The more things change the more they stay the same
When we set up the business we were confident about the core activity. We recognised that we would need to diversify the business over time but at that stage weren't sure that we would be able to generate the right kind of opportunities at a high enough rate.
As time has gone on, the opportunity stream has grown. We now have some high level criteria that we apply. If an opportunity meets those high level criteria then we take a more detailed look. That saves us time by allowing us to focus on the proposals where we can add value and the payback will be high. We don't need to continuously rewrite the strategy, because the criteria come directly from it.
At PwC we had a similar approach - we reviewed opportunities against WBB criteria (winning better business). Those asked whether an opportunity would deliver high value to the client, profits and PR potential to PwC and whether the scale of the opportunity was sufficiently large to justify the cost of sale. Those criteria were enormously valuable - they allowed operations managers in the firm to focus their attention on attractive opportunities which also delivered good value propositions to the client. The sole problem with the approach was that it meant that the pipeline used scale as a measure of attractiveness and as I've said before, the most important opportunities in the pipeline aren't the biggest - they are the ones that you can win.
As time has gone on, the opportunity stream has grown. We now have some high level criteria that we apply. If an opportunity meets those high level criteria then we take a more detailed look. That saves us time by allowing us to focus on the proposals where we can add value and the payback will be high. We don't need to continuously rewrite the strategy, because the criteria come directly from it.
At PwC we had a similar approach - we reviewed opportunities against WBB criteria (winning better business). Those asked whether an opportunity would deliver high value to the client, profits and PR potential to PwC and whether the scale of the opportunity was sufficiently large to justify the cost of sale. Those criteria were enormously valuable - they allowed operations managers in the firm to focus their attention on attractive opportunities which also delivered good value propositions to the client. The sole problem with the approach was that it meant that the pipeline used scale as a measure of attractiveness and as I've said before, the most important opportunities in the pipeline aren't the biggest - they are the ones that you can win.
posted by John Diffenthal at 6:55 am
1 Comments:
... awe, but then you've created this square box and what if, by chance, the most amazing opportunity comes your way and doesn't fit in the box, but, rather blows the box to high heaven ... what would you do with that opportunity ???? sometimes just exploring them can be way more fun than anything else ...
guess that's why i do what i do ...
interesting blog ... although some of the jargon gets me lost for a minute, i can usually get to what your saying, and you have very solid advice ... safety first is a good motto for most people, i suppose.
peace & harmony,
elaine
'freedom must be exercised to stay in shape!'
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