"Thought leader" is a term used to describe a person who is recognized for his or her ideas and opinions. The term can also be applied to companies. Achieving recognition for thought leadership can go a long way in increasing the value of a company. The challenge for business leaders is to step into the role of thought leaders. If you're already there, congratulations, but if you're not putting forth your best ideas to build positive corporate visibility, it's time to get started.

GE's former CEO, Jack Welch, is a good example of a thought leader. With Welch as GE's chairman and CEO for 20 years, the company experienced tremendous growth and expansion. Welch knew how to effectively communicate key ideas, not only by delivering messages, but by persistently repeating them over and over, and ultimately driving the messages home.

As entrepreneurs, we dream that our company becomes as successful as Microsoft, for example. In Bill Gates' keynote remarks at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he deliberately stated he was taking thought leadership to the next level. "With the Xbox generation we were the thought leader," he said. "With the Xbox 360, we're quickly moving from thought leadership to market leadership." Isn't that what we all aspire to?

Step By Step
So, how do you become a thought leader? Well, it's not just talking about your entrepreneurial skills and business exploits around the dinner table to family members.

Unless, of course, you happen to be related to journalists with major television networks, editors of national publications or famous talk show hosts.

Instead, you need to develop a mechanism to communicate your ideas and opinions. That involves message development, coaching - even former President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are regularly media-trained - and hiring an individual or a team of PR experts to get you in front of the media and conference audiences so you can continually tell your story.

Once you know what you want to say, message delivery is the next step. Very few of us are born with the natural talents to speak in sound bites. It's very difficult and often nerve-wracking to think about keeping answers short and to the point when a TV camera is aimed straight at you.

Media interview techniques can be learned, however, and natural skills can always be fine-tuned. A professional media trainer can take you from being a good spokesperson to a great one.

Get Created
The captains of industry I referred to earlier were not born as thought leaders; they were created. More accurately, the opportunities for them to communicate their ideas to the public were created. Their PR experts worked to turn them into engaging spokespeople. Now that you have all of the elements in place, a PR counsel can work its magic with you and your company.

It will determine which tactics to use and when to best communicate your ideas to your customers, investors, partners and employees via the various media outlets available. Whether it is a series of press interviews, contributed articles written under your byline, opinion pieces or speaker placements at key conferences, PR counsel can help you become a recognized thought leader.  HCW

Vivian Kelly is founder and CEO of Interprose Inc., a public relations firm based in Reston, Va. Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text40659 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 703-860-0577.