The ROI of Thought Leadership

The ROI of Thought Leadership (2025) is built on a data-driven calculation showing that thought leadership delivers 156 percent ROI and influences $265 billion in global spending annually. It also gives you practical frameworks to quantify, improve, and maximize returns from your organization’s own thought leadership investments.

• Chief Marketing Officers seeking to justify thought leadership investments
• Communications executives developing content strategies
• Business consultants looking to quantify their advisory impact

Cindy Anderson leads IBM’s Institute for Business Value, where she oversees global research and thought leadership initiatives that influence executive decision-making. Her work spans topics including business strategy, technology adoption, and organizational transformation, and her research regularly appears in leading business publications.

Anthony Marshall is a partner and vice president at IBM’s Institute for Business Value, where he focuses on business strategy research and global thought leadership development. His expertise encompasses market analysis, competitive intelligence, and innovation, contributing to numerous C-suite studies and industry-specific reports that shape business conversations.