38 GERMINATION.CA SEPTEMBER 2017 DONE WELL, content marketing will boost your brand cred- ibility and position you as a thought leader in your indus- try, and that can have more of an impact on your bottom line than you might think. A recent study from Edelman-LinkedIn Research examined the impact of thought leadership. The survey, which focused on B2B companies from a wide range of industries and company sizes, found that decision-makers value thought leadership, and moreover, 50 per cent of survey participants spend more than one hour a week engaging with content from thought leaders. This includes formats such as whitepapers, videos, webinars and online presentations. It was also shown that 60 per cent of companies participating in thought leadership felt it enhanced their organization’s brand reputation, while the number was actually 88 per cent from polled survey participants. And when it comes to closing sales, an even more impressive statistic from the survey was that 20 per cent of the creators of thought leadership said, “It helps us close and win.” In actuality, nearly half of business deci- CONTENT MARKETING HOW THOUGHT LEADERSHIP DRIVES REVENUE GENERATION Lindsay Hoffman Vice-President, Client Services, CREATE by Issues Ink @issuesink • lhoffman@issuesink.com • issuesink.com sion-makers surveyed said thought leadership has directly led them to award business to a company. So, how can you put this information to work for you? Focus on creating great content that is relevant and timely for your customers. To create thought leadership via your content marketing, you need to stay away from pitching your products/services — people want to do business with a company that helps them. Know where your customers are looking for infor- mation and be present in those channels. Customers are looking for information they can quickly absorb, so be sure to make your content accessible and vary your formats. And lastly, put your employees front and center. Customers want to be able to access and connect with your senior staff — they are, after all, your experts. Through your content, potential clients can learn who you are and start to trust you. It feels good for them. It feels good for you. It feels good for everybody. And that is why content marketing and thought leadership works. WE OFTEN HEAR opponents of biotechnology say that bio- tech crops have not lived up to expectations. For those of us in agriculture, we know that over the last 20 years biotech crops have delivered some significant benefits to Canadian farmers and farmers around the world. But has this technology fully lived up to its potential? A global study from the European Commission in 2008 based on the research pipeline at that time predicted that 91 new traits would be commercialized by 2015. The reality is that in 2014 only 16 new traits — 20 per cent of that forecast — had made it to market. A deeper look into why this is shows that the already imposing regulatory and registration timelines, and costs around the world, have increased by 50 per cent over the last decade. While technology developers are becoming more efficient, the result is simply more products being held up in the regulatory bottleneck — or organizations opting not to innovate in this space at all due to these costs. The increased cost and time associated with bringing a new product to market has stifled innovation in small private sector organizations and public institutions. This PLANT SCIENCE PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY: INNOVATION LOST Stephen Yarrow CropLife Canada Vice-President, Plant Biotechnology yarrows@croplife.ca • croplife.ca has left innovation in plant biotechnology mostly within large, multinational organizations that can shoulder the required burden. If we are going to successfully feed the world through 2050, we will need to do a better job of get- ting new crops into the hands of farmers. Canada has one of the most respected regulatory frameworks around the world when it comes to products of plant biotechnology, but it is time for even the Canadian system to modernize. Canada has the opportunity to establish a more predictable, timely and efficient regulatory system for products of plant biotechnology that could be a model for the rest of the world. Over the past 10 years, biotech crops have delivered some significant benefits through improved environmental sustainability, lower food costs, greater choice for con- sumers, and greater economic activity — and with only a fraction of the crops in the pipeline making it to market. Imagine the benefits we could see if we unleash the poten- tial of this sector through globally coordinated, risk-based regulation. Fortunately, Canada is well positioned to lead the way.