Thought leadership is a powerful way to advance ideas, influence industries, and build trust with audiences. But as the field has grown, so has the need for clarity and consistency. What makes thought leadership credible? How can organizations ensure that their insights are not just timely, but also rigorous, ethical, and impactful?
That’s where the Global Thought Leadership Institute (GTLI) at APQC comes in.
A quick origin story
GTLI was founded in 2024 to bring together a global community committed to raising the quality of thought leadership. As a not-for-profit organization, it is working toward developing standardized practices for the production and promotion of thought leadership. It advocates for distinctive, evidence-based intelligence that gives business leaders insights they can trust and use to make better decisions. This effort is collaborative by design, as GTLI convenes experts from across sectors, industries, and geographies to contribute, share, and refine ideas.
Why APQC is involved
For 50 years, APQC has been creating and disseminating frameworks, standards, and best practices that set the bar for strategic and operational excellence. APQC launched GTLI because we believe oversaturation and low-quality content hurt producers and consumers of evidence-based thought leadership. At APQC, we know first-hand that standards matter.
APQC’s Process Classification Framework® (PCF) provides organizations with a common language to describe business processes that is used worldwide to support benchmarking, performance improvement, and alignment. Our Open Standards Benchmarking (OSB) platform provides a collection of measurement standards spanning 1,500 processes with over 6 million supporting data points. Experiences like this show how standards help organizations measure, compare, improve, and grow with confidence.
Our own research reinforces the value of disciplinary standards and frameworks:
- Our 2025 Best Practices in Applying Process Frameworks study shows that organizations with mature framework adoption see stronger outcomes and greater consistency.
- Our 2025 Process and Performance Management Priorities and Challenges Survey highlights benchmarking and process management as top organizational priorities, confirming the ongoing value of standards as a foundation for improvement.
At the heart of this is benchmarking itself, which is a proven way for organizations to understand where they stand and chart a path forward.
Just as these tools have brought structure and consistency to process and performance management, APQC sees GTLI as bringing the same clarity to thought leadership. It fits with who we are, as APQC’s public and member-exclusive research is designed to:
- Identify and share new ideas
- Highlight emerging trends
- Provide practical insights that organizations can trust
As a thought leader in optimizing organizational operations and a global authority on the power of standardization to enhance business results, APQC is uniquely positioned to elevate the practice of thought leadership production, for the benefit of its producers and readers.
A Collaborative Community
APQC is proud to be part of GTLI’s diverse committee of contributors. As GTLI evolves, we will work alongside peers to develop standards and design certifications. We will consult with the Board of Advisors on building frameworks and applying standards, based on our decades of experience.
We look forward to making a significant and meaningful contribution to GTLI’s mission of raising the bar for thought leadership worldwide using widely applicable standards, research methodologies, best practices, and measurements. We are grateful to see GTLI becoming the place where the thought leadership community comes together to connect, learn, and grow.
Looking ahead
GTLI’s work is just beginning. Over the coming months, APQC will share updates and create opportunities for our community to engage. This post is the first in a series. In Part 2, we’ll look at why thought leadership is so important today — and why the landscape can feel messy and inconsistent.