Shift in Trust from Companies to Experts

Sue was two years into a Ph.D. program in human resources.  At a gathering of HR chiefs and AI entrepreneurs, she was struck by how little of the conversation appeared in her coursework.  A credential she hoped would prepare her for the future was already lagging behind it. Sue’s frustration isn’t unique. Across industries, professionals are discovering that advanced degrees no longer keep pace with change. The World Economic Forum estimates that the average shelf life of job skills is under five years. A Burning Glass Institute study found that nearly half of today’s most requested skills didn’t even appear in job postings three years ago. A system built on transmitting stable knowledge cannot match a world where knowledge itself is unstable. This is the central problem of our age: knowledge has become a commodity. Information that once required years of formal schooling is now instantly available online. What matters is no longer what you know, but how you activate it, adapt it, and build on it with others. That shift is rewriting the very definition of expertise. For centuries, credentials conferred authority: a guild license, a university degree, a doctoral diploma. These signaled that you had mastered a body of knowledge, and society trusted that mastery.  Expertise is shifting from credentials to communities. From institutions that grant recognition, to networks that generate it. Increasingly, mastery is earned not in a lecture hall, but in what I call the University of You: the people you convene, the questions you pursue, and the knowledge you co-create. Universities will remain relevant. But their monopoly on advanced learning is ending. Their highest value in the future will be as conveners of communities, not as content providers. Imagine a doctoral program in human capital that pairs CHROs from global companies with behavioral scientists, startup founders, and policymakers. Students would rotate through organizations, learning not only from professors but from the people actively reinventing the field. The university provides scaffolding, legitimacy, and connections. The cutting-edge learning comes from the community itself. Every few centuries, the authority to define expertise shifts. We are living through such a shift today. For professionals, this is liberating and daunting. You must continually seek out the frontier, curate your community, and co-create the knowledge that will keep you relevant. But you now have more control: you can pursue the questions that matter most to you, and learn alongside the people you choose, not just the ones assigned by an institution. Expertise is no longer conferred from above; it is created at the edges, where communities experiment, collide, and build.  What matters now is not where you were educated, but how fast you can plug into the frontier and who you’re learning with when you get there.  This shift will define the next era of human progress.

If your competitors empowered 10 visible employee creators this year, would that worry you? Because as employee thought leadership increases, B2B brands are steadily empowering teams of internal influencers. Through their own personal pages and supporting the creation of brand content. This ranges from senior leaders of the companies to subject-matter experts who are showing up and educating buyers every week: 👉 Creating engaging content that *actually* resonates 👉 Growing authentic professional networks 👉 Positioning themselves (and by extension, your brand) as industry experts 👉 Building real trust with the people who matter most Let's look at a couple of examples; Cisco have a GREAT EGC strategy, consistently publishing ‘how-tos’, ‘day in the life’ videos, and sharing industry news, growing an audience of 140k over on TikTok: https://lnkd.in/e27ri3-p Or ServiceNow growing 62k dedicated YouTube followers by empowering their team to share their expertise and experiences, adding value to their customers and prospects: https://lnkd.in/ewRTWzuz And IBM, who have multiple senior leaders who have thousands of followers on their personal pages. All from consistently showing up, delivering free value, and building trust with their audiences. These major brands have placed emphasis on empowering and supporting their teams to share their expertise, because it’s what drives trust. Human to human. This isn't just some passing trend or marketing fad. It's a fundamental shift in how B2B brands connect with their audience. And what’s the cost of not doing it? ❌ Losing mindshare with prospects and referral sources ❌ Giving away business to competitors whose teams are actively engaging ❌ Missing out on shorter sales cycles where trust-building content could have done the heavy lifting for you Your team’s professional presence within the industry and the valuable content they share could even be the difference between you making the consideration list or not. My biggest tip? Empower your team, don't force them. For those on your team who want to get involved, set them up for success. The best organisations I've seen treat team thought leadership and personal branding like any other business function - with resources, structure, and strategy. Not just, "please post more" thrown into already packed schedules. When leaders help to make their teams feel empowered and supported, it's amazing how quickly people go from hesitant posters to confident contributors who ENJOY sharing their expertise! ✨ 📸 Calvin Chinthaka

Trust What if brand names no longer shape tomorrow’s financial decisions, but by the people behind them? In Germany, client and bank relationships have shifted dramatically over the past decade. 🏦 Since the financial crisis 2008, branch closures, corporate consolidation, and the loss of personal advisory services have led to a significant erosion of trust in traditional banks. Individuals increasingly turn to independent wealth managers, seeking returns, clarity, independence, and lasting relationships. This shift is not only about numbers. It reflects a deeper question: Who truly represents my interests? Clients increasingly prioritise transparency, consistency and advice free from sales pressure. In this context, trust is no longer automatically tied to a familiar bank logo, but to the individual who listens, understands and guides them forward. 🤝 What does that mean for us here in Switzerland? We live in a country where banks still enjoy deep-rooted trust and heritage. But change is coming here too. As digital tools replace face-to-face interactions and advisory services become more standardised, many clients seek what they quietly miss: personalised, unbiased financial guidance. The model of independent wealth management answers that need. It builds trust not through brand power, but through personal credibility and continuity. ✨ 🔍 Will this trend take hold in Switzerland as well? Germany has shown how quickly trust can shift from institutions to individuals. Are we next?

Remember when everything online was built to keep things short and as transactional as possible? Chatbots. FAQ pages. Phone trees asking you to put in information before you could even talk to someone. Businesses did everything they could to cut down on real human interaction. And for a while, that was ok with people (minus the phone trees—I think we can all agree on that!). People wanted speed, not conversation. But now? Connection is the name of the game. It's feeling like a shift back. People want to know who they’re buying from and who they’re working with. They want to hear from real humans. That’s why reviews matter more than a website. That’s why people want a conversation with a person they can explain things to instead of a chatbot that loops them in circles. From what I’ve been seeing on the content side, the companies and firms that are going to win aren’t the ones pushing out more of the same corporate-sounding content. They’re the ones putting their people front and center.  And while I have feelings around the phrase “thought leadership”, allowing more of the people behind the curtain to show their individual voices and expertise will lead to growth. Because people do business with people they know, like and trust. The companies that start showcasing individual voices—letting their experts, leaders, and teams speak in their own way—are the ones that will build real connections, trust, and long-term loyalty. The ones that don’t? They’re going to fade into the background, blending in with the AI-generated noise that people are going to become better and better at tuning out the same way we’ve learned to do with ads. #ContentMarketing #ContentStrategy

Buyers trust people not companies. Today’s buyers skip the pitch decks and go straight to the people they trust. Not “a vendor.” Not “a brand.” An expert. When a distributor is buried in chargeback disputes, rebate complexity, or pricing erosion, they don’t want a sales process - they want someone who’s fixed those problems before. When a manufacturer struggles with channel data visibility or inventory imbalances, they want the expert who knows how to make the numbers move - fast. Just look at how people engage with Greg Colizzi He is a problem solver who speaks their language. In this market, expertise isn’t just part of the brand. It is the brand.

Most pharma brands still lean on traditional KOLs, but the real impact today comes from thought leadership. The game is changing—are you keeping up? 🔹 What’s shifting? ✅ HCPs trust peers over polished ads – credibility comes from experience, not just brand messaging. ✅ Digital KOLs—researchers, health-tech leaders, and practitioner influencers—are shaping the conversation where it matters. ✅ Authenticity wins – engagement is driven by real insights, not just promotional content. 🚀 Winning strategy? Empower your experts—medical teams, researchers, and innovation leaders—to educate, not sell. Thought leadership isn’t about pushing a product; it’s about driving meaningful discussions that build long-term trust. How do you see pharma evolving in thought leadership marketing? Drop your thoughts below! 👇 #PharmaMarketing #KOLStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #DigitalHealth #HCPEngagement #MedicalMarketing #PharmaDigital #HealthTech #LifeSciences #HealthcareInnovation #PharmaStrategy #MarketingTrends #MedComms #PharmaInfluencers #ScienceCommunication #PatientCentricity