By Michael Shapiro, PE, Owner of Michael S. Shapiro Consulting LLC
Alternative Delivery (AD) Mega-Projects are extraordinarily complex and require an intense amount of positioning, organization, planning, teaming, risk management and execution of business development and team strategies to win. Getting your team organized and started quickly can ensure greater success.
In the last 29 years, I have worked on 43 AD projects with a total construction value of $29B in which nine have been P3 projects valued at $11.0B. I have led 25 AD proposal efforts worth $16.3B and won 25% of these efforts. Through this experience, I have found that a systematic approach to business development, identifying your targets early and dedicating the necessary time and resources early and throughout the process can ensure greater success.
The following are the major tasks that I have identified to position you and your team for success, especially the tasks and activities prior to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) being issued by the owner:
Identify your targets
On most AD mega-projects, it takes many years internally from the owner until these projects are ready to go out for an RFQ. Prior to that there is a lot of information that is developed by the owner and their
consultants that is available and should be reviewed by you and your internal team to determine which projects align best with your capabilities, experience and expertise. I highly recommend that you start this task at least two years before the RFQ is issued by the owner. If you decide to target a project, discuss this with your team and your supervisor.
Do your initial due diligence
Do your initial due diligence by reviewing as much information is available from the owner. Review Capital Improvement Plans and budgets and other information from the owner’s website. Review newspaper and magazine articles to keep abreast of the projects and project issues. Determine the key challenges on the project, the project cost and the schedule from the owner. Determine who from the owner is leading the project and who are the other key players. Determine who the major stakeholders are and third-parties that will be involved in the project. Determine what the politics are surrounding the project and what obstacles and challenges there are surrounding the potential project. Take all of the information that you collect and start building a digital workbook.
Attend preliminary planning, environmental and community engagements
Attending preliminary planning, environmental and community engagement meetings is also a good way to learn more about the project. It can also give you more visibility and add to you contacts on the project. If possible, engage with some of the key players, in as much as practicable, to show your interest and to develop relationships if you don’t already have any. Keep adding to your digital workbook
Attend Committee and Board meetings and review background and notes
Attending Committee and Board meetings will also provide you with additional information on the projects. These may include who on the Committee or Board is an advocate or an opponent of the project. Who is most vocal. What challenges are there on the project and what internally is the owner team dealing with on the project. Obtain and review the agendas and information packages prior to every meeting so that you are up to speed and get familiar with what will be discussed. Use these meeting to introduce yourself to key players and to show your interest. Keep adding to your digital workbook.
Meet with the owner
Email or call the project manager and let them know your interest in learning more about the project. Set up a meeting with them. Prepare an agenda prior to the meeting and share it with them. Give them enough time so that, if necessary, they can bring other members of their team into the meeting. Confirm the things that you have learned in your due diligence above and ask them to share their accomplishments and concerns on the project. Also ask about the other key players internally and externally and the decision makers. Discuss technical, political and third-party and stakeholder challenges, including DBE and local requirements. Find out what their hot buttons are. Ask the Project Manager what other teams they have been talking to. Keep adding what you have learned to your digital workbook. Share what you have learned with your internal team.
Meet internally with your team
Once the above tasks have been accomplished and you have shared with them what you have learned, schedule an internal meeting with your team. Bring them up to speed on the pursuit and go through a SWOT analysis and an initial risk assessment with them. Identify your teams’ strengths and weakness and analyze your competition. Develop an initial risk assessment and see where your holes are. Develop a mitigation strategy for all risk items, where applicable. Discuss ways to strengthen and build to the
team by adding potential partners. Discuss strategy in areas: design; construction; financial; operations; maintenance; DBE local business participation strategy; public, community and political engagement; quality; program management; environmental; archeological; geotechnical; technology; schedule; and an initial win strategy. Identify all potential teaming partners. Document the meeting and update the digital workbook. Make the digital workbook available to all of your internal team.
Prepare initial Go/No Go
Prepare an initial Go/No Go form identifying all of the items raised in the previous tasks and score your results. Determine where the holes are and what is lacking in your Go/No Go evaluation and where it can be strengthened. Get back with your internal team and go over the results and receive further input.
Have initial discussions with your identified teaming partners
Have initial discussions with your identified teaming partners. Determine if they are available to participate on the team and what they perceive as their strengths and weaknesses. Determine what they bring to team in technical, financial, operations, maintenance, relationships, political, community engagement, DBE and local business participation strategy, etc. After your initial discussions put together a matrix of what you have learned and make recommendations. See what holes are still in your team and go back to your internal team and try to fill them. Review the matrix with your internal team and receive their input and comments and finalize the matrix.
Update initial Go/No Go and submit for approval
Determine what your order of magnitude budget will be for work to be performed prior to issuance of the RFQ, the preparation of the RFQ and preparation of the proposal, including development of the bid. Update the initial Go/No Go form based on the matrix developed and recommendations for potential teaming partners and the budgets developed, and submit the Go/No Go form for approval.
Once Go/No Go is approved develop a detailed planning and pursuit document
Once the Go/No Go is approved by the Executive Team we can now move forward with the development of a detailed planning and pursuit document. This document should be broken out by work to be performed prior to issuance of the RFQ, the preparation of the RFQ and preparation of the proposal, including development of the bid. It should include the order of magnitude budget and the approved Go/No Go form. It should also include several documents from the digital workbook. Identifying the schedule for each phase of the procurement process and the execution of the final contract with the owner. As we move forward in our efforts, these documents shall be updated and distributed to team members, as appropriate.
Initiate teaming agreements and negotiate these
Take the lead on developing our teaming agreements with each firm or teaming partner, working closely with legal and negotiate these with each of them. This can be a time-consuming effort, but is absolutely necessary in moving forward with all members of our team. Make sure that the scope and responsibilities for each phase of the pursuit and execution is defines in as much as practicable, along with the terms and conditions. Confidentiality must be addressed in the agreement. Once the agreements are all executed update the detailed planning and pursuit document and the Go/No go form.
Get your proposal team involved
Determine who will take the lead for all of the proposal work and support of all phases of the pursuit. Sit down with the lead, go over the pursuit and schedule and give them access to the digital workbook and the detailed planning and pursuit document. Make sure from this point forward they are involved in the pursuit and are fully committed to the effort and the win. Their support and their team will be insurmountable towards the pursuit’s success.
Have a strategic planning meeting with your team and partners
Schedule a strategic planning meeting with your team and partners as soon as possible, allowing enough time for the team to have adequate engagement prior to the issuance of the RFQ by the owner. Prior to the meeting distribute the detailed planning and pursuit document, redacting anything that is not necessary for each individual member. Prior to the meeting, establish an agenda and determine who should take on major pieces of the agenda. Go over this with all of them. Get the proposal lead involved, as appropriate. The agenda should include time to bring the team up to speed on the overall pursuit and the project, go through the different phases of the pursuit and the work and go through the team responsibility matrix. Input from all team members should be encouraged during the meeting. Team assignments, including further due diligence should be a part of the agenda. Document the results of the meeting and distribute this to all attendees, along with an action item list.
Coordinate team assignments and do further due diligence
The Pursuit Manager shall be responsible for coordinating team assignments and further due diligence assigned at the strategic planning meeting. It is recommended and a virtual call be established on a regular basis to go through the action item list to determine progress and to seek input from the team.
Continue to attend preliminary planning, environmental, community engagement and Committee and Board meetings
During the strategic planning meeting, determine who will continue to attend preliminary planning, environmental and community engagement activities and Committee and Board meetings. Don’t let only one person from the team do this. This should be a well-rounded approach that will show the interest of our key team members and commitment to the success of the project and the project goals. This will allow us to further engage with the owner, consultants, stakeholders, third-parties and Board members.
Continue meetings with the owner
The Pursuit Manager will coordinate with the owner and schedule continuous meetings with them to keep our team in front of them, get them to see the talent of our team, stay abreast of any owner changes and shifting priorities and to find out what is happening behind the scenes. We can also potentially influence how the owner could deal with issues prior to the issuance of the RFQ and shape the RFP.
There are several other tasks that must also be performed prior to the issuance of the RFQ. My purpose was to give you a flavor of many of these tasks.
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