Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-321) and index.

" Thought leadership consists of companies establishing a relationship with and delivering something of value to their customers that aligns with their brand and company value. In the process they go beyond merely selling a product or service and establish their brand and company as the expert in that field and differentiate themself from competitors. Laurie Young focuses on the tools, techniques and effects of thought leadership as a marketing principle. His book Thought Leadership provides a topical analysis of what thought leadership is, how it works, how to create a thought leadership strategy and what the results are likely to be. Analyzing both the strengths and weaknesses of this core marketing technique, Young provides marketing strategists with the tools and knowledge required to fully take advantage of this often mysterious, but always effective marketing technique"-- Provided by publisher.

"Thought Leadership is a powerful business tool used by some of the world's leading organisations. It is used extensively in the professions and technology industries. Some budgets for it are bigger than those for global advertising. It has been used by famous individuals to create some of the world's leading advisory businesses, but how do they achieve that position? Thought Leadership is the first book to critically evaluate thought leadership as a serious professional discipline and business tool, exploring how it works, how to create a thought leadership strategy, and the potentially vast rewards of doing so. Laurie Young provides business leaders, senior marketers, individual advisors and functional specialists with the tools and knowledge required to fully exploit the intricacies of this mysterious and often underused, but highly effective, business tool"-- Provided by publisher.

Machine generated contents note: -- The essence of this book01 What on earth is Thought Leadership? -- Introduction -- Different types of Thought Leadership -- Related concepts: it's not really... -- Towards a definition -- Summary02 Who has used it before? Thought Leadership in business history -- Introduction -- Boulton & Watt use Thought Leadership to start a revolution -- William Lever uses Thought Leadership to clean up -- Robert Woodruff uses Thought Leadership to help Coca-Cola grasp the 'American century' -- Bernays uses Thought Leadership as 'business propaganda' to help kick-start capitalism and consumerism -- The Western business world becomes enamoured with ideas -- Silicon Valley uses Thought Leadership to hype tech stocks -- Businesses develop organizational competence in Thought Leadership -- Summary03 Where does Thought Leadership come from? -- Introduction -- First a word on purpose and audience -- So where does it come from? -- Summary04 Components of success and failure -- Introduction -- How Thought Leadership works -- The 'dos': elements of success -- The 'don'ts': constraints and failures -- So, what, then, are the components of good Thought Leadership? -- Summary05 Communicating and disseminating Thought Leadership -- Introduction -- First a word on creating and managing the message -- The communication methods that have spread Thought Leadership -- Managing the creative content of Thought Leadership programmes -- A leading PR specialist thinks about leaders -- Planning the integration of these communication methods and issues -- Summary06 Thought Leadership strategy and planning -- Introduction -- First a word on the value of strategy -- Useful issues and concepts to think through -- Elements of Thought Leadership strategy for the single practitioner -- Planning tools for Thought Leadership -- Summary07 An evolving discipline -- Introduction -- The state of the art -- Practicalities -- Increasing organizational capability -- Thought Leadership and marketing -- Different cultures, different thinking, different business models -- Historical perspective -- The beginning of measurement -- A need for academic rigour and verification -- Is it a good thing? -- SummaryAppendix 1 Publications specifically on Thought Leadership -- Appendix 2 Interviews and discussions for this bookReferences.