Marketing thought of the week – Can smaller firms establish themselves as thought leaders?

Firms that are perceived as thought leaders usually enjoy more business opportunities and often command a higher premium for their offerings. Smaller firms can be intimated by the requirements of becoming a thought leader. Thought leadership programs entail a commitment to writing and speaking on a topic of interest to their target market; requirements that some technical people are not comfortable with. Additionally, there can be substantial time requirements in establishing and maintaining a position of thought leadership. Larger firms with more resources can divide some of the responsibilities – or have sufficient confidence in the value of their program to make the often significant investment of time and dollars to engage in thought leadership activities. Smaller firms often have to devote the time of someone who could be “ringing the cash register” to spending their time on activities that are overhead – with no certainty that they are ever going to pay-off – and probably good confidence that they’re not going to pay-off quickly. It’s not that this dilemma is unique to thought leadership programs. I believe it is this uncertainty combined with the discomfort about doing some of these activities that ties some smaller firm’s hands when it comes to engaging in thought leadership programs.