Tip of the Day - Governance

As with any other part of a business, bidding requires governance. Having a formal process to choose what to go for, as well as checking each stage of the bid is on track, is crucial to the bid itself and the development of an organisation.

There is no magic process for bid governance; have to find or create one that suits the needs of your organisation. A few successful examples I have been a part of or created include:

·         A formal 4-stage gateway process with meetings / conferences calls at stage.  There was stages for Advert/EoI, PQQ, ITT and ITT Finance/Final Sign-Off.  These would be attended by executives, regional and service managers. The advantage was that in theory you had all the right people in the room, the disadvantage though was that scheduling this was a nightmare and delays could harm a bid.

·         A simple 2-stage process with a bid/no bid decision at EoI stage and a final sign-off a week before final submission. The advantage was that you could just get on with it as a bid manager/writer, the disadvantage though being that quite often you didn’t get the input you required from those higher up the food chain – this could then have knock-on ramifications for mobilisation if the bid was won.

·         Another way was having different processes for different values of contracts, for example:

o   Small contracts – Business Development liaise with Operations and get the bid done. Only in strategic/unusual circumstances would senior managers get involved

o   Medium Contracts – As before but with a decision to bid and final sign-off from the exec.

o   Large Contracts – This would require a project board including an exec that would meet weekly to discuss progress and make necessary decision. Final sign-off would be from the full executive.

In my experience, the final set of processes worked best, but every organisation is different and you have to find the right process that works for you.