White Space only focuses on thought leadership produced by the top 30 or so consulting firms. While these unquestionably produce the lion’s share of material, they don’t have a monopoly of good or innovative ideas and there are examples of smaller firms producing material which is at least equal to that produced by bigger firms in terms of quality. We can’t list all of them, but below are recent highlights from some that we think are worth keeping on your radar. So which smaller firms are capable of producing leading-edge content?

Egremont Group, which focuses on change management and business transformation, has produced an excellent report on the future of the head office, looking at what function the centre plays in complex businesses. Capco, a financial services specialist, has a long-established record of investing in thought leadership and its material on the origins and implications of the financial crisis often demonstrates a depth of understanding not evident among more generalist firms. IT consulting firm Xantus recently produced a good report on "value for money IT".

However, the recession has clearly had an impact on the capacity of smaller firms to produce high-quality thought leadership and even a cursory glance at the websites of some firms which have been active in the past suggests that recent investment has been low.