(4) Know your capabilities / experience.
As the #4 process improvement lesson learned has taught us, every potential opportunity identified must be carefully examined through pursuit / no pursuit analysis. This analysis drives a decision process that includes asking the right questions about an opportunity, starting with “Should we bid?” and “Can we win?” By honestly asking yourself if your company truly has a solution that meets the Government’s requirements, you can make smarter pursuit decisions. Once a decision has been made to pursue an opportunity, then relooking at your capabilities to determine if they align with the customer’s requirements is a critical step in the qualification process.
During the capture phase, a capabilities and gap analysis should be performed to assess your company’s capabilities to meet specific customer requirements, and identify gaps in your capabilities that drive teaming needs. Capabilities are the collective skills, abilities, and expertise of your company that are applied to fulfill customer needs and include:
- Products
- Services
- Core Competencies
- Human Capital
- Facilities Resources
- Tools
Capabilities and gap analyses are best supported through use of a capabilities matrix. For each requirement, a “stoplight” type rating of red (no recent or relevant capabilities / experience), yellow (some recent and relevant capabilities / experience), and green (significant recent and relevant capabilities / experience) can be assigned to easily visualize strengths and weaknesses (gaps in capabilities) to support bid strategy and teaming research. If this analysis shows that your company cannot perform at least 50% of the requirements, then it may be best to either no bid the opportunity or seek a prime teaming partner. If this analysis shows that your company can perform the majority of the requirements, then you can use the same capabilities matrix (in the form of a data call to prospective teammates) to identify qualified team members and drive teaming decisions.
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