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Life in the fast lane – Bid work

This Blog was written by Alex Hammond. Alex is a current member of the Graduate Consultant Development Community (CDC).

Having completed the rigorous training and induction at the start of our time on the CDC, our group were split. Some wanted to take the time to assimilate the wealth of information they had been exposed to in the preceding weeks, enjoy some slightly less manic time on the bench, and get settled into their shiny new job. Others were chomping at the bit to get stuck in. I was overwhelmingly of the latter - I could not wait to get started. Having been trained to within an inch of my life, I was now ready to unleash this knowledge on the world.

Unfortunately (or perhaps wisely, who’s to judge?!), I was not set loose on the CEO of a Global Retailer, or asked to redesign the NHS within my first week out of induction. What I was able to get involved with, however, is a project that epitomises the very nature of the work that we do - I joined a bid team.

Those that have experienced any sort of formal sales process, whether we’re talking a few pounds to a few million, will know it is an emotional rollercoaster. Our client was a major bank - nothing new there you might say - but this was (and still is) a bank undergoing a phenomenal amount of change across the entirety of its business. What this meant for us was a great opportunity for Capgemini to get involved in this change, and make things happen. Trouble is we had to convince the client to part with a fair chunk of change in order for us to do so.

A bid is a great thing to get involved with early in your consulting career. It encompasses everything that is good about consulting – fast-paced environment, a great team effort, quick decisions, a huge amount of variety, and the opportunity to work with some really big fish (or VP’s as they generally prefer to be called). This is to name but a few. Delivery is our day job, and of course most of your time will be working to actually design, deliver and implement what it is you have been selling. But when the opportunity comes up to bid and sell a project, it is worth getting involved.

The nature of the beast is momentum. The start of a bid tends to be fairly restrained - gathering research, reading documents, discussing solution options, playing with figures and costs, and ultimately developing our idea of what a good solution looks like. At the start, and particularly as a new joiner, you can get lulled into the sense that you have a chilled couple of weeks ahead of you... but how wrong you would be! This truly is the calm before the storm.

By week 2 things have really kicked off, and come the week of submission the pace of work is such that if you switch off for a minute you will have missed a complete change of strategy. Finally, as the final proposal is signed, sealed and delivered (well, emailed at least), you realise how much of a team effort it is to deliver something like a multi-million pound bid, and the sense of achievement you have when you find out you have won! (Disclaimer – unfortunately we don’t win all bids, but if you’re like me you can claim a 100% record and not worry about this too much). Can’t think of a better start to my career as a consultant...