Hospitality Thought Leadership: Thinking for Innovation and Advancement
By Robert O'Halloran Professor & Director, Hospitality Management, East Carolina University | November 2024
The pandemic had the hospitality industry rethinking its operating models for safety, security and survival. This crisis event promoted innovation and new concepts and applications in all businesses, including hospitality and tourism.
A review by Harvey et al defined thought leadership as “knowledge from a trusted, eminent, and authoritative source that is actionable and provides valuable solutions for stakeholders.” As in the pandemic, thought leadership and potential new processes needed to be actionable and benefit business stakeholders, encouraging immediate action.
Thought Leadership in Hospitality
Thought leadership is focused on sharing new, innovative or unique content with others and therefore, positioning individuals and or institutions as thought leaders. Think about the leaders of our industry, people and or business brands that are market leaders in lodging, food service, club management, tourism development and more. Their innovations are shared immediately when they are introduced as product lines and or new brand offerings. For hospitality businesses, thought leadership applications are observed via marketing strategies, public relations, product development, new technologies and are inclusive of social media and the activities of social influencers. In hospitality business higher education, thought leadership can be evidenced through research, teaching, consulting and more, often resulting in brand and reputation of an academic program.
What is Thought Leadership?
The term thought leadership became popularized after Joel Kurtman (1998) published his influential book: Thought Leaders: Insights on the Future of Business , which included contributions from 12 practitioners and academic gurus aiming to make a revolutionary contribution to management philosophy. It is a term commonly used by consulting firms, technology industries and communication specialists. Badings views thought leadership as “establishing a relationship with and delivering something of value to your stakeholders and customers that aligns with your brand and company value.”
Thought leadership requires organizations to share with the world their expertise and knowledge by being transparent about their best practices and sharing them with potential clients. We can note that thought leadership is a business strategy and supports the positioning efforts of the thought leaders and their organizations. One observation made was that everybody wants to "do thought leadership content " but nobody seems to know exactly what that means. For example, management consulting firms can provide solutions for their clients, but they need to be actionable. While some firms are known for being strong at working with their clients to implement solutions, others are infamous for providing intellectual solutions which are very difficult to operationalize in practice.
Working with a colleague, M.C. Rudd, who is a public communications specialist, he noted that thought leadership is when an individual or an entity owns and/or shapes public conversations about topics, issues, technologies, or industries. Additionally, "Thought leadership is the action of introducing and promoting convention-breaking ideas that cause people to change how they think about marketplace or societal issues." One recommendation is to begin the thought leadership process by creating your own definition of and focusing on what thought leadership means to you. You can start your process with synonyms for thought leadership.
In this effort, you are likely to find terms such as opinion leadership, winning strategy, intellectual influence, pioneering thinking, intellectual leadership, think tank output, product leadership, suspected power, advanced ideas, progressive ideas, avant-garde, creator, credibility, developer, pathfinder, dominant influence, advance guard, ahead of its time, influencers, cutting edge, and forefront among many others. Personally, I envision thought leadership as a looking at a topic in a new way. That thought leadership, entrepreneurism, and innovation are tied together and have similar traits, skill sets and processes. The typical products are intellectual and include research, writing and sharing ideas with stakeholders and potential stakeholders. As noted, this sharing of ideas needs to be clear, vivid in its description and based on relevant data.
Another thought leadership observation notes, that “you can’t be a thought leader if you don’t take a stand. ” The difference between expertise and thought leadership is that thought leadership starts from a subjective point of view or perspective. The goals of thought leadership can be to change people’s minds or behavior and or to influence, persuade, and transform society. Additionally, thought leadership requires expertise in a focus area. It can also be argued that thought leadership is based on expertise and trust.
Sources & Distribution of Thought Leadership Content
It is noted there are at least five sources of thought leadership content, including counter-narrative opinions, personal narratives, network connections, industry analysis, and data storytelling. Within these topics, both clients and thought leaders need to act and share strong opinions, personal stories, analysis of industry observations, and develop networks. To make any and or all of these effective, the thought leaders need to listen and work with stakeholders internally and externally.
Some experts note that thought leadership isn’t a type of content—it’s an approach to content. When you say you want to “do thought leadership,” what you’re articulating is the relationship you want your company to have with your space. You’re describing how you want your brand to be seen—by your customers, by your competitors, and by your industry as a whole. For example, I want my brand to be seen as a leading authority in my industry/discipline., I want my audience to look to me as a source of relevant insights about the bigger-picture developments happening in our space. And I want my competitors to read my content and say, “Why didn’t we write that?”
For high-quality, it requires solid industry knowledge of your topic, awareness of trends, understanding of problematic issues, and offering real solutions to these issues. Thought leadership requires uniqueness and enhancement of knowledge. The effort is to make things better and label it as that. Just saying new and improved does not tell us a lot. Thought leadership content and channels are inclusive of whitepapers, eBooks, webinars, podcasts, infographics, multiple speaking opportunities, videos, blog posts, analyses of recent events and trends, refereed research, case studies, social media posts and management of platforms, symposium, poster sessions, training, teaching both in person and online, and more.
Thought Leadership in Hospitality Higher Education
To paraphrase from an accounting professor essay, thought leadership content can provide
hospitality and tourism faculty an opportunity to share their expertise and professional content while framing their work to be inclusive of industry ethics and operational values to be thought leaders in hospitality and tourism. We, as faculty, can present ideas and recommendations on how we can lead our students, our academic institutions, and the hospitality and tourism industry and its allied educational partners in supporting a sustainable and successful hospitality industry. Brosseau noted thought leadership as “trusted sources, who should move and inspire people with innovative ideas.” The question we have for ourselves in our efforts to educate, is how effective have we been as thought leaders and innovators in what we teach and how we communicate knowledge with our students.
Universities can be considered knowledge-intensive organizations creating large volumes of knowledge content material distributed through journals, online magazines, interviews, white papers, blogs, podcasts and videos. Additionally, content sharing original articles, videos and pictures, personal stories or experiences, blog posts that provide solutions for problems, commentary on industry news and trends, white papers, webinars, webinars, eBooks, presentations and other speaking engagements aligns with faculty work responsibilities and efforts.
Having skilled and talented faculty, students and alumni who people turn to for inspiration, education, and to solve problems is a powerful marketing tool. By delivering high-quality content including social media posts, and other forms of content, fitted towards driving engagement and interaction directly with the targeted audience, thought leadership status becomes attainable. Thought leadership can act as a catalyst for reflective thought leadership.
For hospitality business faculty, thought leadership can present an opportunity, leveraging much of what a well-rounded faculty does in their positions, teaching, research and service. Hospitality faculty are in a perfect position to be thought leaders in multiple areas of hospitality and tourism and or narrow their target to specific content areas. "Thought leadership comes down to an organization (universities) positioning its people as experts in hospitality and tourism and service. "It’s showing that these faculty experts know their customers’ critical needs and challenges, and how vital that knowledge is in bringing solutions.”
Some experts note that there are three common types of thought leadership programs -- topical, historical and visionary – all of which describe where we are, where we have been and where we are going. The goal is to inspire your audience and get them excited about what’s to come. Faculty achieving thought leadership status isn’t easy. This is in part because few within their industry know that university faculty can possess a plethora of diverse knowledge. Therefore, marketing hospitality faculty efforts via social media and other marketing efforts can position faculty to be thought leaders.
Are You a Thought Leader in your field?
Building a thought leadership strategy means getting the thought leadership recipe right. The ingredients in the recipe include robust data, great storytelling, intelligent and engaging design, and sources of high-quality thought leadership content. Strategy is like a roadmap. It helps thought leaders execute their ideas effectively, ensuring that their voices are not just heard but also resonate with the target audience. Also, manage your thought leadership processes via the following stages:
- Stage 1: Your thought leadership objectives.
- Stage 2: Your thought leadership audience. Who are these people internally and externally? As TL addresses real issues, know your audience’s needs, problems, values, and location, as well as some basic demographics, age, gender, income, education and occupation.
- Stage 3: Your thought leadership content, inclusive of fresh angles on themes and topics; and Stage 4: Your thought leadership activation.
As an example, Sproutworth.com shared the Radisson Hotel Group strategy that activates its thought leadership through Financial Times (FT) channels. Radisson Hotel Group activates its thought leadership through FT channels. Radisson Hotel Group partnered with the FT to create a series of articles, infographics, and videos that would be distributed across the FT’s channels, as well as Radisson Hotel Group’s website and social media channels. The content was designed to show how the company is at the forefront of sustainable hospitality, focusing on how it is working to reduce its environmental impact. The articles, infographics, and videos were well received, and the campaign generated significant positive media coverage for Radisson Hotel Group.
How to establish yourself as a thought leader
Not all writing and or publications infer that the author is a thought leader, but perhaps an expert and or someone with expertise in a content area. Whichever is your goal, these are all related but the decision of naming someone as a thought leader will be made by readers, audiences, and students of our industry. The following ten steps outline how one can establish themselves as a thought leader - (my comments in italics).
- Clarify your area of expertise (and stick to it). What are the fields or functional areas in which you are an expert?
- Write blog posts, articles, or whitepapers that show your expertise. You need to be constantly participating in some form of research, which is the old saying, Always Be Collecting Data (ABCD) and then share that work.
- Speak at events or give talks that showcase your knowledge. If given the opportunity speaking will let others know who you are.
- Get involved in online communities related to your area of expertise. There are numerous online communities and periodicals in which you can engage and get your name, your area of expertise and your company better known.
- Be active on social media, and make sure your content is share-worthy. Are you active on social media? I will note that is not my strength, but we, the college and our school try to share the expertise(s) of our faculty. Use the resources you have to engage in relevant social media platforms. This should also include sharing of refereed research studies and more.
- Stay up-to-date on the latest news and developments in your field. Stay current on industry events, news etc. The hospitality and tourism industries are constantly evolving and are impacted by social, political, economic, geographic and weather-related events. Part of staying current involves being ahead of the curve if possible and or being able to react immediately to a crisis, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes that “crisis event” caused in our industry.
- Offer helpful advice and insights to others. Sharing your insights can be helpful and, at times, frustrating. When you offer input always be prepared for someone to disagree. This does not mean having an argument but a respectful discussion.
- Author a book or create other forms of long-form content. Do you have a book in you? Books these days take many forms, styles and lengths. I am not suggesting the great American novel, but it could be a short, information-packed book on a topic relevant to our field and or service sector.
- Collaborate with other thought leaders in your field. Consider writing with colleagues. They could be in your current organization or colleagues from other businesses or institutions. I will note that writing with others is valued by most academic institutions.
- Keep pushing yourself to learn more and stay ahead of the curve. Always be in the learning mode and engage in as many opportunities as you can realistically. One process is to write or create a thought leadership piece, assess it, revise it and submit it for review. One channel for this can be the use of metrics for thought leadership content that could include website traffic, count followers, track branded queries, and track backlinks; note: backlinks are links on other companies’ websites that link to your site. Also you can utilize Google Alerts. Set yourself up with a program for metrics that can provide the data you need to assess your thought leadership efforts. A team of thought leaders that work in multiple functional areas may also be helpful.
Also, from an organizational perspective, thought leadership efforts might need to involve multiple functional areas and, therefore, a team of thought leaders. This will be a company decision and how much data to be shared i.e., proprietary thought leadership strategy data. This could include sales and marketing, social media, and obviously some senior management personnel. A team of thought leaders could include both internal and external members (clients).
Going Forward
Thought leadership is focused on sharing new, innovative or unique content with others and therefore, positioning individuals and institutions that share the content as thought leaders. Think about the leaders of our industry, its people and or business brands and their positioning as thought leaders. Reviewing the thought leadership processes and examples highlights a variety of skills and traits that thought leaders need to have and hone. Forbes Insights recommended the use of a thought leadership program , i.e., a systematic approach. At the program center there will be thought leadership content and then eight integrated areas. In their example, these include original research reports, selling efforts, sales playbooks, sales entertainment tools, digital media, social media, subject matter experts and digital marketing assets and therefore providing a sustainable stream of education and advisory content.
If we think of high value topics in our field, it could include innovation, entrepreneurism, waste reduction, product development and optimal utilization, and new technologies. These topics can be framed by enhanced efforts focused on sustainability and service. As discussed in previous articles, sustainability has a strong link with the environment, eco-friendly and green efforts, but it can and should be so much more.
For example, a focus on labor and human resources via thought leadership strategies can relate directly to career development and organizations and their thought leaders being the human assets and the thought leaders for designated topics. Sustainable efforts for the labor force, waste reduction, new products, technologies and new ventures for potential entrepreneurs is vital for effective and useful thought leadership.
Finally, thought leaders need to have good storytelling skills. Whether you are watching movies, reading a book, thought leadership efforts on social media, webinars and more, it is necessary for a good story to be told for a target audience to engage and accept thought leadership direction.
Prof. O'Halloran
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