A Book all Business Developers Need to Read (06-21-12)

Since CAI/SISCo ventured into the business development book publishing business, first with a fable concerning the concept of infocentricity and our Price To Win (PTW) "How To" book (both of which are available on Amazon), we have been bombarded with copies of books and ideas for books. One stand-out is from UK author Nigel Thacker whose book "Winning Your Rebid - How to Retain Contracts through Successful Competitive Rebids" tackles a thorny issue for contractors seeking to grow their businesses on a solid base of incumbent business. This book, despite its Anglicizations, brings together a wealth of bedrock wisdom that most corporate execs and seasoned business developers know but find hard to reconcile and implement in the largely polarized "Catch 'Em" then "Skin 'Em" world of contractor corporations. The book's thesis is basically this - the seeds of a successful recompete are sown mainly during incumbent contract execution (the Skin 'Em phase); developing convincing positive spin in the wake of mediocre performance is borderline impossible during the rebid (Catch 'Em) process. Said differently, the Past really is Prologue.

To bridge the gap between a win and its subsequent recompete requires positive performance, and this requires serious management attention that rides herd on the Skin 'Ems to assure a positive customer experience. Of course positive performance has to balance many competing issues not least of which is making and improving positive margin. That said, there also needs to be a focus on continuous imnprovement, added value, planned added value and the cost of delivering these embellishments. Without this sort of improvement by design the result is likely to be a lackluster customer experience. If that happens, the incumbent, even with the best capture team on the planet, is unlikely to be able to survive a rebid if the rebid attracts serious competition.

The "Winning Your Rebid" book is available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Your-Rebid-Successful-Competitive/dp/1409440354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340199951&sr=8-1&keywords=nigel+thacker and is modestly priced at $119.95.

Good luck and happy hunting!