Thought leadership

Here’s a little-known fact: the largest 25 consulting firms in the world collectively publish, on average, 445 new pieces of thought each month. That’s just under 18 articles per firm, although in practice the distribution is skewed. Firms such as McKinsey and Booz, both of which have regular publications to feed, tend to write much more, as does Accenture.

All of which makes me wonder whether there’s a “right” amount to publish.

I’ve recently spent some time looking at the thought leadership produced by a selection of global consulting firms and, to be quite frank, I now need a bit of a lie down.

There is a huge variety in terms of what consulting firms like to badge as thought leadership, ranging from truly thought provoking essays on the global economy, through to thinly disguised case studies. This has led me to question what we really mean by thought leadership – is there a definition out there that consulting firms can agree upon?