Deloitte and the Thought Leadership Revolution

External blogging is of great importance to modern professional services firms. This is not only due to the sales and marketing opportunities this platform provides, but also the stimulus it provides for customer and community engagement.

Research by the McKinsey Global Institute found that value in the product development value chain could be increased by 18-21 percent via social tools. This increased value potential is afforded through both internal and external collaboration opportunities for research and development. Marketing and sales value potential was only 0-1%, however this value chain is imperative for sourcing and retaining customers, so any potential value increase is pertinent.

For large consulting firms, such as Deloitte, being perceived as an expert in the field is vital for generating awareness of your firm, attracting customers and retaining their business. This has historically been achieved through physical publications; in Deloitte's case a semiannual periodical, Deloitte Review. Along with other publications, Deloitte Review can now be read online via the Deloitte University Press website. In today's increasingly digital age, providing research findings, news and business insight articles in an online format helps to solidify Deloitte's position as a thought leader. A thought leader is 'an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded'.

Alongside, the articles and periodicals made available online via Deloitte University Press, Deloitte also has a global network of blogs that draw upon the knowledge of individuals from within the firm across a wide variety of topics.

Deloitte Perspectives is the flagship blog within Deloitte's global blog network. The aim of this blog is to 'provide a forum to discuss issues affecting the global business community'. Through sharing the insights of Deloitte's global network of professionals, Deloitte Perspectives effectively engages external parties, creating a forum that allows Deloitte to harness value potential in the Product Development and Marketing and Sales value chains.

Other blogs accompanying 'Deloitte Perspectives' include:

• 'Short Takes...on Analytics', a blog focusing on how company's can leverage analytics to improve operations and decision making
• 'Green Business blog' which focuses on sustainability and corporate responsibility
• 'HR Times blog' focusing on all things related to human capital
• Mid-Market Perspectives' which delves into news and analysis on issues that may affect firms in this high-growth size range. 

There are many other blogs that help to form Deloitte's global network and it is this level of depth across topics that bolsters Deloitte's reputation as a thought leader.

Providing this variety of insights on their own is not enough to attract potentially interested readers to the material however.  The Deloitte blogs tie in with the S.L.A.T.E.S. paradigm and are backed by Deloitte's social media network including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+. Through the sharing of links via these media outlets, Deloitte enables those interested to find relevant articles. Each article or case study on a Deloitte blog also makes use of tags so that they might find other relevant publications of interest. RSS feeds are made compatible with the blogs in the Deloitte network, thus allowing those who have found content to be of interest in the past, to have future articles signalled to them on a regular basis.

Of course, all of Deloitte's blogs include a comments section, so as to foster the 'forum' environment Deloitte has set out to achieve. This allows the firm to harness customer and community insights for value creation. To ensure that all comments are constructive, it is noted at the bottom of each blog post that 'comments are moderated and will not appear until the author has approved them'.

For professional services firms, being perceived as a 'thought leader' within the industry is imperative for obtaining and securing a solid customer base. In today's digital age, a firm can only be seen as a thought leader if they are communicating their insights via an online medium.

Question for my readers: Thought leadership is increasingly becoming more relevant as a cost-effective sale and marketing tool within the 'free world'. Do you think the publication of inventive new ways to do business that may conflict traditional methods could hurt a firm's ability to do business in countries with more conservative outlooks?