By Fiona Czerniawska.
Why professional services firms shouldn’t outsource thought leadership. This morning I saw an advert, targeted directly at consulting firms, offering a thought leadership creation service. The organisation behind the advert claims to be able to create the quality of content you need when you need it; you can even buy credits to redeem as required. We may have misunderstood. Possibly you can’t simply say, “Give me something on digital to appeal to CMOs in Australia,” and hand over ten credits in return for a PDF and some social media-friendly infographics. But it does highlight something that has been niggling away in the back of our minds: the risk of professional services firms forgetting that you’re not just any kind of B2B firm. You’re the kind of B2B firm that is selling the experience and expertise of its people. So, while it may be absolutely fine for a software firm (selling software) to outsource its thought leadership, it’s really not sensible for a consulting firm (selling the experience and expertise of its employees) to do the same.
