In scanning the list of the Harvard Business Review’s “HBR Voices” bloggers recently, I discovered that Gary Hamel was on the list. His most recent, 25 Stretch Goals for Management is worth a read as I think it offers up an interesting model for a relationship campaign that could generate great thought leadership.

Under the banner of a “Management Innovation Lab” Hamel brought together management experts, social commentators and “progressive” CEOs with the goal of laying out the agenda for management in the 21st century. Hamel writes “What drew the participants together was a set of broadly shared beliefs about the importance of management, and a sense of urgency about reinventing management for a new age.” The output of the 2 day session, called “Moon Shots for Management” was a series of interviews and content, as well as a 25 point action plan for innovation around the future of management.

It strikes me that this approach would work well to support a relationship marketing initiative and/or thought leadership campaigns. By identifying the most progressive CIOs, CTOs, CFOs or other relevant group in your client and prospect base, and bringing them together with matching futurologists and management gurus, it would be possible to design and direct a campaign that developed a closer relationship with these people, helped them deliver strategic value within their own businesses, offered real account and market intelligence and output fantastic content with which to further engage your audience.

Whilst the content, approach and tone of any campaign would need to be focused on the market and audience, the model itself is a really interesting one – playing as it does on current appetite for community and the “age of reference“.