In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at what gives companies the capacity to innovate, what it means to claim digital victory, and the best way to measure your TL efforts.
Essential Components of Innovation Capacity
From Innovation Excellence:
“‘There are no low technology industries, there are only low technology companies: companies that have not yet woken up to the potential of technology to transform what they do.’
This quote is as pertinent today as it was over a decade ago. Technology can help make work so much easier in a number of ways, though one of the most important yet least used ways is through empowering two-way communication.
Almost every organization distributes weekly newsletters or email memos. The problem is, this form of communication is top-down and does not provide employees with an opportunity to share their voices. When used effectively, technology can empower employees and allow them to share their opinions in a productive and streamlined manner.
Enter innovation management software. Though originally created and designed for engineers and boasting complex and daunting user-interfaces, modern innovation management systems have become incredibly user friendly.”
Why Read It: Resistance to technology is often akin to saying you’d rather make your goals more difficult to accomplish. This piece digs into the tools and strategies you need to be at the top of your innovative game, as well as how to maximize the resources already at hand.
Innovative Leadership: How to Claim Digital Victory
From CIO:
“Managing innovation in the digital age is not short of challenges. A previous study by Capgemini, in partnership with IESE Business School, found that executives and senior management need to implement a top-down approach to innovation that involves well-articulated innovation strategy and formal governance.
The flip side is that from that top-down culture, you should then also form a bottom-up approach to innovation, where employees can contribute new ideas and observations around the external business environment.
The study found the majority of companies do not have an explicit innovation strategy (58 per cent), while across the board, governance levers for the formal management of innovation were largely overlooked, with only 30 per cent having real organisational structure for innovation.”
Why Read It: Collaboration is a crucial component of success, but that doesn’t mean leadership gets thrown out the window entirely. After all, when everyone is in charge, no one is really in charge, right? This piece focuses on bringing flexible structure and strategy to innovation efforts in order to stay competitive, particularly in the digital space and data-heavy markets.
The Best Way to Measure Thought Leadership
From Business Grow:
“Measuring an investment you make in thought leadership is extremely difficult. Many B2B marketers (the market I usually work in) end up measuring thought leadership programs on leads or content consumption.
Sadly, the result often becomes a program built around heavy content, often licensed from another company (umm, that doesn’t make me care about YOUR vision) and hiding behind a form that dramatically limits distribution. Alternatively, we create clickbait headlines that drive page views to increasingly forgettable content. This isn’t working.
To change it, we need to change what we are measuring. We need to understand what will happen when we are successful and we need to build our measurement around those outcomes.”
Why Read It: Seasoned business folk will be the first to tell you that growth doesn’t happen without change — but the one thing that never goes out of style is being able to justify any efforts being made to gain traction. The same goes for thought leadership. Whether being pushed through content, internal communications, speaking opps, or select interviews, there’s no point in doing the work if you can’t prove it’s working. And, there’s even less of a point in pretending to do the legwork when your crafty content is just a regurgitated mess — it’s not going to do your company or personal brand any favors, and doesn’t drive any kind of substantial value. Read on for advice on what does.
