What Type of Capture Manager Are How You Can Improve Your Performance

What Type of Capture Manager Are
You?: How You Can Improve Your
Performance
APMP Webinar
December 2013
Eric Gregory, CPP APMP Fellow
Senior Vice President, Shipley Associates
A Few Introductory Thoughts
• Knowing your Capture Manager type can
lead to more successes
Capture
• Knowing your Capture Manager type
determines what help you need
Capture
• Knowing your Capture Manager type tells
how you should execute your program
Capture
2
The Objective
3
The Goal
Your Capture Manager type determines how
you behave here and how you win.
4
The Capture Manager Types
5
The Capture Manager Box
Every Capture Manager Exhibits Some
Characteristics of all Types. One predominates.
True Capture Cuts Across All Categories
Disrupter Visionary Strategic
Tactical
Technological
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Missionfocused
The Disrupter
• Strengths
• Creative
• Innovative
• Energetic
• Agile, moves fast and hard
• Synthesizer of complex ideas
• Weaknesses
• Perceived as chaotic, disorganized
• Blunt to a fault, hyper critical
• Way ahead of the team
• Intolerant of questioning
• Strategy often unclear
7
Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
Need stellar organizer on the team (senior
proposal coordinator)
Need good functional leads who can execute
fast, accurately and with personal touch
(Solution, Pricing, Contracts, Subcontracts,
Proposal, BD)
Need solid advisors willing to tell you when
you go too far with ideas, pushing, and
criticism
Need a really good scheduler who can lay out
a plan and keep team on track
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Program Execution
Slow down a bit. Not much. Keep the pace
such that people can keep up
Take time to lay out strategy clearly. Simplify
with graphics so people can visualize your
solution
Encourage questions. “Got it?” “Anybody
confused?” “Does this make sense?”
Always start meetings with a review of actions
and schedule so people can see organization
and progress
Let functional leads direct their areas. Guide
don’t direct their teams.
The Visionary
• Strengths
• Focused on solution
• Appreciates risk/reward
• Develops clear paths to the future
• Articulates the vision
• Moves team toward the vision
• Weaknesses
• Lack of attention to detail
• Lack of customer focus
• Often selling more internally than
externally
• Hard to connect dots between mission
and solution
• Lose sight of cost/price
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Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
Need a BDer capable of keeping the focus on
the customer
Need a Solution Architect and a Proposal
Manager to focus on detail
Visionary Capture Manager MUST go on many
calls with the customer(s) to stay grounded in
mission needs and expectations
Need a really good PTW and Pricing team to
remain competitive
Need a dedicated team competitive analysis
expert for reality checks
Need an independent PTW expert
10
Program Execution
Get on the graphics early and use graphics as
the principal means of communicating the
vision
Place more emphasis on call plan and make
sure each call has a specific strategy/objective
to validate concepts
Have more frequent gate reviews to keep
customer/competitive focus
Conduct multiple Blackhats at reasonable
intervals for ground truth check
Do internal and external PTW
The Strategic
• Strengths
• Focused on long-term
• Balances long-term/short-term goals
• Effective long-range planning
• Effective delegation
• Builds team around specific actions
• Weaknesses
• Communicating strategy and actions
• Connecting strategy and solution to
customer benefits
• Keeping focus on progress
• Expects team to achieve without
specific direction
• Connecting strategy(what)/tactics(how)
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Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
Get a proposal manager early and use them to
manage action items
Get the proposal manager to issue formal
capture or proposal directives providing
specific direction
Get a conceptual graphic artist as a member
of the core team
Get a proposal coordinator to capture and
display metrics demonstrating real progress
Get Solution Architects for each solution:
technical, management, past performance,
pricing—connects strategy with tactics
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Program Execution
Use Executive Summary drafts to
communicate strategy
Develop critical graphics early and use them
to communicate value and benefits effectively
in context
Hold effective weekly capture meetings where
critical information, thoughts, expectations,
and direction are communicated
Use a simple table to connect specific
strategies with specific actions (action item list
labeling)
The Tactical
• Strengths
• Focused on short-term
• Driver--gets short-term actions done
• Effective day-to-day planning
• Measures progress daily
• Keeps team moving at good pace
• Weaknesses
• Strategy not connected with customer
needs
• Fails to communicate “Big Picture”
• Stands outside the team
• Focuses on detail to exclusion of
changing conditions
• Achieving end not win becomes focus
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Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
Get a strategist as a partner on your team—
junior capture manager as deputy
Get a BD person as your communicator
Get highly team oriented proposal manager
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Program Execution
Review strategy at every session and put
prominently “on the wall” and graphically
communicate connection to customer issues
Distribute regular updates to Executive
Summary draft to vector in on the “Big
Picture”
Get BD person focused on the win
Rotate leading the action item review to gain
team integration
Get a proposal manager highly sensitive to
changes in the customer and competitive field
Acknowledge detail orientation and ask team
not let you fall into trap
The Mission-Focused
• Strengths
• Knows customer mission inside and out
• Can connect strategy with key customer
issues, hot buttons, biases, hopes, fears
• Understands competitive position
• Translates issues into clear solutions
• Weaknesses
• Not a team organizer
• Poor judge of team needs
• Prefers hero execution model of capture
• Poor communicator to team
• Poor driver of day to day activities
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Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
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Program Execution
Get a great proposal manager to run day to
day ops. Create the effective team of 2 not 22.
Personally keep team focused on customer
issues at every team meeting since you’re the
expert
Proposal manager hand picks coordinator to
keep team organized and focused on day to
day
Work individually with each core team
member to impart knowledge of customer
and mission
Core team must be fleshed out with A players
Participate actively in all solutioning
Proposal manager designated as team voice
and communicator
Delegate, delegate, delegate…..do not become
the bottleneck
Get the best Solution Architect available
Do weekly newsletter type update to team to
force effective communication. Mark
COMPETITION SENSITIVE
The Technological
• Strengths
• Creates leading edge solutions
• Solutions appear to have high value
• Articulates complex solutions simply
• Solutions solve major customer issues
• Weaknesses
• Solutions have no programmatic
backbone
• Tends to be on leading edge of risk
• Problem solving not supported by data
• Alienates team with unrealistic solution
expectations
• Prices aggressively with little basis
17
Strategies for Improving Performance
Team
18
Program Execution
Get a great risk analyst who can effectively
identify, categorize, and mitigate risks
Use facts and data to present solution:
modeling, prototypes, test results must be
presented for credibility
Get a systems engineering oriented Solution
Architect who can lay out a realistic
implementation plan
Design effective communications plan with
customer(s). Must have acceptance before
submittal
Get a true conceptual graphic designer who
can simplify visually a complex technologybased solution
Use internal and external PTW experts and
estimates
Get a technology-oriented proposal manager
capable of putting the technology-based
solution in the customer’s context
Develop comprehensive risk identification,
management, and closure process early
Get your best PTW person wherever
Have core team be your design review team
and get buy in
What have we learned….?
Objective 1
• Understanding your Capture Manager type can affect the
success of your capture
Objective 2
• You should build your core team based on what Capture
Manager type you are
Objective 3
• You should build your capture program to leverage your
strengths and manage weaknesses to increase probability of win
Objective 4
• Failure to understand your Capture Manager type puts you and
your capture program at risk
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How do I know what type I am?
1. Look at the strengths and weaknesses of each type
presented. Which ones best represent you?
2. Look at your last 3 captures and identify problems that were
caused by you.
3. Correlate these in a simple table. The answer will reveal it
self quickly.
4. Ask a respected colleague. The answer might surprise you.
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Wrap up…
“To lead people, walk beside them
... As for the best leaders, the
people do not notice their
existence. The next best, the
people honor and praise. The next,
the people fear; and the next, the
people hate ... When the best
leader's work is done the people
say, 'We did it ourselves!’”
Lao-tsu
Knowing your type lets you become the best leader.
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Contact Information
Eric Gregory
Senior Vice President,
Capture and Proposal
Consulting-East
Shipley Associates
[email protected]