Tip of the Day - Bid or No Bid?

Probably the most important part of any process is deciding whether to bid or not bid in the first place.  It is surprising how many organisation don’t have a formal process for this crucial decision.  The knock-on effects for time, resource and cost aren't just for the bid, but potentially for mobilisation and operations should a bid be successful.

One potentially way of making the decision, and one that has worked well for me previously, is to have a strict set of criteria when deciding whether to bid or not.  The criteria could be along the following lines:

·         Does it meet business objectives / business plan?

·         Does it work for the organisation geographically and logistically?

·         Is the value of the contract sufficient for what it is asking for?

·         Is there potential to make the necessary margin?

·         Is there bidding resource available?

·         Would there be mobilisation and operational resource available if successful?

A no on any of the above doesn’t mean an automatic failure, it just means that the decision needs to be thought about a lot more thoroughly.  If nothing else, the above questions make people think more about what the decision they are making, instead of arbitrarily deciding yes or no.