The Elephant in the Room - cdn.ymaws.com · Certified Miller Heiman trainer. APMP BID & PROPOSAL...

The Elephant in the Room

APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE 2

The Elephant in the Room ROBERT MAHONEY /ROBERT GARCEAU HARRIS CORPORATION

Robert Mahoney

[email protected]

321-984-6389

Robert Garceau

[email protected]

321-984-5940

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Introductions

Robert Mahoney 30+ years experience in Government contracting community.

Current Position: Harris Corporation Proposal Center Manager. Proposal team

leader, author, mentor, trainer, strategy developer and executive summary

specialist.

Robert Garceau 30+ years experience in Business Development and Capture Management.

Current Position: Harris Corporation Senior Capture Strategy Specialist. Capture

team leader, mentor, trainer, facilitator, BD/sales professional development

leader. Certified Miller Heiman trainer.


We want to:

Share our experiences improving & creating a culture of winning.

Present & discuss problems, barriers encountered, activities/approaches,

Lessons Learned, etc.

Think of this as a “Capture Anonymous” meeting…

We want to strengthen our professional affiliation with the people in this room.

We’re inviting you all to join our Capture revolution and win more/bid less by

applying the forces of critical thinking, strategic development & process innovation

to the business of acquiring new business

We’re not selling anything today!

Purpose of Our Presentation


The Elephant in the Room


Overview

So why the “The Elephant in the Room”???

The elephant is an euphemism for what we did not want to acknowledge.

We were not consistently good at acquiring new business –

we were inconsistent at best.

We had to admit that a problem existed.

We were addressing a very noisy space, peopled with

employees who were out of their comfort zone dealing with

tight schedules and often, little resources.

We had…

Processes, tools, and some very smart people.

Already invested in tools/automation to “write it for us.”

Already invested in consultants for all the wrong reasons,

utilized at the wrong time in the schedule. Aaaaaaahh!

We have a clicker today and want your input…


Polling Instructions

Press the corresponding button to

your vote once “Polling is Open”

Yes you can change your mind till

“Polling is closed”

Vote your single “best” answer

Results will be tabulated

and displayed


The Environment for the Elephant

We were facing LESS new

program opportunities.

To win more, we were going to have

to win it away from lots of others.

The competition was getting a

lot stronger!

We started a new emphasis on

capture/win strategy development.


So, …THE ELEPHANT defined

We weren’t very good at what we did…we were winning some, but it was getting

tougher, we were losing ground. We talked a good game but…

Strategic thinking… repetitive sound bites, flawed assumptions often copied from previous

Pursuit activities not preparing the customer to receive our offer

Strategic messaging & writing…bad versions of re-use, slogan-based themes,

tangled logic, benefit-free claims, unsubstantiated claims

Prop schedule squandered on backfilling pursuit activities

Pursuit/proposal document reviews…sleep walking through process,

wrong people/available versus capable reviewers

Proposals are WRITTEN documents…We weren’t very good writers…

Complex problem with many moving parts – No one thing would make a difference


How many of you have a similar elephant?

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1. Lots of sound bites portrayed as

“strategy.”

2. Lots of feature/feature tables. Few

benefits or proofs.

3. Pursuit teams comprised of “available”

people.

4. Inconsistent application of best practices.

5. Pursuit teams not “ready to write” at RFP.

6. All of the above

7. None of the above. Life is good?


… what it meant to us

We needed to improve:

Skills of our capture and proposal practitioners

Skill Levels of cross-functional teams

Management’s level of engagement

Consistency and repeatability

The entire system…


We could finally see our elephant!


How did we start?

We Secured a Champion.

Empowered selected people to go figure it out.

Analyzed the problem – breaking it down into components.

We defined problems and targeted short term fixes and longer term solutions.

We started to push a lot of buttons. We turned on the lights in a number of

dark rooms. We adjusted the thermostat to affect everybody.

Took action that had the effect of “stealthy change”. We did not change the culture

by proclamation.

We identified four discrete TARGETS to address.

Problem formalized, decomposed into components and resourced


Targets For Success

Organizational Development

New jobs/new mission & structure

Internal CONOPS

Capture profession – Pursuit Advisory Corps

Professional Development

Training, coaching, mentoring

PTW specialties

BAP – Pursuit SIM course

Process Development

Prop readiness

Early Presentation Strategy

Strategy Development (facilitation)

Critical thinking – Strategy Workshops

Strategy Action Plans


Targets – Org

Organizational Development

Leadership

New jobs/new Mission

New structure

New engagement paradigm


How is your capture and proposal organization

structured? (Pick the closest)

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1. No formal organization. Capture and

proposal managers are ‘assigned.’

2. Distinct centralized org for capture and

proposals.

3. Centralized proposal center only, no formal

capture.

4. Capture and proposal mangers are identified

and report in the business areas (not

centralized).

5. We’re so messed up no one knows.


Barriers – Org

CMs, Prop Managers, not thought of as “professionals”… few good ones.

Decentralized culture – Highly fractionated business areas. ISLANDS.

People were assigned to a pursuit based on availability.

No clear responsibility for process ownership, improvement, lessons

learned.

Inconsistent practice, no consistent enforcement of the practice.

No process metrics.

No leverage of key talent.


Actions – Org

Established the capture center staffed with the right people.

Influencers, leaders, mentors, practitioners.

Focused on people, process, and tools.

Formalized Capture and Prop Manager and

Prop Writer as professions.

Created internal “consulting” group to support

all pursuits:

• Leverage key talent

• Train and mentor

• Facilitate key events

• ID’ed in-process predictive metrics


Lessons Learned – Org

Must have key leadership supporting,

engaged and visible.

Must utilize your best! They must earn

teams’ respect.

Must conduct formal win-loss analysis

& document.

People learn lessons – not databases!

“A Team” logic flawed.


Targets

Professional Development

• Skill assessment

• Strategic training, JIT, coaching

• PTW specialties

• BAP – Pursuit SIM course


How do you approach professional

development?

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1. Nothing focused on new biz

2. Occasional classes for high performers.

“boon-doggles”

3. Skill assessments and curriculum to

address deficits.

4. Instructors and mentors engaged.

5. Multi disciplined approach to

development.

6. 3, 4, & 5

7. We fire the losers!


Barriers – PD

Capture and Proposal management treated as an

undesirable task!

Skills needed not documented, never mind having

real skill assessments.

We thought we were “good.” Many of us were too

good for “development.”

Minimal historical spending, no budget existed…

Organic course materials did not exist.

Teaching and mentoring was not part of our culture.

Our culture was over reliant on “heroes.”


Actions – PD

Established a partnership between Capture Center and HR

Skills assessment resulted in a list of deficiencies.(PTW 500

students)

Engaged industry training experts and consultants…BD

institute/APMP

Funded and implemented strategic and JIT curriculum.

Created LL DB, identified internal experts.

Conducted growth workshops for all levels of management (200+).

Formalized facilitation and coaching approach (workshops VS

reviews)

Implemented experiential learning – real products, case studies and

simulations.


Pursuit Simulation – Stealthy Change Example

3 teams compete in a pursuit for 3 days – ID to negotiations

1 day intensive feedback – (Abuse with laughter)

Capstone of capture training curriculum

Consistent “core instructors” (Bob & Bob)

Cross-functional students and instructors

Division president or senior VPs for 1 day

Rotating management used as “instructors”

Partnership with HR – at least 1 HR instructor


Lessons Learned – PD

Set priorities and fund accordingly.

ID high impact topic(s) – i.e. PTW.

Demand participation from all levels and functions.

Classes teach fundamentals. Need more

advanced learning.

Use story telling, simulations, and real products to

teach.

Use your experts to train, coach, and facilitate.

ID and develop a few good practitioner-teachers!


Targets – Process

Processes Enhancement • Strategy workshops

• Proposal readiness metrics

• Early presentation strategy


Who owns your new biz process?

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1. What process???...What ?

2. No clear ownership

3. Clear ownership but inconsistent

enforcement

4. Clear ownership and consistent

practice


Barriers – Process

Budget?

Lack of process discipline – optional compliance?

Inconsistent enforcement..

Process adherence not rewarded/acknowledged

Process stagnation

Lack of process ownership

Process experts not identified


Actions – Process

Capture Center owns the process!

Surveyed industry, learned and adapted for us.

Knowledge transfer mechanisms:

• Process experts identified and processes enforced

• Sample artifacts made available (RRRC, Boots)

• Methods based guidebooks

• Process specific training (strategic and JIT)

• Pursuit/proposal facilitation & color teams

• Workshops VS Reviews!

• Proposal readiness metrics established


Lessons Learned – Process

Line management must enforce adherence.

Facilitate the plan rather than fix the product!

Must review/work pursuit artifacts early and often.

More workshops fewer reviews!

Gate meetings reflect capture/prop plans (forward

looking).

Capture mentors assigned to many pursuits.

Deploy capture/proposal experts earlier in pursuits.

Teams must feel the value in every interaction.


Targets – Strategy

Strategy Development • Critical thinking – Strategy Workshops

• Facilitation

• Pursuit, offer & presentation strategy


What is your approach to strategy

development?

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1. What is your approach to strategy

development?

2. What strategy? We use the same one

regularly!

3. Teams develop their own strategies

4. B + reviewed by management

5. C + color teams support

6. D + coaching and facilitated strategy

sessions


Barriers – Strategy

Sound bites and slogans abound!

Real strategies developed too late (emerging).

Win strategies/themes/discriminators not understood or

documented.

Strategy dev, theming, architecture, program design, pricing all

being crammed into the proposal phase – Ill prepared to write.

Pricing as an afterthought.


Actions – Strategy

Capture mentor/facilitator assigned early

Multiple strategy sessions including color teams

Instantiated & facilitated 3 strategy types:

• Pursuit strategy – facilitated workshops, documented results

• Early win strategy workshops, full color team workshops

• Offer strategy – identifiable separate focus in strategy sessions

• e.g. Price envelope meeting, PTW specialists

• Presentation strategy – worked annotated outline/SBs prior to RFP

• Facilitated “theme sessions” pre-RFP

PTW Process and Specialist formalized as a profession


Lessons Learned – Strategy

Strategy… everyone has one… teams believe

they are on track until pressed.

No one wants to write it down! All talk…

Force them to write it down!

Facilitators must be good strategists – they

must pull it from the teams (teeth) and get it

organized/written down.

Strategy development must be focused and

takes time to accomplish.


Stealthy change to create a winning culture

Culture is a BIG term

It’s more than just business development:

• All functions

• All levels

No one really wants to change... they will when

they see results.

Results take time – no one year tells the story.


Getting the Elephant to Work

for You Pays Dividends!

Post-Change:

4 year average

Capture Rate = 72%

4 Years Post 5 Years Prior

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Capture Rate

Capture Rate

Pre-investment:

5 year average

Capture Rate = 43%


Vision for the Future

Maintain the win rate!

Focus on efficiency:

• Apply 6 Sigma

• DMAIC, DMADV, JDI

• Benchmarking


Are you interested in benchmarking?

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1. What’s benchmarking?

2. Yes

3. No

4. Yes – But not with you!


Free ADVICE

Get a champion…use position power of

champion to sanction.

Plan a quiet revolution:

• Don’t tell people that you are going to change their lives!

• Create real BD/capture/proposal professionals

• Leverage a few internal experts to facilitate, train,

and mentor across many teams

• Get the experts engaged early

• Learn from others


Please turn in your

TurningPoint

devices now…


Questions

Thank you for your attention!


Robert Mahoney

Proposal Center Manager

Harris GCS

321-984-6389

[email protected]

www.harris.com

Contact Us

APMP

PO Box 77272

Washington, DC

20013-7272

Phone: + 1 - (202) 450-2549

www.apmp.org

Robert Garceau

Capture Strategist

Harris GCS

321-984-5940

[email protected]

www.harris.com


If you have not

turned them in

please do so

now!!!

The Elephant in the Room - cdn.ymaws.com · Certified Miller Heiman trainer. APMP BID & PROPOSAL...

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