Banking Bucks by Busting Bureaucratic Barriers

The proposal is due in ten days, and now we learn it's non-compliant?  Who's minding the store?

Why did this proposal cost so much?  I established a budget, didn't I?

The "red team" was a disaster!  Next time, I want it two weeks earlier in the cycle!

Who's in charge of this proposal anyhow?  Tell me again who isn't responsible for what?

Whatever happened to the proposal we storyboarded?  Where did this one come from?

That's not what I wrote!  How can it get changed without my approval?

How can we get technically disqualified? We have ISO-compliant processes!

Why did "what's his name" leave?  I'm paying my writers more than the competition!

Why do otherwise smart people do so many dumb things when it comes to designing, writing and managing proposals?  How can a straightforward process become so mind-boggling?  How can a proposal get so screwed up so quickly?  How can well-meaning managers manage to unmanage what they were hired to manage without really managing to understand what they are managing? And why does it have to all cost so much?

Perhaps it's because we have established a bureaucracy that demands to be fed even when it's not hungry!  And we just don't find the time to stop and say:  "Hey – does this make sense for this application?"  And perhaps the bureaucracy is led by people who "check the box" rather than "think", have never spent days, night, and weekends in the "proposal pits", and who blindly respond to every dumb idea the boss has. Their universal solution is to impose more bureaucracy on a problem that requires less!

If this sounds pretty blunt, it's intentional!  Even though most of my career was spent in operations management, I have worked on numerous proposals for major corporations – in the pits as a section writer, a volume leader, a capture leader, a proposal leader, a review team participant/leader, a strategist, a marketer, and even a Business Development Vice President.

Mistakes are life's best teacher, because the embarrassment of errors makes an indelible impression on the perpetrator!  I learned all that I know through more than 30 years of mistakes. So you see, t his book is really "true confessions".  Fortunately, I sometimes made fewer mistakes than my competitor, and still succeeded!  Success, in the world of technical services – which is the setting for this book – depends as much on lowering cost as it does on improving quality. And fortunately, the two are often interwoven, as you will see in the approaches I suggest.

I attempt to demonstrate my points through example, in a hypothetical company called Gee Whiz.  This company's principal customers are various government agencies who solicit business through a Request for Proposal (RFP).  Industry then responds with a proposal which offers a technical and management approach for performing the requested work, along with a price and a detailed cost analysis. The government then awards a contract to the company that they conclude made the most beneficial offer.  If Gee Whiz sounds like any company you know, believe me, it's a coincidence.  And so are the "make-believe" characters, even though every company has such people.  My hypothetical friend, Andy Wiseman, is noted for his "sayings", and I include many of them in this book.  If you want the story line without the sermons, just read the chapters that start with "Gee Whiz".  Or if you like the preaching without the story, skip those chapters.  And if you just want the answers in short form without the sermons osr the story, turn to the last Chapter of the book.

If  you "buy in" to my philosophy, share the book with your boss.  That way, he'll have me to blame for your unorthodox behavior.  Or if you're the boss and "buy in", I'll expect great things from you.  Keep me posted on your positive (only) career moves!

Friends have asked me why I'm writing this book and what I hope to accomplish.  I guess I could tell you the subject is important, billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake, and hundreds of thousands of valuable jobs are involved.  Further, the principles and approaches advocated are broader than "technical services" business development – t hey relate to "management" in general.  And if we have effective management at the "world leader" level, we'll have a better world, where we can all live in peace and harmony.

But unfortunately, that's not why I'm writing the book!