It has been said by some that the Capture Phase is about positioning you for the win while the Proposal Phase is about scoring for the win. If correct, what are the elements of a successful capture? In this and future blogs I will be discussing what the processes are for a successful capture. Overall, a winning capture strategy is focused on the customer’s needs, not what you have to sell. It directs specific actions to shape the procurement that gives the customer a differentiating choice. Properly executed, it drives a series of win factors/discriminators and themes.

So what are the key elements?  From my perspective the following needs to be addressed to be successful:

Use Statistics Accurately in Your Proposals

Statistics can be used or abused, especially in proposals.  However, there are steps you can take to use numbers accurately and in ways that promote understanding.

Develop a Compelling Performance-Based Work Statement

Cost of Good Design: Part 3

How could it take 5 times the hours to complete the same project? And really, who says its ‘good’?

Art, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is: “… controversial in contemporary philosophy. Whether art can be defined has also been a matter of controversy. The philosophical usefulness of a definition of art has also been debated.”

There is no Substitute for a Great Kick-Off Meeting!

The Cost of Good Design: Part 2

So what really should good design cost? And who says what is “good”?

A graphic design student developed the Nike Swoosh, undeniably one of the most recognizable symbols in the world, in 1971 for $35. In contrast, the Verizon logo is rumored to have cost millions if you include the cost for creating the name, running focus groups to means test the brand and actually rendering the logo.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are a critical element of business development and capture. This is how you learn about a pursuit’s history and your competition. The problem is – FOIA requests are tricky:

• They take forever to obtain – so someone needs to carefully track them and follow up relentlessly to get any results – sometimes taking months and rendering your requests useless for your capture effort.
• They have a potential to tick off your competition as they will know who is requesting – and if you tend to team with this competitor on occasion, you may want to be strategic as to what you request.
• Third-party FOIA requests through services such as GovWin IQ and Centurion are great. They are faster as these services have established contacts in FOIA offices and they have personnel to follow up. The party whose documents are subject to FOIA doesn’t know who is requesting the FOIA documents. The downside is, now that these services have gone through the effort of fetching the information for you, they may also reuse this information to provide it to your competitors. Brilliant move on your part to FOIA something. Now your competitors subscribing to these services will have a reason to thank you. This may or may not matter to you.

Now it promises to be even harder to get FOIA documents – the length of time is stretching to close to a year. On March 15^th, 2012 the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released their yearly Report Card on Federal Government’s efforts to track and manage FOIA requests. This report is critical of the federal government’s tracking of how it processes and responds to FOIA requests. Agencies got an average grade of C-. FOIA logs were requested to be graded based on a few criteria: names of FOIA requesters on log, tracking numbers for requests, descriptions of material sought, and whether records were in fact released. There are now as many as 13-months delays in some requests.

You Can Write Good Proposals!

Writing clear and compelling proposals is critically important.  A good proposal that is well-written is more likely to be funded that a great proposal that is difficult to read and understand.  Reviewers need to be able to read your proposal easily and quickly find information that interests them.

The Cost of Good Design: Part 1

The best things in life are free, right?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) for 50 years championed the use of the Project Triangle or the ‘triple constraint’ theory that of three major categories: scope, time and cost (or to most of us ‘good, fast and cheap’) you cannot change one side without the others being affected. For example, you may create something quickly and of high quality but it will not be cheap; you may create something that is cheap and done quickly but it will not be of high quality; or you could create something that is high quality and done cheaply but it will take forever to complete.