“Why is it necessary to spend £6 billion speeding up the Eurostar train when, for about 10 percent of that money, you could have top supermodels, male and female, serving free Chateau Petrus to all the passengers for the entire duration of the journey?” And with that question, Deloitte skillfully demonstrates the art of the engaging, relevant, and memorable opening.

Accenture, in partnership with Girls who Code, delivers a compelling argument for a fresh approach to increasing the number of women in computing.

Bain successfully challenges current thinking and offers actionable recommendations on a topic we see few other consulting firms addressing.

In this report, Deloitte demonstrates best practice in using survey data: Data is used to underpin key messages and insights from Deloitte’s experts and not, as we often see elsewhere, as the focus of the report. The report also includes interesting and insightful interviews with leaders of corporate development.

Each section ends with “actions for leaders to consider”, which flow naturally from the preceding content and are clear and actionable.

Very little beats hearing from those who have been there and done that. This report—from the cover to the penultimate page—leverages the experiences of 11 named organisations that have engaged people through change. Knowing who has provided input and reading quotes from peers is reassuring, engaging, and inspiring.

This article does many things well. Three stand out because these are areas where many other pieces of thought leadership don’t succeed.

Firstly, the reader is given a very strong sense of the experience and credibility of the author. This is partly due to an informative description but—more importantly—down to writing in the first person and including references to her own work, references that aren’t jarring but form a key part of the story.

Accenture Institute for High Performance delivers another well-researched, thoughtfully constructed, and action-oriented report.

An online survey of nearly 600 business professionals, interviews with academic experts, and extensive secondary research underpin a strong storyline covering the benefits of using personal data, the risks, and what organisations ought to do differently.

Starting with the cover page, Korn Ferry Hay Group makes a compelling case for why this piece of thought leadership is well worth the reader’s time. It’s a strong argument that continues on to pages 2 and 3 where we are introduced to external experts who were heavily involved in the report; highlights of related research; an iteration of what the reader can expect in return for her time; and a call for readers to make the link between employee engagement and customer experience.