The trouble with insourcing

[Jahangir655]

Even when in-house editorial support is provided, we often find organisations confessing that it takes too long for their internal experts to produce thought leadership.
Like the Hollywood screenplays that get lost ‘in development’ for years, internally produced thought leadership can circulate through endless iterations and reviewing feedback loops – sometimes even to the extent that the point of view is outdated by the time it’s finally ready to launch.

Getting it right
There are three ways to avoid these issues and make insourcing a useful part of your overall thought leadership strategy:

1. Get everyone on the same page.

Undertaking thought leadership in-house has implications across the business – from your research teams venezuela mobile phone numbers database to business development. Consult with all key stakeholders – beyond marketing and communications – to secure their buy-in.
2. Establish your goals.

It’s vital to
measure ROI on thought leadership

, so put in place measurable goals for insourcing it, work out how you will measure progress, and identify your weak points. You need to include outcome measures that track the impact of your thought leadership – from commercial leads to website analytics.
3. Finally, you need to get recruitment right.

Efforts here are often focused on writing resources, but the critical hire – particularly in large, global organisations – is a thought leadership strategist.
This is someone with the clout to get different business units to agree to a global thought leadership strategy and action plan, to kill pet projects that have been running for years with little return, and to tell senior internal clients when their efforts are not good enough and either need rethinking or will be spiked.