How can you use Thought Leadership to innovate logistics and transportation?

Leveraging thought leadership in logistics and transportation involves staying informed on industry trends, developing expertise within your organization, and creating compelling content to share insights and solutions. Utilize social media and collaborations with industry leaders to amplify your influence, advocating for sustainable practices and embracing technological innovations. Encourage a culture of innovation, implement pilot programs, and provide educational initiatives to contribute to the industry's collective knowledge. By actively participating in discussions, promoting best practices, and fostering continuous improvement, your organization can drive positive change and innovation in the logistics and transportation sector.

Understand the logistics pain points. Come up with unique solutions that differentiates from other offerings. Build trust & credibility with your customers and establish yourself as a trusted source of information in the industry. Collaborate with industry stakeholders. Promote sustainability and measure the impact of innovations and initiatives.

Thought leadership plays a pivotal role in innovating logistics and transportation: Begin by identifying individuals within your organization who possess expertise and experience in the relevant areas. These thought leaders should value authenticity, have unique perspectives, and be passionate about industry news. Develop a thought leadership content strategy that aligns with your experts’ knowledge. Share their experiences, insights, and foresight through various channels. True thought leadership goes beyond regurgitating existing information. It’s about having a provocative idea that stimulates fresh thinking. Encourage your thought leaders to raise thought-provoking questions and propose innovative approaches to logistics challenges.

If you're working in Logistics/Supply Chain/Transportation, chances are you don't also carry a degree in journalism. If you do, congratulations- your blended experiences are valuable! But if you're like me, writing original relevant content can sometimes feel daunting. Start by seeking out reputable trade journals, industry reports, and analysts. Increase the amount of content that you are ingesting on a weekly basis and block off time for writing a thoughtful response. By connecting your own experiences to highly regarded publications you can help to personalize & enliven the world of logistics. This is a space that is ripe for disruption from fresh and authentic voices like yours!

Publishing content with consistency is one of the easiest ways to establish trust & credibility with your audience. Here's a quick thought experiment: You spend time on LinkedIn each week and have come across two new people who seem to work directly within your same niche. After connecting with them both you find that person #1 has only been in the industry for the last 18 months but publishes 1-2 insightful articles each week that show up in your news feed. Person #2 has been a leader within your industry for 11 years but all they ever do is like other people's articles and occasionally re-share their company's posts. Which person do you trust more? Who do you find to be more credible? Logic would suggest person #2. Do you?

Demonstrate both the innovations you have achieved and the pipeline you are capable of delivering in the future. Success hinges on offering innovations that are truly needed and add value for users. Make a well-informed decision when introducing an innovation. After confirmation, highlight the distinct benefits it offers to users and customers, and engage key customers early on. These key customers will serve as tangible proof of the value your organization delivers and what distinguishes you from competitors.

Collaborate with Industry Influencers. Connect with other thought leaders, influencers, and organizations in the logistics and transportation space. Collaborate on joint initiatives, share insights, and participate in industry events to amplify your thought leadership impact.

In a world that is shifting from Globalization to near-shoring or ally-shoring, it is time to re-engage with all the stakeholders. The first consequence is that Cost is not anymore a synonym of Value. The latter is finally acknowledged as “the optimal combination for a specific organization of trust, certainty, reliability and flexibility”. Although this equation is more complicated to solve for Cost/Price…only by engaging with the engaged stakeholders you can gain access to the right variables. Check out “NEXT, How to innovate from within”.

Innovation thrives on continuous improvement within your organization, fostering a culture that embraces open exchange of ideas. Engage actively with industry peers through discussions and co-developments in round-tables and forums to stay ahead. Equally, maintaining strong ties with academia is crucial, as it is a breeding ground for transformative ideas. These collaborations encourage knowledge exchange, continuous learning, and adaptation, ensuring your organization remains at the cutting edge of innovation.

Remember, authentic thought leadership isn’t just about following trends - it’s about shaping them. By empowering your experts to lead conversations, you can drive innovation and positively impact the logistics and transportation industry.

Any innovation starts with bringing key-stakeholders on board and have them sign-off the CER. Once funding is secured it's all about the 3P's - People, Process, Product.