thought leader

Organization or individual that lays claim to an original intellectual concept. In management consultancy, McKinsey & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group have consistently proven to be thought leaders. Individuals who are thought of as thought leaders include James Champy and Michael Hammer. The two laid claim to the concept of re-engineering in their book Reengineering the Corporation (1993) and subsequently built a consultancy and small industry from it.

The term thought leadership means staking a claim to new intellectual territory. Coined in the early 1990s, the term has been attributed to Joel Kurtzman, the then editor of the Harvard Business Review, who wrote a book titled Thought Leaders (1998). Thought leadership confers a substantial competitive advantage particularly in markets that rely heavily on knowledge, such as the consultancy industry.