Report editing for The MBS Group

In the B2B sector, you often need to demonstrate your understanding of the challenges your clients face. 

White papers are an effective way to do this – but they can be time-consuming to write in-house.

The MBS Group, an executive search boutique specialising in consumer-facing industries, found a cost-effective answer.

Its marketing team asked Chris Alden to copy-edit a white paper after they had already written a first draft.

The white paper, Digital Leadership in the New Economy, focuses on a subject of interest to many companies: managing the relentless pace of change in the digital sector.

It goes on to offer ways in which ‘traditional’ and ‘digital pureplay’ businesses can share knowledge in the years ahead.

After a short briefing call to clarify the project goals, I copy-edited the initial draft in less than half a week’s work – helping refine the white paper’s focus, and structuring it so that it flowed smoothly from introduction to conclusion.

Signposting content

One simple but effective technique I used was rewriting and numbering chapter headings: this helped ‘signpost’ the content so that the readership of busy senior executives would be able to work out what each chapter covered at a glance.

I also suggested reordering the chapters, so that a chapter offering “business benchmarks” appeared earlier in the white paper; while chapters offering analysis and solutions appeared later on.

After the initial copy-editing, MBS also commissioned me to work on the white paper on an as-needed basis – giving me extra sections of content to copy-edit as they were written, while making its own final additions in-house.

The result was a cost-effectively edited white paper, in which MBS demonstrates its knowledge of the digital economy – for the benefit of itself and its clients.