Steve Hennessy Hennessy Defense ARE YOU KIDDING METHAT

Steve Hennessy – Hennessy Defense ARE YOU KIDDING ME…THAT WAS A PROPOSAL KICK-OFF MEETING?

Agenda • Why hold a comprehensive killer Proposal Kick-Off Meeting • When should you have the Kick-Off Meeting • Who should run the Kick-Off Meeting and Who should be invited • What are the contents of a great Kick-Off Meeting 3

Survey • How many of you are involved in large, complex, time limited proposals? • How many have been responsible for a Proposal Kick-Off Meeting? • How many have attended a Killer Kick-Off meeting where every question has been answered? 4

High Performing Teams* 1. Trust - solid and deep trust in each other and in the team’s purpose —free to express feelings 2. Goals - Everybody is working toward the same goals 3. Work Together - clear on how to work together and accomplish tasks 4. Expectations - Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and expectations 5. Tension - Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere 6. Contribution - Team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute 7. Conflict - Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed. Criticism is constructive 8. Decisions - The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement — in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executive sponsor, after which little second-guessing occurs. 9. Responsibility - Each team member carries his or her own weight and respects the team processes 10. Leadership - The leadership of the team shifts from time to time, as appropriate, to drive results. 5 * Excerpted from The Collaboration Imperative by Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese. Published by Cisco Systems.

The Nature of a Proposal • Brings together diverse group that needs to become a High Performing cohesive team within days • A submission deadline cannot be missed • The environment can be highly stressful • Content spans a variety of functional groups that must pull a cohesive story together – Engineering, Management, Manufacturing, Logistics, Cost, Performance on Current Jobs, etc • Innovation is critical to winning • You are competing against another team – not another company 6

Why Hold a Killer Kick-Off • Initializes the 10 characteristics of a High Performing Team • Firmly establishes the baseline for every aspect of the proposal with as little ambiguity as possible • Provides all team members with the bigger picture of what must be accomplished…. they see how their part fits into the whole offering • Forces the Capture Manager and the Proposal Manager to have their act together before the team fires off in all directions • Provides understanding of why due dates are not arbitrary • Reduces B&P Costs – minimizes wasted time • Creates a unified team mission – WINNING!!!! 7

Failure Modes and Effects* 1. Talker Domination 1. No contribution from the team – no collaborative solutions made 2. Stifling Subordinates 2. Subordinates brains stifled – ideas not generated 3. Wrong Priority 3. Kick-off rushed before ready – wasted efforts, rewrites, weeks in recovery 4. No Team Consensus 3. Writers turn to boilerplate material – Exec’s return to offices, details not identified 5. Deferred Decisions 3. Ideas not generated using collective wisdom – missed deadlines – rushed efforts 6. Rudderless Teams 3. Weak proposals without the details and quantitative solutions required to win 8 * Excerpted from Kick-Off Meeting Guide by Carl Selfe

Background – The Capture Battle Plan Customer Specifics / Rank Influence / Source Selection Role / History with you / Customer Management Plan Most Imp Requirements (MIRS) Underlying issues / Not just price of admission / Rank Order / Beyond the Spec/ His Buying Problem / His point of view Our Solution Detailed and Specific / Tech-Mgmt-Small Bus-Price / Win-Lose Factors / Why are we the Team they want to work with Competition Honest assessment / They are taking actions to win and want it as much as you do / From customer viewpoint “Critical” Actions Focus on critical actions that move the Pw needle / Specific and hard hitting / Mini-Program Plan for each Win Strategy and Win Themes How you will win / Key Discriminators / Allocate to all Sections of the Proposal / Features only we can offer 9

When to Hold the Kick-Off Meeting ID Phase APBI / Recompete Typical Timelines • 3 Year Strategic Plan • Annual Pipeline Plan • Annual R&D Plan • Annual B&P Plan • Strategic Partners • Early Teaming • Long Term Customer Relations • BD / Capture Training S 1, S 2, S 3 Annual Strategic Plan Qual Phase Capture Phase Sources Sought / RFI Full & Open IDIQ Task Order Draft RFP 6 – 24 Mo • Customer Identification – Source Qual • RFI Response • RFP Influencing • Incumbent Program Assessment • Product Development • Studies / Analysis • Qtrly Pipeline Reviews (cutline) Selection Team, SSA, SSEB • Customer Most Important Requirements Analysis (MIRS) Ranked • Solution Development - detailed for all rqmts including Tech, Mgmt, Price, IMS, Sm Bus, etc • Win / Lose Factors • Competitive Assessment • Win Strategy • Key Strategic Actions • Price-to-Win • Teaming • RFP Shaping Gate 2 – Bid / No-Bid Blue Team #1 Win Strategy Black Hat Competitive Final RFP Gate 3 Proposal Kick. Off Blue Team #2+ Win Strategy • Proposal Prep Second Round • Annotated Outline – with rqmnts, pg counts, author, themes, discriminators • Story Boards – section themes, features / benefits / proof, references, primary content and graphica • Section Drafts - primary text, fully developed graphics, +/- 10% of pg count, • Section Finals – all text, fully reviewed graphics, within page count, formatted by pubs • Final Pricing • Management Reviews • Final Product Pre-Testing • Final Pubs, Copying, Delivery White Team Annotated Outline Pink Team Storyboards Red Team Gold Final Team On. Screen Or… if No Draft RFP then right after Final RFP Start-Up /Trans Post – Proposal Submission 30 -60 Days 7 -30 Days 4 – 12 Mo • Opportunity Gate 1 – Pursue / No. Pursue Proposal Phase 4 - 12 Mo 1 – 6 Mo • Pre-Award Activities • Recruiting • Final Teaming • Orals • Product Testing Award 30 - 240 Days 30 - 90 Days • Celebration • Debrief • Internal Team Kick-Off Meeting • Customer Start. Up Review • Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) • Transition – Mgmt Team, Rebadging, Inventory, etc • Lessons Learned Internal Kick-Off IBR

How Long is a Kick-Off Meeting • As Long as it takes…… • Very Large, Prime Gov’t with Multiple Volumes, $500 M+ – 1 - 2 Days is not too long • Large, Prime Gov’t with 100 pages or less, ~$50 M - $500 M – 5 -6 Hrs possibly • Medium to Small with 50 pages or less, $20 M - $50 M – 3 -4 Hrs… ish • Small with 30 pages or less, single volume – 2 -3 Hrs – don’t short change 11

Who should run and Who should attend • The Capture Manager and the Proposal Manager • All Writers • All SME’s that will feed the writers • Proposal Coordinator, Graphics, and Pubs • Cost Roll Up Team (finance, materials, etc) • Executive Leadership – approvers and Color Team reviewers • Functional Managers who oversee the inputs for their area • ALL KEY SUBCONTRACTORS – all players who will contribute 12 The Diamond Team

On-Line or In Person Meeting? I’ll Let you be the Judge…. . Play Video – “The Conference Call” 13

What are the Contents 1. Customer Summary 9. RFP Detailed Breakdown 2. Most Important Requirements (MIRS) 10. Team with rolls and contact info 3. Summary of our Solution – technical, mgmt, logistics, price, past perf, etc 11. Prop Schedule – detailed 4. Competitive Analysis Summary 13. Annotated Outline – very detailed 5. Strategic Actions Taken to Date 12. Sharepoint File Structure 6. Win Strategy – Discriminators 14. Storyboard Template, AMU Template, and Writing Template 7. Price to Win (PTW) 15. WBS – with Dictionary – BOE Template 8. Teaming – summary of TA’s 16. Notional high level program IMS 17. Allocated Cost Targets each function Capture Plan 14 Proposal Plan

Customer Summary • 100% Focus on who will be reviewing your proposal – SSA, SSAC, SSEB Team • Customer Org Chart with Notes • Customer List – ranked in order of decision making authority Discuss: • – What they like and don’t like – How will they know us – Who they would pick if no proposal was submitted – Do we do work for them today 15 SSASelects SSAC- Compares Proposals • Rqmts Orgs • Users • Functional SSEB- Evaluates Proposals SSEB Chair Legal Contracts Tech Team Eval Tech Merit and Proposal Risk Past Perform Team Cost Team

Most Important Requirements (MIRS) • “The Customer” demand of the procurement… the prime motivators for selection • Relationship of emotional and logical requirements • “What is the customer’s Buying Problem” – not always in RFP • Each has an underlying driving issue(s) • MIRs are what is most important to the Customer, not what you think • Ranking them drives prioritization • MIRs are a synthesis of all the customers desires weighted by the most important decision makers 16 Ranked List of MIRS

Competitive Summary Relative Scoring against the MIRS and then against Eval Criteria (Section M) Against MIRS Against Eval Criteria MIR Vs. Competitor #1 Vs. Competitor #2 Rationale/ Comment 1 0 - ~~~ 2 ++ + ~~~ 3 0 + ~~~~~ 4 -- 0 ~~ 5 - - ~~~~ Legend (our eval against them) ++ 17 Significant Strength + Strength 0 Tie - Weakness -- Significant Weakness

Price to Win PTW is a Range – It is Constantly Updated – It is Owned by the Capture Team Baseline Assumptions Team Recco Cost/Price Reduction Ideas that need Mgmt Approval Reduction Ideas that push limits – Needs Exec Mgmt approval 18

Teaming A Better Teaming Matrix for improved decision making Teammates Traditionally Listed with “X” Against the SOW Score Potential Teammates Against Specific Prog Reqmnts Better 19

Annotated Outline (#1 Failure Item) Section #s Collapsable Author for Every Section - to Level 10 if required Got to Level 10 if that is how it must be organized Put in your own words what goes in this section Page Count – Leadership Team Decides Up Front Add Critical Spec / SOW, and CDRL Para Ref Colorize the Levels – Level 1&2 – Fill in color Status at Various Stages – simple color coding All Sect L, Sect M Para Ref (Just Para Ref) Win Themes – Allocated to lowest level Cover all Volumes – All Detail Don’t Forget All Attachments 20

Storyboards – Its About the Graphics RFP Reqmnts Graphics Other Reqmnts Feature/Benefit/Proof MIRS/Sol/Comp Theme Sentence • Its about developing the graphic first • Then put Features, Benefits, Proof around the graphic 21

High Level Graphical Schedule Key Gov’t Milestones – should be defined by the RFP Insert Key prog milestones notional at Kick-Off Big Picture Engineering Tasks or primary work scope Include Production, Logistics or whatever applicable Add Notes and Call Outs for key takeaways

Conclusion • Hold a Killer Kick-Off – Just Do It • Be Prepared – Make it Content Rich – Its Your Job • Don’t Rush It – Good Things Take Time • Make it Mandatory – This is Serious Business • Get Exec Leadership Involved – Eliminate Rework 23

QUESTIONS ? ? ? Steve Hennessy Defense Steve. hennessy@hennessydefense. com 321 -704 -0262 24