The most extensive study to date on thought leadership in the $1.7 trillion global IT services industry, based on a survey of 300 IT services firms (average revenue of $2.6 billion), a survey of 200 executives (average company revenue of $11.7 billion) in 11 industries who decide which IT services firms their companies use, and in-depth interviews with 20 executives, including heads of thought leadership at Accenture, Ascendion, Capgemini, IBM, Tata Consultancy Services and Virtusa.
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Summary and Key Findings
The global IT services industry has become the largest sector in the $5.4 trillion global IT industry, and it’s becoming harder for potential customers to tell them apart.
Section 1: Why Customers Embrace Thought Leadership
Clients of IT services firms have a burgeoning number of choices today that they didn’t five or 10 years ago. Thought leadership is a differentiator in those choices.
Section 2: IT Services Firms Grossly Undervalue Thought Leadership’s Impact on Customers
IT services firms don’t see thought leadership as instrumental to getting work, while their customers feel differently.
Section 3: What the Best IT Services Firms at Thought Leadership Do Differently
If some IT services firms are generating very high revenue impact from thought leadership and others are generating none, What are the former doing that the latter aren’t doing?
Section 4: Taking Thought Leadership to a Higher Level
The key differences that we’ve pointed out between Leaders and Followers at thought leadership provide a roadmap for improvement.
Tackling the “Quality is in the Eye of the Beholder” Problem
What constitutes outstanding thought leadership content? What makes a “big” idea big?
See how IT services firms of different sizes and their clients answered each of our questions differently – by size of firm, industry (11 in all) and region of world.
Using Generative AI to Conduct Research: Leaders Are More Cautious Than Followers
We asked IT services firms whether they use generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity AI, or others for thought leadership research.
Quality Case Studies: The Underpinnings of a Strong, Customer-Focused Thought Leadership Program
Business leaders say timely, relevant, and detailed case studies are exceptionally important to picking potential partners.
Outthinking the Competition 