Feature
| Making the Most of Your Firm's Publications: A Portfolio Approach to Intellectual Capital Development
What if a venture capital firm funded entrepreneurs on a first-come, first-served basis? What kind of return on investment should they expect? Unfortunately, this is about as sophisticated as many professional services firms get when it comes to deciding which ideas they should invest in and develop into publications. And while mediocre publications may seem trivial compared to bankrupt businesses, remember that for professional services firms, these publications are one of the key channels for communicating expertise with prospects. When they aren't good, neither is the market's view of the value your professionals can add. Conversely, our experience shows that quality publications can lead to tangible benefits—including millions of dollars in new business.
In this article, we present a portfolio approach to bringing the best ideas in your firm to market. This approach will help you generate the best possible return on your firm's expertise by clearly illustrating on which topics you should publish, as well as the extent to which your firm's ideas must be developed before writing even begins.
To the read the full paper, click here.
Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore struck gold in 1999 with their first book, The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business is a Stage. The book was an immediate hit and went on to be published in 12 languages—selling more than 100,000 copies in English alone. The book explored in detail the ideas that served as the basis of Strategic Horizons, the successful consulting firm they launched in 1996. In this interview, Bloom Group co-founder Bernie Thiel talks with Pine and Gilmore about the unexpected stimulus that gave fruition to the experience economy concept, the process they used to develop the concept into a successful book and business, and the challenges they face in bringing their next big idea to a bookstore near you.
Click here to read the interview.
Consultants News recently ran an article suggesting a counterintuitive notion: The larger a firm is and the more diverse its offerings are, the slower its growth is. In this brief commentary, we present our take on what Consultants News had to say, and we explain how all of our experience in the professional services industry leads us to wholeheartedly agree with their suggestion.
Click here to read our full commentary.
Bloom Group Co-Founder Presents Latest Research to PM Forum
On September 21 Bloom Group co-founder Bob Buday presented the findings of our most recent research to the New England chapter of PM Forum, an international society for professional services marketing. The research was centered on the challenges of attaining thought leadership, as well as the best practices that distinguish professional services leaders from laggards. With 179 respondents so far (the research is ongoing, click here to participate) holding a mix of C-level and marketing titles, the data provides a wealth of information on how firms are addressing this challenge. Buday presented our five key findings during his presentation:
- Ideas matter more than anything else to professional services leaders and marketers. In fact, when asked what was most important to effective professional services marketing programs, respondents chose strong intellectual capital (IC) above all other factors, including brand image, sales and business development capabilities, marketing strategy, and marketing budget.
- Respondents with strong IC report more success in their prospecting efforts. More specifically, 81% of those respondents who described their intellectual capital as superior also said that their IC has been "effective" or "very effective" in generating market awareness and business leads. In comparison, only 10% of respondents with inferior intellectual capital could make the same claim.
- While respondents are aware of the power of strong intellectual capital, they also acknowledge that much of their own IC is mediocre. In fact, respondents consistently rated their own IC as just slightly above average on criteria such as rigor, depth, and proof (click here to see more on these criteria).
- Leaders and laggards have very different priorities when it comes to developing and marketing intellectual capital. Leaders—those respondents with superior intellectual capital—devoted about 60% of their IC resources to developing IC, and about 40% to marketing it. For laggards, those proportions were reversed, with the majority of resources being deployed against marketing efforts.
- Thought leadership is a great equalizer for smaller professional services firms. While 52% of firms with greater than $1 billion in revenue reported "superior" or "far superior" intellectual capital, 71% of firms with less than $25 million in revenue made the same statement. This finding is in alignment with our experience: several major business concepts—including business reengineering, TQM, and six sigma—were developed by small, focused shops.
Buday's discussion of these key findings was followed by presentations by Harvard Business Review Senior Editor Steven Prokesch; Ajit Kambil, the head of Deloitte Research; and Deloitte & Touche's national marketing director, Terrie Perella.
Click here to read our summary of the research findings and to have the chance to participate in the research. Note that only research participants have access to the complete research study (available online upon completion of the survey).
When we completed our research on the effectiveness of professional services websites earlier this year, we were pleased by the response to it: Our paper on the findings, which was included in our First Quarter 2006 Thoughts on Thought Leadership newsletter, has been one of our most widely read pieces and has led to numerous substantive conversations with a variety of firms. Clearly, building "client-in" professional services websites is an idea whose time has come (click here to read more).
Based on this reception, it seemed to be the right time to take this idea to a wider audience. To do so, Bloom Group principals Edwin Hastings and Bob Buday authored an article on our research and our approach to website architecture for Consulting Magazine. The article has received a similarly warm reception from the publication's audience: It has been the most-read, most-emailed story on Consulting Magazine's website since its posting in early August. If you haven't seen it, click here to read it.
We
certainly are pleased that our Web architecture concepts are receiving positive
exposure. We're also delighted to have had our own website recognized by an independent
industry organization. Following an extensive redesign spearheaded by principal
Ed Hastings and executed by our partner The
Legato Group,
www.bloomgroup.com received
the Professional Services Standard of Excellence award from the Web
Marketing Association.
To read more about this award and how we earned it, click
here.
Writing bylined articles is a key part of the professional services marketing mix. Since our founding in 1998, The Bloom Group has helped dozens of professional services firms to develop, write and place their articles. In fact, in the last three years alone we've helped develop, write, edit and/or place eight Harvard Business Review articles for clients, as well as numerous placements in a broader mix of business publications.
Our latest op-ed placement was for management consultancy Quantum Performance in the most recent online edition of HR Executive magazine. To read the article, click here (note: free registration required to access the article).
Finally, we are proud to announce that Bloom Group Co-Founder Bob Buday was recently named the Executive Director of the PM Forum's New England chapter. The PM Forum is a 4,000 strong regionally-based members' association, formed in 1996, dedicated to raising the standards of professional services marketing and to enhancing the credibility of marketers working in professional service firms worldwide.
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The Bloom Group, based in Cleveland and Boston, specializes in the marketing of professional services firms by helping to determine clients' best growth opportunities, creating integrated sales and marketing plans, developing robust intellectual capital, and executing critical marketing programs that build awareness and client relations. The Bloom Group's services include market positioning, marketing strategy, thought leadership research and development, and marketing communications. For more information, send an e-mail with your inquiry to info@bloomgroup.com or visit us on the Web at www.bloomgroup.com.
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