Large Professional Services Company: Harvard Business Review article

A partner in a large professional services company—and head of one of
the company’s fastest-growing practice areas—was keen to publish
an article in the Harvard Business Review, which is known as much for
its leading-edge coverage of business and management issues as for its rigorous
editorial standards and high article rejection rate. The consultant knew that
getting a piece in the esteemed HBR would generate significant awareness
of his expertise and insights among a large group of highly influential executives—and,
consequently, would help boost interest in his consulting practice.

Recognizing he needed editorial assistance to pull the article together, the
consultant hired a number of different ghostwriters to help him “put pen
to paper.” However, over the course of many months, none of the drafts
these capable writers produced met the consultant’s expectations.

The consultant expressed his frustration to a marketing professional within
his company. She believed that The Bloom Group had what it took to help the consultant
realize his goal of publishing in HBR, and introduced us to him. Largely
on the recommendation of his marketing person, the consultant hired us to help
him develop the piece.

After reviewing the drafts produced by the previous writers, we identified
the reasons that the writers struggled. The problem wasn’t that the consultant
lacked good ideas or that the topic wasn’t of interest to the publication.
The real issue was twofold:

• The consultant had precious little “spare time”
  away from client work in which he could work on the article, so weeks
  often dragged by with no progress made. And, because the writers he had
  hired lacked experience with and knowledge of the prospective article’s
  topic and were completely reliant on the consultant for material, they
  couldn’t keep the project moving during the times the consultant was
  too busy to attend to the article.
• Even though he didn’t realize it, he was using
  the ghostwriter to develop the content. While the ghostwriter was
  indeed talented at translating ideas into readable prose, he did not
  have the research, logic and argument-building skills that are vital to
  developing compelling content.

Over a few months, we helped the consultant completely restructure
the article so it flowed more logically and presented the consultant’s
insights in a more compelling manner. Key to this restructuring was a
detailed outline that enabled the consultant to vividly see where his
concept was fully fleshed out and where the content needed to be
developed further. With the outline in hand, we conducted in-depth case
study research and comprehensive secondary research necessary to
bolster his argument and fill in the content gaps. Only after the
outline was completed and approved by the consultant did we write the
prose draft of the piece that we sent to HBR. Working with the HBR
editorial team, we refined the draft into a polished finished article
that appeared in a subsequent issue of the journal.

The consultant reports that the article has been a major generator
of business for his consulting firm—in fact, responsible for opening
doors that have led to $5 million in new consulting business in just 18
months.