Like many A/E firms, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants (K/J) has a well-conceived, insightful go/no-go form. And like many A/E firm leaders, Lori Chicoyne knows when to use the form to her advantage.
“It’s mainly there as a guide, but sometimes, when I know in my heart of hearts that going after something is wrong, I’ll break out the form to help make my point,” laughs Chicoyne, Boston-based business development director in the firm’s Industrial/Environmental Business Unit.
Go/no-go forms like the one K/J employs are considered a staple and an important tool to help firms pursue opportunities they should pursue and avoid those that are a waste of time and money. Even firms that don’t
religiously complete go/no-go forms for every opportunity benefit from the issues they raise and the questions they ask.
For example, the K/J form requests three reasons the client would select the firm, as well as three weaknesses and a strategy for overcoming them. It then asks for a one-sentence strategy for winning the job, which serves as either a theme to follow throughout the proposal process or an indicator that there is no winnable strategy.
The form also contains seven True/False questions. If three or more responses are false, the form “encourages” a no-go if the cost to submit is more than 10 percent of the potential revenue.
The final section is quantitative, scoring the firm 0 – 5 on six different criteria, including relationship with the client, and the firm’s positioning on the project. For example, “current satisfied client” earns a 5, while “never worked with or met the client and/or overcoming a negative past” tallies a 0. Or, “we wrote the RFP” is worth 5 and “did not know the RFP/RFQ was coming out” counts for 0.
It also scores the firm on the project manager, qualifications, competition, and business case (profit
potential, strategic client, etc.). A score of 22 to a perfect 30 suggests a “go.”
As helpful as the form is, Chicoyne says the real strength in the San Francisco-headquartered firm’s go/no-go process is the varying viewpoints involved.
“The business unit has nine key market sectors and a national market sector leader for each, and we have
client managers for each key client,” she says. “When a major opportunity comes along, it becomes a highlevel, intellectual conversation among people with different perspectives.
Our client manager will have some insight from the client side, while the market sector leader may have some knowledge from a national viewpoint that neither I nor the client manager would know.”
Did you enjoy this article? To get more great content like this, be sure to subscribe to PSMJ today. Every monthly issue is filled with action-oriented strategies for A/E firm leaders...and the benefits just start there.
