Shedding light on action: How actionable thought leadership can help clients drive value within their organisations
What does a lighthouse have in common with thought leadership?
The short answer is: a lot.
Over the last few years, our conversations with buyers of consulting services have reinforced the idea that—like a lighthouse guiding a ship through dark, stormy waters—thought leadership helps executives shape decisions on where to go and how.
Today, the marketplace is anything but calm, with geopolitical forces, unparalleled tech transformation, and other demographic and environmental factors at play. Understanding the dynamics between all of these and what these changing market signals mean for businesses can at times feel like being a ship lost at sea.
To navigate these unreliable waters, business leaders are increasingly leaning on thought leadership. In our Client Perceptions of Thought Leadership study, 94% of CxOs said they consume it “often” or “sometimes”—up from 84% last year.
This isn’t just light reading. They’re actually actioning the insights, using it to refine their strategy and make internal changes. In fact, the top action taken by executives after reading thought leadership in our study was implementing recommendations and sharing with their peers. They see thought leadership as an empowering tool to help them drive value within their organisations. This lies not just in the ideas put forward in a piece themselves but the subsequent ability to offer a clear path to action. Recommendations are to thought leadership what light is to the lighthouse: Without that guiding beacon, the lighthouse cannot fulfil its aims.
What executives are looking for are tangible examples—grounded in today’s reality—that show what action looks like and what potential benefits they stand to gain. Company examples, case studies, and data are but a few ways firms can empower their audience to take action off the back of their thought leadership.
What now?
Ironically, this is an area many firms still struggle with. We have reviewed thousands of thought leadership pieces over the years, and a consistent theme is that ‘Prompting Action’—our measure of how actionable a piece is—is the dimension where firms consistently score lowest. Our research shows this is where the value truly lies, yet our Prompting Action scores even saw a slight drop this year.
With that in mind, here are some important questions for thought leadership teams to ask as they shape their content:
- Do the recommendations read like a roadmap?
There’s power in cohesive storytelling. Yet all too often, recommendations feel disconnected—lacking a clear build from one to the next. By stringing together connected recommendations that read like a step-by-step manual for success, thought leadership can create a clearer path to action for its readers.
- Are recommendations a core part of your research, or an afterthought?
It’s often clear to us when recommendations are an afterthought. They might lack supporting data or feel short and generic. While the overarching ideas at the core of the piece are important, a piece isn’t complete without strong, practical advice. Whether it’s case studies, survey data, or interview quotes, you should be leveraging your resources to strengthen your recommendations. Thinking about recommendations while designing research processes will help provide evidence later down the line. Bake in examples of success. Demonstrate the cost of inaction or what readers stand to gain. Create a sense of urgency for action.
- How can we collaborate with business stakeholders?
Content teams can work more closely with the core business to mine specific, differentiated recommendations, drawing directly on the experience of practitioners. Pieces tend to land better when they have a strong voice of the firm, so don’t hesitate to bring in the voices of practitioners to support your assertions.
Want more insights on how thought leadership can help you drive value for clients?
Our latest Client Perception of Thought Leadership report highlights key trends shaping buyer behavior and reveals which firms are producing the most impactful content. If you’re looking for more insights tailored to your firm, get in touch with one of our experts.