Executive Compass Success

 I suppose as the year draws to a close it is natural to reflect on the past twelve months. We have had a fantastic year and it is difficult to believe that it has all happened in such a short time.
This year’s top ten achievements are, in no particular order:

1. Becoming the first bid writing firm to achieve UKAS 9001 ISO certification

2. A move to a new main office

3. Working on our first bid with a value in excess of £300 million

4. Hiring new staff in other parts of the country

5. Delivering more than fifty PQQ, bid and tender writing training courses

6. Providing PQQ training in Europe for the first time

7. Securing lots of interesting tenders to work on and increasing our win rate

8. Never once having to provide a refund on our 100% money back guarantee for PQQs

9. Working on eight European tenders

10. Providing bid support for three international tenders

I obviously have no idea what next year will bring; indeed this year is not yet played out, but I am confident that Michael and I will continue to invest in the business, trade in an ethical way and help lots of companies to win more work.

I was recently asked why we had been so successful both in terms of building the business and in achieving such a high win rate. My response regarding the win rate was easy. We have developed a system: our system. It is not copied from anyone else or learned from books. Rather, we have objectively analysed what makes a successful bid and applied it to our work. We do not deviate and always ensure that our quality systems are adhered to, and with only rare exceptions, our bids are written by directly employed staff.

How we have built the business was also relatively easy to answer. I made lots of mistakes in all of my previous jobs, and so did Michael. The trick has been to learn from those mistakes, apply the lessons and make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of our past. We also communicate all the time. We sit in an open plan office and work on the business every day of every week in a completely open and transparent way. Our staff can see the Profit and Loss statement any time they want to, know the value of all projects and are involved in the management meeting each week.

Teamwork, process and openness coupled to quality. Dead simple.

Next year will hopefully be as good. We have lots of plans, lots of ideas and lots of energy. The first big announcement should be around early February, so we can start our 2012 tender writing year on a high.

Tight lines,

Neil