• Everyone will know the difference between thought leadership and brochureware.
• “Publish or perish” will no longer be a thing.
• Expert authors will make sure their story ideas are well-baked before they get their marketers to engage writers. (Make that really well-baked.)
• There’ll be widespread understanding of the value of editing after writing.
• Nobody (authors included) will ever miss a deadline.
• Every writer will be a story doctor.
• All businesses will understand the value of storytelling.
• No articles or papers will ever start out by “admiring the problem.
• Every company mention will be approved long before the final draft.
• There will always be a lead author who can make all necessary decisions whenever there’s more than one name on the byline.
• There’ll never be eleventh-hour hold-ups or a big change of direction because an external reviewer now has to have a say.
• Marketers will have a clear sense of how much the content is costing, and why.
• Authors will realize that no business writer, no matter how gifted, can make lemonade out of lemons.
• Marketers’ publishing campaigns will include some long-form content and not just default to blogs.
• Marketers will have strategies for identifying and coaching their firms’ next generations of thought leaders.
• Authors will know that a draft is just a draft and not (somehow, magically) a polished, finished product.
• Every marketer will be a writer’s wingman, able and willing to reason fearlessly with the big-dog executives who often sign their paychecks.
• No article or paper will go beyond 10 drafts, no matter how complex the topic.
• Every author will be able to explain his or her story idea to a 12-year-old and have it understood.
• No “meh” story idea will ever see the light of day.

Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?