Kite Insights published The Courage to Think Clearly: A Manifesto for Business Leadership in Fractured Times (January 2026).
Human Level’s Take:
- In the midst of global turbulence and uncertainty, many companies are moving away from thought leadership, seeing speaking up or standing out as a risk rather than an opportunity. Kite Insights challenges this perspective, highlighting the many organisational benefits of thought leadership.
- For one it, it can build trust, legitimacy and reputation by demonstrating values and expertise, enabling more authentic relationships with customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders. It can also strengthen organisational culture and strategy by encouraging reflection, open dialogue and internal growth, while fostering collaboration and innovation. And, it drives impact and innovation by helping organisations generate radical ideas to tackle complex challenges.
- So what does good thought leadership look like? It’s grounded in a strong, consistent organisational purpose and requires leaning into challenges rather than away in order to build credibility. It also means naming tensions and creating space for reconciliation of differing perspectives instead of falling back on polarisation. It doesn’t always need to come from the highest echelons of leadership — thought leadership is newly democratised thanks to the internet, and it can come from any part of an organisation. In fact, the value of democratised thought leadership is its ability to bring fresh ideas to the table.
- Kite Insights also suggests thought leaders leverage technology like AI to stress-test assumptions, identify blindspots and invite contradiction that can make ideas even stronger. At the same time, it cautions that AI is a powerful tool to help strengthen thought leadership but not a generator of authentic content.
- Kite Insights ends with a powerful call to action: “So here is the open invitation: in five years’ time, when your stakeholders look back on this volatile stretch of history, will they say your organisation and its people documented the turbulence, or that they bent the arc? Did they do what they could to bring clarity in complex times, or did they retreat into narrow self-interest?”
Some key takeaways:
- Why thought leadership matters for business now: Kite Insights defines thought leadership as the practice of generating fresh perspectives that can help organisations manage complex issues, think out of the box, and support systemic transformation in their own organisation and beyond. Why does this matter for business now? The report emphasises that our current moment — fraught with unrest, systemic challenges and uncertainty — has created new imperatives and opportunities to build credibility and trust with the public. Kite Insights cites the IPSOS veracity index that says politicians currently have the least public trust (11%) and companies are only somewhat better at 36%. This “trust deficit” means that companies need to proactively step forward and contribute solutions to the significant challenges the world faces, including poverty and affordability, strained health systems, conflict, and climate change and biodiversity loss. Thought leadership enables companies to not only pose those solutions, but also to bring together other actors to make them a reality.
- Fundamentals of good thought leadership: The report identifies a number of features of strong thought leadership. For one, acting in line with an organisational purpose can help build credibility and depth on difficult issues, enabling principled decision-making and becoming a “rallying call” for employees, suppliers and business partners to act collaboratively. Another key aspect is leaning into challenges instead of avoiding them, using purpose as a compass. While many organisations seek to avoid and mitigate risk, purpose-driven thought leadership necessitates some exposure to criticism. However, if leaders can name challenges and speak up authentically in alignment with their stated values, they can also build credibility. Similarly, leaders can help build reconciliation around tense issues in an increasingly polarised world, on issues like sustainability, DEI, inequality and climate change. Thought leaders can play a role in creating safe space for opposing perspectives to have constructive dialogue and debate, instead of leaning into polarisation on these issues. In addition, democratising thought leadership — bringing perspectives from others across the organisation, not just senior leaders — can help introduce new ideas and innovative solutions. Finally, thought leaders can leverage AI as a tool to pressure-test thinking, identify patterns and find organisational blind spots, enabling more robust thought leadership.
- The value of investing in thought leadership: The report points to some of the ways in which investing time and resources for thought leadership can benefit organisations. One key benefit is building trust and legitimacy with stakeholders. As thought leaders demonstrate their expertise and originality by putting perspectives into the open, they can build reputational equity in their purpose and principles, not just the products and services they offer. Thought leadership can also provide opportunities for more authentic conversation that helps to build relationships and growth within organisations and with business partners. Further, it can foster a workplace culture that is internally reflective, contributing to a stronger strategy. And, the process of grappling with large-scale challenges and tensions can help organisations identify radical, innovative new ideas that can advance change internally and in their broader ecosystem. The report suggests possible KPIs for thought leaders to measure the value of their outputs, including usage (how much content is read, viewed, shared or downloaded); engagement (how often the ideas are discussed with clients, in meetings and at events); and influence (how much insights are cited by others and how frequently leaders are invited to speak on them).
