Imagine what would happen if…
…you could play football with the best players in the world mixed into your team. Imagine scoring goal of the season as Bale crosses to Ronaldo, who heads down for you to chip it easily over Buffon and into the net.
My wife did this at the weekend. Not with the Galacticos of football you understand, but with their equivalents in the world of classical music. She played a full concert in front of an enthusiastic audience with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – a premiership team of the orchestral world. It was fantastic for her and an outstanding experience for me as a paying customer.
The BSO run an annual programme, my wife calls it their ‘care in the community’, to give rusty amateur musicians a workout with musicians at the top of their game. It got me thinking. Imagine if bid teams could do the same – participate in a team that brought in world class talent, people at the top of their bidding game as leaders, artists and wordsmiths to complement their home grown talents in producing outstanding and compelling propositions for their customers. It is possible, it’s known as ‘smart sourcing’.
I believe the mix of those that know their subject matter (the customer, their business, the competition) with those with the artistry and bidding experience (talented creatives, black belts in bidding processes and tools, leaders that can get a team to perform) is perhaps the ultimate in dream teams. This combination is not only likely to produce the most compelling proposition, it can also provide a lasting legacy in changed behaviours for the in-house team. After all, the best education comes from being part of that experience.
Maybe I will get to play with Pelé after all….?
Smart sourcing – for a different result.
Ian Sherwood is Bids & Proposals Director at Proposal Management Consultants twentysix2, the originators of the Proposal Management Capability Assessment Tool (www.PM.CAT.com).
PM-CAT is a proprietary assessment methodology, based on best practice, designed to identify the shortest route to the biggest improvements in an organisation’s business winning capability.
