the strategy behind the Briefings Podcast, the key lessons he has learned...

With $1.9 billion in revenue and a global presence in more than 100 countries, Gensler is the world’s largest architecture and design firm. It is also a pioneer in that industry in using thought leadership to promote its expertise – and develop new expertise. As global editorial director, Sam Martin oversees the firm’s key channels: Dialogue magazine, Design Forecast, the Gensler blog, and Gensler...

Harvard Business Review (HBR) is the world’s most important journal on management, for managers. But how has the 103-year-old publication increased readership and influence amidst the explosion of free management advice published B2B companies? Amy Bernstein, recently promoted to HBR editor in chief, explains HBR’s strategy. Previously the No. 2 editor, Amy has been at HBR for over 13 years. Befor...

The thought leadership profession now has a thinktank. It's called the Global Thought Leadership Institute. It's geared towards developing thought leadership industry standards and best practices, which have largely been underdeveloped until now. In this installment of Everything Thought Leadership, Bob speaks with Cindy Anderson (CMO, IBM Institute for Business Value) and Lucia Rahilly (Global Ed...

What goes into a successful business and technology podcast like ThinkCast? Gartner’s premiere podcast boasts more than 10,000 subscribers in 130 plus countries, and it has been downloaded more than 700,000 times. ThinkCast co-founder and former host Scott Smith is here to describe the keys to producing a great business podcast. Today on ETL, he goes over how to define your audience, form a strate...

Josh Bernoff, former Forrester SVP of Idea Development, helps business and other non-fiction authors develop compelling books. He has collaborated on more than 50 books. Over his 20 years at Forrester, Josh covered the technological transformation of the television and other media sectors. He also edited two books and co-authored three of us his own, including the bestselling book on social media,...

Thought leaders may believe that great ideas are what attracts clients. But business development expert Mo Bunnell says that isn’t enough. The founder and CEO of Bunnell Idea Group believes thought leaders must build a relationship ecosystem of clients and business clients. Mo’s new book, “Give to Grow,” covers how to build highly productive, life-long business relationships. The accomplished thou...

If your firm is looking to publish thought leadership books, you must understand how the publishing landscape has changed. Enter Donya Dickerson, former McGraw-Hill associate publisher and current literary agent for Aevitas Creative Management. She’s going to walk us through what it takes for thought leadership professionals to secure publishing contracts for the experts in their firms. A full-ser...

With the explosion of business books over the past several years, the appeal of hybrid publishing has increased dramatically among thought leadership authors. But earning substantial market share with your business book isn’t easy. In this installment of Everything Thought Leadership, bestselling author and trend-curator Rohit Bhargava walks you through the pros and cons of the hybrid publishing o...

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is changing the conversation around generative AI... literally. The $12 billion global consulting firm produces a podcast called Imagine This, where the host converses with a top-notch chatbot called GENE. The bot’s data set contains BCG’s cream-of-the-crop thought leadership, making it the ideal guinea pig to discuss the place of generative AI in thought leadership....

How do you present thought leadership content in interactive ways to stand out? Tom Fleming, global thought leadership director at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), has joined Bob Buday to discuss the key factors in publishing great thought leadership content and how the profession has changed over time. PwC is the $53 billion global advisory and accounting firm recognized as a LinkedIn Top Company an...

Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon changed the way B2B companies think about selling their products and services 13 years ago with their groundbreaking book, “The Challenger Sale," which was a bestselling sales book from the Corporate Executive Board on how to win over customers -- by challenging them to think differently about their problem and how to solve it. Today on Everything Thought Leadership, B...

MIT Sloan Management Review is quite selective about the content it accepts, both articles and content proposals. If you want to be an influential thought leader who publishes in a prestigious magazine like MIT SMR, you need to understand its editorial review process. When it comes to the editorial process, MIT SMR Editor-in-Chief Abbie Lundberg is a 40-year content publishing veteran who has seen...

Michelle Swan knows the secret behind how Tercera’s portfolio companies earn lucrative returns on thought leadership--and no, it’s not just echoing the latest trends on the cloud, AI, etcetera. As CMO & Partner for the leading investment and advisory firm, Michelle drives its thought leadership strategy. This includes coordinating the firm’s marquee Tercera 30 annual report on cloud services trend...

Award-winning business author Chunka Mui is keenly focused on generative A.I.’s thought leadership impact and how innovation can be used to fight climate change and social issues. Among his influential books, he co-authored the late 1990s bestseller “Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance.” The Wall Street Journal named it one of the five best books on the business impa...