In the beginning,

it is appropriate to talk about my beginning. I have been doing Proposal and Bid Management (there is a difference between those two, more about which later) for more than ten years now. Most of these bids were in the Outsourcing and IT Services business. Most of the projects or jobs we were bidding for were with large multinational corporations, including the Fortune 500. These clients were all over the world though mainly headquartered in the USA, Europe, and Japan. The competivive and single source Bids I have participated in ranged in value from US $50000 to US $ 200 Million. The Bids ranged from Outsourcing and Offshoring of IT and Engineering Services to Engineering Design of mechanical parts to development of custom IT solutions to solve business problems and needs.

To me, Bid Management has several dimensions. First, Bid Management provides the thought leadership for the bid (which is strategic, which has decision making authority, which requires deep and experiential knowledge of the subject matter). Second, it means managing the bid operationally (often called proposal management since the bid invariably consists of a significant proposalling phase, about which you can learn at the premier organization for proposal managers, APMP ) and third, managing the creative aspects of it (writing or deciding the key winning messages and the executive summary, signing off on the bid documents, presenting the bid to the client and so on). - Of course, I must state that every organization treats these roles differently and they are often attached to different organization roles, such as for example business development or sales or solution architecting or presales. Also, every organization has a different terminology and nomenclature which will hopefully achieve some level of standardization over time. -

I have played these different roles separately at times and often together in the same bid. So, in my blog you will find aspects dealing with each of these 3 dimensions of Bid Management

The Strategic
The Operational
The Creative

Why do I want to blog about Bid Management?

I am writing this so I can clarify and crystallize my opinion and improve my knowledge. I am also hoping that presales, proposal and bid management and sales professionals (especially rookees trying to find their feet in these professions) will find something of interest here, including hopefully, the ability to electronically interact with similarly hazardously occupied souls.

I am also writing this because I believe bid managers play a crucial yet little understood role in business (and dare I say, Society) and I would like to lay my little brick in building up the recognition of this profession and its practitioners.

And mainly because, Bid Management has given me immense intellectual satisfaction and thrill - I want to tell my stories - and maybe you will tell me yours.