Decision Gate Reviews David Bol May 30, 2013
Presentation Outline 1. Understand the role of Executive Teams in the decision gate decision and review process. 2. Examine each decision gate to better understand roles, inputs, and questions to be asked/answered and decisions to be made (outputs). 3. Preview tools that help in facilitating high-quality decision gate reviews: a) Checklists b) Flow diagrams 2
Business Capture Leadership Roles Defining leadership roles and responsibilities for pursuit decision gates is a critical success factor in the overall business development process.
Leadership Role: Executives Primary Responsibility Key Stakeholder for three Gate Reviews (Preliminary Bid, Validate Bid, and Submit Proposal Decision) Prepare for and conduct negotiations Support Responsibilities Assist in developing the PTW (price-to-win) strategy Assist in answering questions and sign off on final revisions to cost and technical volumes of the proposal Assist in communicating and celebrating the WIN 4
Leadership Role: Vice Presidents Primary Responsibilities Identify potential opportunities and assess strategic fit and risk, initial pursuit costs, and PTW assessment Build customer relationships and understanding of programs Assign capture/opportunity manager and identify management and technical leads Manage utilization of capture and proposal resources Communicate and celebrate wins and learn from debriefs of losses Support Responsibilities Assist in identifying and analyzing a potential opportunity and gathering intelligence about the customer and the competition. Assist the capture manager in determining customer requirements and issues, assessing your competitive position and influencing the procurement. Assist the capture manager in defining the conceptual solution and the PTW targets. Assist the capture manager in forming the core capture team, managing the capture and proposal resources, and supporting the proposal process. Assist the capture manager in preparing for the preliminary and final bid gate reviews, orals and/or demonstrations. Assist the contracts manager and executive officer in negotiations and contracting. 5
Leadership Role: Account / Capture Manager Primary Responsibilities Initiate, tailor, update, and managethe capture process and plan Form the core capture team, and oversee use of capture and proposal resources Determine customer requirements and assess competitive position Determine and finalize the win strategy, discriminators, price to win (PTW), and the solution Initiate teaming and finalize the teaming agreements, small business plan Make presentations at gate reviews, color reviews, and proposal orals Write DRAFT Executive Summary Collaborate with the proposal manager on all phases of proposal planning and execution Collaborate to ensure that all aspects of the cost and technical volumes are consistent Deliver proposal, respond to questions, and oversee final proposal revisions Support Responsibilities Assist the proposal manager in organizing the proposal team and managing the proposal plan and resources Assist the proposal manager in developing storyboards from the capture plan Assist the executive officer in conducting negotiations Assist everyone in celebrating wins and learning from debriefs on losses Assist the project manager in transitioning to contract execution 6
Decision Gates and Reviews Executive Decision Gates and Reviews allow your company to focus on the best opportunities to pursue.
How Decision Gates Fit Within the Business Development Lifecycle 8
How Decision Gates Fit Within the Business Development Lifecycle Decision Gates are supported by Color Team Reviews. Each Review and Gate has a specific purpose. Inputs and Outputs of Gate Reviews must be established and managed. 9
Effective Decision Gates and Reviews Require focus on the right topics. Require knowledgeable reviewers. Reinforce intelligent process application. Help make decisions that have positive impact on downstream activities. Track progress using automation tools accountability. 10
Preparing for Decision Gate Reviews Key Executives and Stakeholders Be familiar with the sections of the Capture or Opportunity Plan. Review the Capture Plan for the specific opportunity in advance. Reserve the time to be fully engaged make the gate review a priority. Prepare tough but fair questions in advance. Develop your own set of questions appropriate to your executive responsibilities. Develop gate review checklists to gain ideas for your questions. Quantitative data should inform decisions, but don t ignore intuition, determination, and gut reactions. 11
Preparing for Gate Reviews Capture/Opportunity Managers Update the Capture Plan. Schedule the Gate Reviews. Distribute the Capture Plan to attendees in advance. Be prepared to answer tough, detailed questions regarding the opportunity. Provide a balanced description of the opportunity donot oversell a poor opportunity or be unwilling to take on a challenge. Don t take decisions personally! Check your ego at the door! 12
Use the Qualify Gate to verify the opportunity fits your strategic direction and capability. Use the Pursuit Gate to determine if a formal capture should be initiated. Use the Preliminary Bid Gate to verify you are positioned to win before committing to an expensive proposal effort. Use the Bid Validation Gate to ensure show stoppers are addressed. Use the Submit Gate to ensure conformance with company policies and quality standards. 13
Gate 1: Qualify Decision Occurs at the end of the Opportunity Positioning Phase. Determines whether or not an opportunity is sufficiently defined and needs further effort now to fully determine its fit with your capabilities and objectives for further pursuit.
Gate 1: Qualify Decision (What) Objective 1. Determine if opportunity fits with strategic and operational plans. 2. Establish there is an approved customer project with a budget and an owner. Decisions Who will the own the opportunity and serve as lead? Proceed to Opportunity Assessment Phase to further qualify the opportunity? Owner/Organizer Stakeholder Opportunity or Marketing Lead Identify key stakeholders for each line of business Attendees Generally marketing leadership with senior BD/Capture team Input Qualify Decision Briefing Package Resources Allocated Award Update If needed: Staff support to Marketing Lead Opportunity research funding (Business Analysis/ Competitive Intelligence analysts) 1. Initialize Award status to Exploratory 2. Update to Qualified, Canceled, or No-Bid 15
Gate 1: Qualify Decision (How) Objective 1. Determine if opportunity fits with strategic and operational plans. 2. Establish there is an approved customer project with a budget and an owner. Primary Input From Capture Plan (Capture Manager) Opportunity Overview Business Case Decision Questions (Decision Maker) Is the opportunity real? Is it funded? Does the potential project have an owner? Do you know the owner? What is the customer s perception of your company? Is the opportunity in a high probability quadrant (Current Service/Current Client) for you? Do you have adequate business development resources to aggressively develop the opportunity? Do we want to win? Are there acceptable profit margins or other strategic reasons for wanting to win? Does the opportunity conflict with other work being performed or anticipated? Opportunity Fit with Company Plans Does this opportunity support your strategic plan? Group Annual Operating Plan? Marketing Plan? Positioning Overview Background, Mission, and Roles Competing Teams and Approaches Does the prospect know you are considering this opportunity? Are you an incumbent? If not, have you been actively calling on the customer? Do you thoroughly understand the customer s mission? Do you know who the potential competitors are likely to be? Can you team with a competitor if necessary? 16
Gate 2: Pursuit Decision Occurs at the conclusion of the Opportunity Assessment Phase, providing a decision on whether or not to establish a capture team and move forward to the next phase, Capture Planning.
Gate 2: Pursuit Decision (What) Objective 1. Determine if a win is attainable at a desired price to proceed to Capture Planning Phase. 2. Confirm/adjust initial win strategy. 3. Assess Price to Win (PTW) analysis and strategy. Decisions Whether to proceed to Capture Planning Phase to further plan and execute capture. Determine funding level for remaining phases and total pursuit. Assignment of Capture Manager and identification of Project and Proposal Managers, Tech Lead, and Core Capture Team. Owner/Organizer Marketing Lead Key Stakeholders Attendees Input Resources Allocated Award Update TBD Marketing Lead, Capture Manager, Business Capture Center Director Pursuit Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Capture Budget Request Core capture team staffing Core capture team funding Core capture team facilities and materials (as needed) 1. Update Award status to Capture, Canceled, or No-Bid 18
Gate 2: Pursuit Decision (How) Objective 1. Determine if a win is attainable at a desired price to proceed to Capture Planning Phase. 2. Confirm/adjust initial win strategy. 3. Assess Price to Win (PTW) analysis and strategy. PrimaryInput From Capture Plan (Capture Manager) Strategy and Solution Overview Decision Makers, Issues/Hot Buttons Decision Questions (Decision Maker) Do you have a credible win strategy that can be clearly articulated? Do you have a conceptual solution with clear discriminators? Doyou knowthe key decision makers and their issues and hot buttons? Do the key decision makers know you? Contractor Role and Responsibilities Do you have a clear understanding ofits anticipated role? Are there any potential conflicts of interest for you? Competing Teams and Approaches Your Competitive Position Your Solution Overview What approaches are competing teams likely to take? How welldo the opportunity requirements match your competencies? Has an Integrated Solution Worksheet been developed? Are there any significant gaps? Risk Assessment Leveraging YourStrengths Mitigating Your Weaknesses Price-To-Win Analysis Is the performance risk level acceptable to you? Haveactions been identified to make you more deserving of a win? Is progress being made in executing these actions? Are there plans in place to mitigate your weaknesses? Do you havesufficient knowledge of the prospect and the competition to develop a realistic price-to-win? 19
Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision Occurs at the end of the Capture Planning Phase and determines if sufficient Probability of Win (P- Win) and capture preparations have been completed to move to the Proposal Planning Phase.
Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision (What) Objective 1. Determine if sufficient Probability of Win (P-Win) and capture preparations are completed to move to Proposal Planning activities. Decisions Whether to proceed to Proposal Planning Phase. Confirm/adjust win strategy, pricing, solution, win themes, and discriminators. Adjust, as needed, funding for all remaining phases. Assignment of remaining proposal team. Owner/Organizer Capture Manager Key Stakeholder Attendees Input ResourcesAllocated Award Update TBD Capture Manager, BD Center Director, Group VP, BD VP Preliminary Bid Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Proposal Budget Request Core proposal team staffing (internal and external) Core proposal team funding Proposal team facilities and materials (as needed) Review team funding and staffing 1. Update Award status to Bid, Canceled, or No-Bid 21
Gate 3: Preliminary Bid Decision (How) Objective 1. Determine if sufficient Probability of Win (P-Win) and capture preparations are completed to move to Proposal Planning activities. PrimaryInput From Capture Plan (Capture Manager) Deliverables and Schedule Evaluation Process Competitor Overviews Bidder Comparison Teaming and Subcontracting Past Performance Baseline Management Solution Technical Solution Gap Analysis Discriminators, Themes Price-To-Win Analysis Capture /Proposal Schedule and Status Decision Questions (Decision Maker) In the absence of a DRFP or SOW, do you have a clear understanding of the deliverables and schedule? If so, how? Are yousure of the evaluation processto be used? If so, how does it know? Do you have an accurate picture of the prospect s perception of competitors? Has an objective Bidder Comparison been completed? Do you have firm commitments from needed teammates? Do you have strong, relevant past performance? Prospect agrees? How does your management approach provide added value? How does your technical solution provide added value and discriminators? Can all remaining gaps be filled? How? Do discriminators meet the test of being of interest to the customer and unique? Can the customer justify our selection based on our discriminators and cost? Has the price-to-win been determined? Acceptable to your management? Is the customer adhering to the expected schedule? If not, why? 22
Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision Occurs at the conclusion of the Proposal Planning Phase, shortly following the release of the final RFP. We evaluate our win strategy, the latest competitive intelligence, business potential, and risk to make a decision on whether to continue proposal development.
Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision (What) Objective 1. Determine if sufficient P-Win and proposal readiness actions have been completed to develop a winning proposal. 2. Confirm that there is sufficient business case and risk mitigation to justify proposal development. Decisions Whether to proceed to Proposal Development Phase. Confirm/adjust win strategy, pricing, solution, win themes, and discriminators. Adjust, as needed, funding for remaining phases. Resolution of proposal staffing and any other critical issues. Owner/Organizer Capture Manager Key Stakeholder Attendees Input ResourcesAllocated Award Update TBD Capture Manager, Legal/ Contracts, PTW Lead, Proposal Operations Mgr.,BD Center Director,Technical Lead,BD VP Validate Bid Decision Briefing Package (Extracted from Capture Plan), Updated Proposal Budget (if applicable) Proposal team staffing (internal and external) Proposal team funding Review team funding and staffing Proposal team facilities for FPR (as needed) Update Award status to Proposal, Canceled, or No-Bid 24
Gate 4: Validate Bid Decision (How) Objective 1. Determine if sufficient P-Win and proposal readiness actions have been completed to develop a winning proposal. 2. Confirm that there is sufficient business case and risk mitigation to justify proposal development. Primary Input From Capture Plan (Capture Manager) Decision Questions (Decision Maker) Terms and Funding Commitments Technical Requirements/Verification Business Solution Cost Estimate Issues and Recommendations Are the announced (RFP) termsas anticipated, and are they still acceptable to you? Does the RFP show evidence of being influenced by competitors? Based on the published evaluation criteria, can the prospect justify selecting you? Are the technical requirements in the RFP as anticipated by you? Has your technical approach been reviewed and verified as being acceptable to the prospect? Are team (teammate) roles clearly defined and formally agreed? Does your business solutionprovide significant value and return on investment to the prospect? Has a draft Executive Summary been prepared? Is it persuasive? Has a bottom-up cost estimate been completed? Can the solution be profitably delivered within the price-to-win? Have all your internalissues related to the opportunity been addressed and resolved? 25
Leading to Gate 5: Red Team Fundamentals Plan the Red Team review Select Red Team members early. Have them attend kickoff and serve on Pink Team. Prepare documentation for the Red Team and provide it to members 1 week ahead of the review. Organize the Red Team to mirror the customer evaluation structure, guidelines, operation. 26
Red Team Fundamentals (Continued) Conduct the Red Team based on the RFP, using a structured evaluation plan. Use both qualitative and quantitative scoring. Require a formal presentation of findings to the proposal team. Organize and control responses, ensuring accountability.
Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision Occurs at the end of the Proposal Development Phase. Verifies that all Red Team recommendations have been addressed, the proposal meets standards, pricing is acceptable, risks have been adequately addressed, and all necessary internal approvals have been obtained.
Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision (What) Objective 1. Determine if Red Team recommendations have been addressed and proposal meets corporate standards. 2. Confirm that pricing is acceptable and risks have been adequately addressed. Decisions Whether to submit the proposal to the customer. Confirm project management and staffing for project start-up. Confirm all preparations for orals, demo, FPR, and contract negotiations. Owner/Organizer Capture Manager Key Stakeholders TBD Attendees Capture Manager (Decision Gate to be held only if an issue is raised affecting submission) Input Submit Proposal Decision Briefing Package (if used) Final Proposal Updated Proposal Budget (if applicable) Resources Allocated Award Update Orals/Demo team staffing (internal and external) Orals/Demo team funding Funding and staffing for any FPR activities Negotiating team 1. Update Award Status to Submitted, Canceled, or No-Bid 29
Gate 5: Submit Proposal Decision (How) Objective 1. Determine if Red Team recommendations have been addressed and proposal meets corporate standards. 2. Confirm that pricing is acceptable and risks have been adequately addressed. Primary Input From Capture Plan and Proposal (Capture Manager/Proposal Manager) Proposal Risk Assessment Negotiation Plan The Customer Negotiation Plan Our Team Closure Plan Decision Questions (Decision Maker) Is the proposal compliant, responsive, competitive, and priced to win? Does the proposal meet corporate quality standards? Are there any unresolved elements of risk that could preclude submitting the proposal? Will the proposal be evaluated as being low risk to the customer? Is the contract likely to be awarded without negotiation? If so, are you prepared to accept this? If negotiations occur, do you know who in the customer organization will be leading them? Is the customer under any constraints (e.g., time) that you can leverage? Has a negotiating team been identified? Is your negotiating position clearly defined and agreed to by senior management? Is your project manager ready to begin delivery immediately upon award? 30
Summary and Guidelines 31
Page 26 Decision Gates Specify Inputs and Outputs for Decision Gates 32
What s Next? Start by defining a gate review process Determine what works best in your company fit the process to your environment Determine and document roles and responsibilities Make this a leadership priority Leverage automation tools It isn t rocket science, but requires discipline 33
Contact Information David Bol, Shipley Associates Sr. Vice President Capture & Proposal Consulting dbol@shipleywins.com (303) 805-9747 APMP Fellow APMP Accreditated Professional 34
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