Gary Everett

A Proposal Management course student who worked on 150 proposals came to my class. I have all students introduce themselves, give an overview of their company and their proposal experience and tell why they came. This student, with seven years of proposal experience, said he came to see if he could learn anything to help improve their win rate and he was open to a better way. He said they had lost some bids they should have won and he had not figured out why, other than, the government evaluators told him their management plan was weak.

Two months after the class, I got an email from him thanking me for the class as it was the reason they won their last two bids. I asked for further details. He said before the class, their management plans were solely based on a “Project” Management Plan centering on how the project would be managed working with Government Project Monitors at the government site, using skillsets and their actions and daily project technical and management tools.

My course teaches that an overall “Company” Management plan is better and provides a more complete plan. Yes, a Project Management Plan is needed to show project level management needs and actions including staffing, problem management, project status, project planning, user interface, project web site, et al. However, an overall company plan for managing the contract is better . This more complete management plan will also cover how the company will manage the project to show the actions, resources and assets at the company level and how they would be applied to ensure the project success. The company plan will discuss company resources and activities such as PMO chart and concept of operations, finance, recruiting, training, executive oversight and company standard plans usage for managing quality, safety, security, risk and personnel assets to ensure project success.

The same student said they were commended by the evaluators because their overall company management plan was rated superior. Our course can help you to a higher win rate with delivering better, more complete, management plans.

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