Amateur chefs tend to have a pretty short attention span. They watch Bobby Flay toss something on a grill, say to themselves “Man, I could do that!”, then run to the store, assemble ingredients, light a fire, and make up a mess of something good. Their goal is to recreate a recipe; their objective is to make it edible. Their measure of success is, well, nobody barfs when they taste it. Backyard chefs like to cook.
Pitmasters, on the other hand, have a much longer view of their world. They have more at stake; they compete against well-prepared competitors for significant prize money, or against restaurants (and other barbecue teams) for lucrative catering gigs.
As a result, winning pitmasters set larger goals (“cook an award-winning whole hog”) and develop objectives to measure their path toward achieving those goals (for example, “Buy a big pit.” “Learn how to control temperature across the entire cooking surface.” “Find a reliable source of high quality butchered hogs.” “Learn how to dress and prep a raw hog.” “Build a winning rub and injection.”). Their measure of success is tangible: awards, prize money, and – thanks to the exposure barbecue enjoys on TV – lucrative deals for packing and selling their “secret” rubs and sauces.
Pitmasters like to win.
In the business world, far too many companies rely on the “mushroom theory of management.” They perform minimal planning; they operate in an ad-hoc environment that results in scarce resources being spread across many unsuccessful pursuits. Like backyard chefs, they are happy with a win, but shrug off losses, figuring “oh, better luck next time.”
Winning companies take the time to develop corporate goals and objectives. They develop high-level strategies for achieving their goals within a defined window of time. They communicate these items across the company, so that business units – and business developers – can help the company win by putting together – and executing – their own sub-goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, and plans. They are ruthless in rejecting pursuits of opportunities that do not support corporate goals, reserving finite resources and funds for those which do.
Like pitmasters, they love to win – and burn with the white-hot fires of hate when they lose. In business, be the Pitmaster.
Plan your work; work your plan. Get involved in the program early. If you’re an incumbent contractor, even earlier than that. Preparation for the re-bid begins on day 1 of the contract. Build relationships with the buying and end user customers. Influence the RFP, so that discriminators rule in your favor. Prove the benefit of your solution. Build a value added team, build a plan, and then follow the plan, making necessary changes as you go.
Three out of the four components of a SWOT analysis are relatively intuitive, and easy to understand. Everybody knows what strengths and weaknesses are – but if you need a definition, they are internal (i.e., indigenous) characteristics that either enhance or undercut a company’s competitive position (i.e., increase or decrease their chances of winning). Similarly, everybody knows a “threat” is something from the outside (i.e., external) that can undermine or hurt a company’s chances of winning. Okay, good so far, but what is an opportunity?
But it’s more than simply checking a list: the process is designed to lay the foundation of your winning proposal.