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John Clayton helps businesses develop thought leadership materials. He writes and ghostwrites
e-boooks, articles, case studies, white papers, reports, blogs, website text, and other
types of documents. John works from telephone
interviews, decks, videos, transcripts, and other previous documentation to target a specific audience with a
newly-created, vividly-voiced work that they will actually enjoy reading. (If you don't know what the phrase "thought leadership" means,
you're probably not going to hire John, but you can get the gist from this article.)
John's work has appeared in dozens of leading management and specialty journals, including Executive Agenda, the Ivey Business Journal,
Defense News, Chain Store Age, and IndustryWeek. It's been featured on websites such as microsoft.com and hp.com. It has appeared before boards of directors of Fortune 500 companies, members of Congress, and many other key decision-makers in the private and public sectors.
It has supported the marketing strategies of companies large and small (and a few individuals!), as they establish their expertise in a given area.
John's clients have included numerous leading consultancies and IT companies, including A.T. Kearney,
Latisys, Fiserv, Talant, the Metia Group, IBM, and
EDS. John's work includes:
E-books:
How to Take Advantage of the Cloud: Your Guide to Achieving Value and Performance
(pdf link)
Magazine articles:
In Chain Drug Review, an article examining how outcomes-driven medical models
will change pharmacies.
In American Banker, an article showing how banks can get better at
evaluating the risks associated with their third-party service providers.
In the Ivey Business Journal, an article arguing that
future success in the pharmaceutical industry will depend not on innovation
and marketing (as in the past), but on the ability to orchestrate partnerships and execute efficiently.
In Power Engineering, an article examining the implications of the
shale gas ("fracking") boom on electric utilities including predictions for the long-term price of natural gas under different scenarios.
In Defense News, an article investigating how defense agencies and contractors can cut governance costs through
"Change Contract Oversight"
In Executive Agenda,
Real Companies, Real Growth: Strategic insights from dozens of the most successful companies not named Apple, Amazon, Starbucks, or General Electric
Jump down to more magazine articles...
White papers:
Engaging Multichannel Consumers: what Chief Information Officers need to do to help their companies connect with customers
Winning the Battle for Consumer Healthcare: an examination of the new market for consumer-focused products with significant health benefits
The Customer Engagement Imperative for health insurance companies to succeed in the new economy
Improving Foodservice Trade Spending: Six steps food manufacturers should take to transform the way they pay partners
When the trend is not your friend:
How can businesses forecast discontinuities?
How
magazines can break their dependence on advertising by building relationships with readers
Jump down to more white papers...
Case Studies:
A
Brazilian technology services provider helped developers and managers collaborate more easily
A
retirement fund management agency improved project prioritization
A
large Jesuit university improved resource management
A
global software firm planned and tracked software engineering activities
Jump down to more case studies...
Research studies:
John has summarized research studies including:
Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations:
How retailers can achieve peak performance.
How do great companies innovate?
They start with the fundamentals.
Global Cities Index:
HoA ranking of metropolitan areas around the world.
Blog posts:
How to harness the cloud
as part of your IT strategy.
Three specific solutions companies should consider moving to the cloud.
What to expect
in coming merger activity in the oil and gas industry.
Articles and papers with overarching metaphors:
In Human Resource Executive Online, an article that uses the book and movie "Moneyball" to shed light on the way that human resource professionals
should make more sophisticated use of data
An article that compares
Formula 1 racing to corporate strategy
We wanted to call this,
"Lessons from the Kasbah": How companies can access age-old wisdom to set profit-maximizing prices on the Web
An article that
took strategic wisdom from radical environmentalist Edward Abbey
Website text:
Capabilities of a global management consultancy.
A series of executive bios, as well as miscellaneous other text, for a global legal consultancy.
A service description for an IT provider.
Other documents that don't fit into a category:
Testimony at the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
A solution developer wanted to advance his career using certifications in Microsoft .NET technology (.doc download)
A series of documents for
the marketing department of an international technology provider for
the manufacturing industry. The documents included "message maps"
(outlining key messages across various products and industry segments),
PowerPoint presentations (complete with thorough Speaker Notes so that
they could be given by salespeople unfamiliar with the products), and
a sales handbook. John also worked on a similar package for the communications
industry.
More articles:
In Executive Agenda, an article
With Fortunes to be Made or Lost, Will Natural Gas Find Its Footing?
In Chain Store Age, an article explaining how retailers can collect and
gain
advantage from meaningful consumer insights
In Chain Store Age, an article examining the
impact of social media on retail customer service
In IndustryWeek Magazine, an article instructing CEOs that it's
Time to Tell your CPOs to Collaborate with Suppliers
In Supply Chain Management Review, a column,
"Key Supplier Collaboration: New Way to Drive Value"
In Insurance & Technology, advice to health insurance companies
on why and how to make customer engagement a top priority
In ICIS Chemical Business, an article explaining how
chemical companies can improve their supply chain risk management capabilities
In Executive Agenda, an article dicussing how to
turn strategic vision into action
In IndustryWeek, what companies should be learning
from the quality crisis at Toyota
More white papers:
What does it take to transform a company? What is its
capacity for change?
Save the Planet, Feed the Planet a way for food companies to meet sustainability goals while helping others in the community
How the marketing department can take on a more strategic role
The needs of low-income consumers
More case studies:
Mohawk Paper
A theater
chain
A multi-channel retailer
A state transportation agency
An interactive
design firm
A university wanted to encourage online conferencing among faculty, staff, adjuncts, and students at its far-flung campuses
Case studies on project management:
A global semiconductor maker
A chemical R&D firm
A British software consultancy
An aerospace manufacturer
Case studies on enterprise resource planning software:
Volvo IT
Carpenter Technology
The Virginia Housing Development Authority
Computer Sciences Corporation
MD Anderson Cancer Center (.doc download)
Case studies (for a different client!) on virtualization:
McHenry Savings Bank (pdf)
U.S. Department of Energy (pdf)
Case studies on companies that help schools use technology more effectively:
EduWave Live from ITG
StudyWiz from Etech Group
Case studies on messaging and collaboration systems:
Cell C (telecom)
Subaru Canada
Thompson Coburn (law firm)
A long time ago...
For an international software firm developing
a management information system for the insurance industry, John conceived,
designed, and wrote a suite of user assistance products including:
Context-sensitive online help
developed using RoboHelp
A printed user guide
Training materials (John also conducted some training sessions)
Newsletter articles explaining software updates
For a regional quality improvement organization
in the health care industry, John developed a suite of user assistance
products for a software package, including:
Interim disaster recovery
plan
User manuals
Internal procedures to manage a helpdesk
In other projects:
For an international technology firm, John wrote a report to grocery executives on coming
technological changes in the industry.
For a U.S. software firm developing a library information system, John developed software user
manuals, as well as marketing materials and a corporate newsletter.
For an international technology firm, John provided personalized on-site training on
copy-editing techniques.
For a Montana youth organization, John developed a community vision statement as well as a fundraising brochure and strategic plan.
John was a charter member of the Montana chapter
of the Society for Technical Communication,
a charter member of the Writer's Bridge
freelance cooperative, a ten-year member of the WriterL
listserv, and a member of the original Mug Club at Sam's Tap Room.
John works primarily as an independent contractor, although he's happy to speak to agencies, headhunters, or anyone else. For more information,
email John at info [at] johnclaytonbooks.com
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