Developing Your 2012 Pipeline and Preparing For a Great Year of Winning Business

If you are anything like me, you've dealt with three challenges during the holidays - trying to keep from overindulging too much and gaining hard-to-shed pounds; fighting off a recurring cold; and trying to juggle family time with proposals that are due early to mid-January. By the way, I am officially envious if you faced no challenges or dealt with them through advance planning and orderly life. You are my hero.

This article is for everyone else who is not a planning maven, or like me, tends to pile the plate so high that no amount of planning is enough, no matter how hard I try. Now that the holiday hustle and bustle is over, and there is relatively smooth sailing through the frigid months ahead, it is time to slow down for a day or two and finally plan. Dust off your crystal ball, sharpen your pencils, and let's talk about getting your company (and you) to that next level of growth.

My first question to you is, what does your opportunities pipeline look like for 2012? This question is relevant to everyone - not only the executives, but also capture and proposal staff, and even proposal consultants. Every business has to have a healthy pipeline to thrive. It is surprising, however, how many simply do not have one, have proposal staff that don't know about its existence (if there is one), or have one but are skeptical about its quality and usefulness. I hear a common story that bespeaks of broken pipelines from small and large companies alike:

• "We only submitted a handful of proposals last year; we could be proud that we are picky but our win rate is so low."
• "We cannot find opportunities that match our exact area of expertise, so our pipeline is small and won't sustain our desired growth."
• "We bid on everything - I think our bid-no-bid process is broken - and having everything under the sun in the pipeline simply doesn't make sense."
• "We keep going after bluebirds - we haven't updated our pipeline in a while."

Or better yet,

• "We don't know what our Bid and Proposal budget is. Because no one has planned the pipeline for the year. Therefore, we have not decided how much investment is needed to win the opportunities that show up in the pipeline to reach our annual goal, while factoring in our win rate."

If you recognize your company in the statements above, or have other pipeline challenges, it is time for change. You have to put business development higher on your priorities list, because a quality pipeline directly correlates to your future revenue. Or lack thereof. If you are a business owner, executive, or a consultant, make sure that you make this an investment year into your pipeline development. It will contribute to your peace of mind, and give you greater control over your destiny.

If you are working in a proposal department - wouldn't it be nice to bring some degree of planning and order into your resources, time, and efforts? Perhaps, you would be compelled to act bolder and ask your management for more resources knowing that you are facing a churn-and-burn proposal stretch. Maybe you could dedicate more time to capture - even if you could do a little bit at a time while you are busy on other pursuits. All of it will lower your stress and contribute to your quality of life.

My second question is, have you looked at your industry's trends? What does the immediate future hold for you and your company? For example, with the government moving more and more work to the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) vehicles and GSA and VA schedules, have you caught up and learned how to turn your company into a task order winning machine? What was the last time you have looked at the legislative changes impacting government contractors? What areas will continue to grow, like Cyber and Security fields - and what industries are bound to shrink with the budget crunch? How are your target customers changing their procurement behaviors given the state of the economy? How will you adjust the type of opportunities you are bidding on?

Also, what are your competitors now doing to beat you? Are they cutting costs - and if so, how are they doing it? Are they investing into new initiatives?

Answers to these questions will shape your pipeline even further.

These questions may seem irrelevant to proposal managers, coordinators, writers, editors, and other proposal professionals not as directly involved in strategy and planning - but I beg to differ. It will make you a better rounded professional if you understand what the industry is doing and how your company is likely to react - and you can adjust accordingly if there are certain risks on the horizon.

Which brings me to my third question - have you looked at your career and growth opportunities for 2012? What will you do to advance yourself, earn more money, and get greater job security, while helping your business? Will you stay in the same field or will you expand your abilities? In the business development field, there are always ways to command higher pay, be more in demand, and ultimately become more successful. On the other hand, many proposal professionals narrowly specialized in one field may find themselves in less secure positions.

To change this situation, it is important that you don't succumb to burnout-induced complacency. Explore professions that are adjacent to your fields to increase your competitiveness and pay grade. There are natural career paths for certain professions. For example, proposal managers would greatly benefit from getting training in management, capture management, orals coaching if your customer set uses orals, technical writing, pricing, desktop publishing, and graphics skills - and could definitely use training in cost proposals development. Capture managers should expand their skills into proposal management, business development, price-to-win, and cost strategy. Technical writers should consider proposal coordination and proposal management as a career path if they are comfortable with higher levels of responsibility over the team. Proposal coordinators could venture into desktop publishing, graphics, and editing; or step up and becom e proposal managers.

For executives, investing into developing more versatile proposal teams means higher success rate in winning proposals, and ability to rotate personnel from one role to another on a variety of proposals, preventing team burnout. And, ultimately, getting a more skilled resource pool may mean a different type of pipeline where you can be more aggressive in pursuing opportunities.

Determine what training courses you are going to attend in 2012 to expand your capabilities, and definitely plan to make it to the APMP-NCA's educational events.

Well, onward and upward, as some of my dear friends like to say. If you haven't already asked yourself or your colleagues these three questions, it may be time that you do. Life may not go according to a plan, but it is better to have one anyway. Life without a plan is almost guaranteed to have much less spectacular results. I wish you a professionally and personally rewarding year!

Tips to Make Your Career Development Plan Work

Career Development is a favourite topic on the agenda of employees and their managers. Career development plans are created at the start of the year and then put on back burner till the year end or next formal performance appraisal. What can you do to avoid getting into this trap and use it to propel career growth and pay raise.

The following tips are provided to help you ensure that your career development plans are relevant and reflect the skills and capabilities you want or need to build in a world where change is the only constant!

Does the Career Development Plan work for you?

At the end of the day, it's your development and your career. You are responsible for proactively ensuring that your development is in line with your own performance expectations or career aspirations.

Prepare in advance


Most of the employees feel that they are in grip of their career and walk in unprepared for the career plan review meetings with their manger. The discussions are generally vague with a lot of feel good factor and no solid action. Knowing your manager very well cannot be the excuse for not having prepared for the meeting.

Is the Career Development Plan still relevant?

The world economy is undergoing major changes and global cycles are shorter and deeper, it may make sense to validate some of your goals against the economic reality, industry needs and your current job responsibility. Don't get me wrong, it does not mean changing the goals every six months; however it may need alteration for maximum career benefit.

Is the Career Development Plan achievable in time frame set by you?

It is your career and you set the pace for your developmental goals with a timeline, what is the fun in setting goals which are not achievable in a set time and giving yourself a too big a stretch every time. Take a tough look at the time-lines, You can increase the pace over a period of time. My advice would be to start slow and build momentum on the way, A great career is a marathon and not a sprint race.

Does it incorporate recent developmental feedback?

You may have gained new insights in your working style which helps you see your strengths and limitations in a better way. In case the recent feedback is important for you to grow in career, make sure you incorporate it in the career development plan.

Do you have a new Manger?

In case you have a new manager it may be good to run your career development plan with him, make sure you tell the current plan has been set in consultation with your old manager and you would review the progress with him quarterly. After a six month period your new manger would have settled down and you should sit review the plan with him intensely. You need to align the thoughts / goals of your manger's role with the plan.

Make optimum usage of resources at hand

Both time and money are scarce resources in the modern corporate world. Take the time to review your manager's coaching efforts to date, and see if they are aligned with your career developmental plan. If you wish to make changes to your development plan, you should be prepared to discuss how your manager can best help you achieve any new goals

Make sure that your career plan balances current performance expectations with future career aspirations and challenges you to build on your strengths. Always remember that there will be resources which you want and never get, maybe due to economic factors or your mangers visible or unstated constraints. Make best use of what you have readily available and not what you continue to fight for. Successful people make career out of what they have on hand and seldom squander energy on what they cannot have.

Career Development Planning: Keys to Career Success

Career Development Planning: keys to finding and qualifying for the right job for overall career success.

Career development planning is the key to advancement and is a measure of tracking the progress of your career. Also, it is a dependable method to study your overall personal goals and the steps taken as your accomplishments move you toward the right career.

Keys to a well thought out career development plan: The plan is a work in progress. As you move up one step there is another in front of you. You build in flexibility, one door may close but with continued career related research another soon opens. Your career development plan is not focused exclusively on your work but on your career, its direction and your interests and passion.

As you career plan evolves so does your resume. Keep it up dated through a file in which you keep a record of achievements, training, projects completed, new skills, promotions, performance reviews and positive letters and memos.

Begin keeping a file on job announcements in your career and any career in which you have an interest. Even if employed this is a good tip as you can identify where new qualifications are required allowing you to get the additional training and experience.

In the course of writing out your career development plan spend some time on exactly what your overall job objectives are. Both short and long-term and what you see yourself doing. Are there any obstacles you have to overcome? How is your development plan going to help you qualify for your next career or update your current position?

To make your career development plan work for you there are several personal planning steps that it would be productive to consider:

1. Research the proposed career. Use informational interviews to talk to those already working in the career. Attend workshops and seminars and area conferences. Build your network of like minded people. Work to determine what skills, education and experience are required to qualify for the position.
2. If your career direction is not firmly fixed, pick the top two or three and keep researching until a number one comes into focus. Don't worry if you reject a career that at first seemed so promising, this is progress and it's just as important to find out what you don't want as what you look at favorably.
3. If you are planning a career change analyze closely what qualifications are required. Identify your transferable skills, and build a step by step plan to become qualified. In-line learning, self-study and mentoring can go a long way to become qualified in many required skills.
4. Add financial planning to your career development plan. If changing careers requires a reduced level of income, take that into consideration in your overall planning. Reduce overall debt to increase your options and reduce stress.

In any career development plan you have a series of long-term objectives, for example: reading books appropriate to your career, leadership, team building and project management are just a few subjects to consider. If you want to move to another area, you may want to vacation there first.

If you are looking at a career in another industry, research and study of the industry is in order. What are the overall prospects to the industry and the proposed career?

In summary, career development planning is a work in progress, and a valuable partner to growing your career based skills and qualifications. All of which should allow you to discover opportunities that match you career objectives.

The Role of Information Technology in Business

The role of information technology systems in a business environment can be classified into four broad categories. These categories include function performance, communication through networking, management and enterprise roles.

Information technology provides commercial and industrial systems for businesses. These systems enable businesses to function effectively and efficiently.

Function IT Systems

Function IT systems are applications that allow individuals to function effectively in the workplace. Examples of common IT systems that enhance workplace functions are word processor applications, spreadsheet applications, statistical analysis software and computer aided design (CAD) programs. Employees can work and perform their task individually or collectively using these specialized software technologies.

Network IT Systems

Network IT systems allow effective communication within and outside an organisation. Examples range from simple e-mail (electronic mail) to blogs, wiki sites, IM (instant messaging) and electronic conferencing systems. These types of technologies promote interaction and collaboration among working groups and also facilitate quick information flow at all levels.

Management IT systems

Management IT systems(MITS) can be defined as planned applications that are designed to process data and transform the processed data into useful information for management decision making.

It should be noted that Management Information systems (MIS) are subsets of Enterprise IT systems (this is explained later on in this article). However, because of the vital role MIS play in a business environment, it is considered here as a major information technology for businesses.

In a typical scenario, management operates at different levels and so it is possible to apply management information systems at these varied levels.

Basic examples of management information systems are human resources management systems, financial management information systems and marketing management information systems.

Enterprise IT Systems

Enterprise IT systems are technologies designed to integrate and manage entire business processes for large organisations. Typically, enterprise application software is hosted on large servers over a computer network. Transmission of information can either be internal or external.

Examples of enterprise information systems may be accounting software, health care specific software or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Another good example of software application within this category is Customer relationship management software (CRM).

The role of Information technology in business is wide and varied. It can be said that IT provides a huge range of capabilities that enhance management performance at all levels. It is therefore important to understand the four major categories of IT systems and their functions and roles in a business environment.

Letting go: Making sense of social magazines and news readers

Applications that aggregate articles based on what others in one’s social network are reading and reformat them into an attractive magazine and presentation formats are growing in popularity, but they are raising concern among some publishers.

The processes build upon the referral and curating functions of colleagues and friends in social networks and reduce the need for users to go to multiple sites for content on their own. Some of the best known social magazines are Flipboard, Newsmix, Currents, and Pulse. Some publishers are starting their own social reading apps, such as New York Times that has a Facebook app pulling together stories that friends have read in NYT.
Many publishers are fearful of these developments, however, because they represent another step away from publishers controlling when, where, and how readers use their content, reduce the impact of the publishers’ brand strategies, and diminish control over the presentation and marketing of their content.

But publishers really don’t have a choice whether or not social magazines and readers grow in importance. That ship has sailed. The real choices is whether publishers use them for best effect and whether they are willing to accept the benefits of having more readers driven to their content and reaching persons who haven’t used their content before.
In coping with this and other disaggregation of content, however, many publishers need to adjust their own ways of presenting digital content. Because readers from social magazines, other aggregators, and search engine are directed to individual articles, it becomes more important to think about how that material appears to these new readers and what can be done in its layout to attract the new readers to stay on the site and sample more content. They are not entering through the home page so greater thought needs to be given to what appears on article pages.

Social magazines provide another mechanism by which deliver content to new readers and to existing readers in new ways.  They are not the ‘silver bullet’ for solving publishers’ digital challenges, but they are another means by which benefits can be obtained and pursued. 
Focusing on what control social magazines transfer to users and their branding downsides is a distraction for publishers who are beginning to learn the value of letting go of the control in the digital environment. Digital media are now bringing 15-20 percent of the traffic to many publishers’ digital content and they are feeling the benefits of letting readers decide the means and uses of that content.

ERP Solutions and Open Source CRMs For The Business Productivity

The growth in the business and the expansion of various departments within the business are making an organization to store and process their daily business management information more difficult. The introduction and implementation of various kinds of middle level software solutions were sheer waste of time for such organizations. The need for developing a system which can encompass the entire information related to the company and generate some valuable reports have become more imperative for majority of the small and medium scale enterprises. The development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was a noteworthy move by the software solution providers which boomed the productivity of the prospective companies.

ERP solutions are giving the enormous scalability to any business enterprises with a productive intention. A successful ERP solution system comprises of various sub sections which manages different departmental or functional areas of an SME. Finance being the lifeblood of any business requires an important attention on its management. The management accounting and controlling, receivable and payables, budgeting etc. are some of the significant areas where the financial management requires high level of processing. Managing the material stock and its actual availability throughout the various warehouses are coming under the materials management function of this software. The internal manufacturing and the products available in the external marketing interconnected to the stock management will also be an extensive process conducted inside the software to avoid any kind of over production or waste of resources. Managing the sales, stocking and the distribution channels are coming under a great process for such a solution. The order management, returns management, ecommerce management takes care of the inflow and outflow of the products and its level of quantity and other detailed particulars. Supplier relationship management, service management, performance management, project management etc. are some other areas where proper data input and processes are required from the total the organizational point of view.

Customer being the King of any business, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is of course a main stream in the business management. The modules provided in the CRM Solutions will be providing the company to gain a massive attention on their existing and new customers to build up the business growth. A solution providing proper, timely and logically set answers to customer queries and demands will be creating a situation to maintaining a positive graph of the company's future business.

There are software solutions with quality ERP and some open source CRM solutions. There are software companies who promote business by the sales and services of ERP and CRM solutions. They are highly specialized in installing and troubleshooting such softwares with ease. The user friendliness will make them more attracted and the highest demand for their business clients to successfully implement the same within their organization.

5 Activities For Improving Employee Morale and Motivation

Companies have assets. This often makes us think of capital and physical facilities like factories, distribution centers, property and other assets. It would include good will, trade names, trade marks, technology and just plain know how. But you probably would not see employees on such a list even though the employees of a company may be the most important asset. In this article we will discuss employee morale and five things we can do to improve it.

1. Participation: Being Part of the Company

We humans like to contribute to our society. We like to take part in what is going on around us. If a company is dynamic and expanding, the employees will want to jump in and make things happen. If we leave them out of what is going on, they will fill alienated. They will feel unloved so to say. So we want our employees to take part in company operations in as many ways as are feasible.

Many of our companies are technically oriented. If we want every employee to have some say as to what is going on in the company then we need to make sure they do know what is going on. Most employees may not have the background to contribute on a technical basis, but if they understand their job they will see things that are obvious to them just because they are close to the operation. So they may make a suggestion that doesn't seem right to management, but if management will really listen, they will figure out what the employee is trying to say and will then be able to make changes that will improve the process.

If your company is focusing on continual improvement then you will want to have small departmental committees where selected employees can participate and those employees should represent all of the employees of the department. That way suggestion from the floor can be turned into logical solutions.

2. Employee Evaluations: So How Am I Doing Boss?

When you make an evaluation of an employee, you are taking an interest in his of her work. It is a time for praise and critical evaluation. Supervisors need to help employees set goals for improvement. If there are special rewards for meeting a goal, such as a promotion, then possible rewards should be specified. Some companies give cash awards for special achievements. Having been on the receiving end of such awards and having passed them out to employees is a great morale booster.

3. Benefits: This Is a Great Place to Work

Benefits are so expensive that firms are continually reducing them and cutting them out of the plan. Often the problem is that the benefits were too high to start with. A benefit is actually part of an employees salary. It might be best for a company to cut out benefits, tell employees that the benefits must be provided by themselves, and that their salary reflects the need for such benefits as medical and retirement and then teach them how to obtain plans to suit their individual needs. That could buffer the challenge of ever increasing cost.

The employees would become more like independent agent such as the care-giver who takes care of my wife. I pay her more than the usual wage and some agency does not take money away from her. She is in business for herself.

So, you could hire workers on contract as independent agents.

Well, some employees are not going to like this so you may have to offer company plans but it would be up to the employee to pay into the plans, and even if the employee has payments deducted from his check it does not mean that the company is sponsoring the plan. It is simply an available plan.

4. Participation in Community Events: I Represent the Bigalot Corporation


Companies should be aware of the community they reside in. There is always something going on and company employees can make great contributions in time and know-how. Inform employees of community events and invite them to participate.

5. Sports and Recreation: I Made the Team

Baseball, softball, and some other team sports are great for company morale. The participants and the observers are all happily involved. Wearing company uniforms is good for business too. Also informal games can be played at company outings. T-shirts can be supplied to employees and their families. I still wear a high quality T-shirt given to me for a company outing twenty years ago.

You can do other things for employees if you have the resources. A company I worked for in New England repaired homes and churches for their employees after a tornado passed through town.

I knew one old fellow who owned a engineering and manufacturing firm near Pittsburgh where if he heard that an employee had a washing machine break down, he would find a new one installed when he got home. The employees were well paid and tried to keep such problems away from this fine fellow.