The winds of change are blowing

Someone's moved my cheese again. I do wish it would stay in the same place for just five minutes!

The great philosophers say that the only constant is change, but they also say that the more things change the more they stay the same.

So which is it? For us at nFold, change has become a habit now. But I now want to leave my broomstick in the same place for a while, to gather a nice bit of dust.

"So what is all this change" I hear you ask, "and how does it affect the wonderful world of proposals?" Well here are the big 5 changes of 2013 so far...stop the world I want to get off!

1. Next Generation - In April, Anastasia Bizos was born, so Fiona is on maternity leave - with chicken pox, as bad luck has it. Kalli Manitsa has taken over public training co-ordination and Janet Ward has picked up the onsite training.
2. So long Theresa - In May, nFold director Theresa Monoyoudis succumbed to a 7 year itch and went on sabattical to help her son through matric next year by accepting a marketing job at his school. We miss her, but I do have an excuse to see her at board meetings once a month.
3. Hello Network - Our new Theresa is called Dheshnee Naidoo. She's doing a great job so far of filling a very big pair of high-heeled shoes. The nFold network has grown to 30 people now, and we welcome new consultants Madi, Florence and Eric.
4. New Digs - In June, nFold moved into new offices. We now have 10 floating desks and a humming bid back-office. Reminds me of bedknobs and broomsticks. More space has brought our team closer together. We're in the groove! Onward and upward.
5. Buds of May - May Bradshaw has become a director of nFold. In the last 18 months she's been moving and shaking things up for us, big time. Congratulations May, and welcome to the little boy melon due to arrive in September. Another son of nFold is on the horizon.

Life is a peach in Georgia, as Sandy discovered when she went to the US APMP conference in Atlanta at the end of May. We're rather proud of her for being the first African to serve as a global board member in 2013/2014. Sandy had dinner with proposal star Jon Williams one night and with her all time hero Tom Sant another night. Lucky fish! I'm miffed that she forgot to take me along. But I guess I'll get over it. She bumped into 3 other South Africans at the conference, so at least she had company from someone who could understand her accent. She says that she learned a LOT, hooked up with old friends and made some new friends. What could be better?

I recommend that anyone who wants to learn more about proposals should come along to the local APMP conference in July. Visit www.apmp.org.za to find out more. Sandy will be putting a fresh spin on the time-honoured traditional topic of writing executive summaries, as only she can. Seats are selling fast, so hurry to book before you miss out on all the fun.

Talking about fun, here are some of the 19 people who achieved the fun fun fun Foundation Level APMP certification with Sandy's help this year. As a Strategic Proposals trainer, Sandy still has a perfect pass record. I can't believe they cut me out of the photo. At least I was comfy on Reshma's lap. The total number of people in South Africa who have achieved one of the 3 levels of internationally recognized certification has now reached a whopping 71. Proposal people rock! I really enjoy hanging out with them. Even if they won't let me appear on their photos. Sniff.

nFold's new stratgy seems to be on track. To improve teamwork we now have Training Tigers with Tiger Mother Annatjie Jonker leading the way - spreading the proposal gospel according to Saint Tom. We have Skills Scorpions headed up by Janet Ward finding jobs in our brand new business venture called Bid Skills for Africa. Dheshnee Naidoo is taking on the Software Swans to grow our Qvidian customer base and Sandy is keeping an eye on the Consulting Chameleons to make sure they don't fade into the background.

Never a dull moment at nFold. I think I'll start up my own business unit and call it the Wicked Witchy Wordsmith Wombats or something. Just so that there's a place for little old me. Watch this space as I insert myself into the next photo to appear on this blog. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Flying off the handle

I'm not angry, but I literally flew off the handle of a camera stand at the Executive Summaries master class that nFold hosted in February. Here I am with global proposal star Jon Williams who presented the session. Glowing praise flew in as fast as my broomstick.

"The energy was great. Content was relevant and plain excellent."
"Straight to the point.  Lots of passion."
"Jon was fantastic. Content was relevant."

Jon taught us all about the role of executive summaries, how to structure a good one, and touched on the sections of proposal related to the executive summary. He used some great examples and stories to bring the show to life. If the executive summaries in your company suck, it's a pity you missed out on this one.

nFold really made the most of Jon's time in sunny SA. He presented on the topic of "Auditing Proposal Quality" to the local chapter of APMP. The benchmarking technique he showed us is easy to implement and very effective.

Jon also mentored Sandy to become an accredited trainer for APMP Foundation level under the banner of Strategic Proposals. 6 more people passed the foundation exam, bringing the total number of local APMP members to achieve this globally recognized standard, up to more than 50.

Jon had lunch with a bunch of people from the nFold bid network before heading back to snowy London. Brrr! I bet he misses the sunshine.

And now for something completely different, to quote Monty Python. I haven't seen much of Sandy or Theresa lately. They've been up to all sorts of mischief. nFold has projects waltzing in so quickly that Johan Strauss would have a hard time keeping up with them. They were even too busy to move into new offices. So I never got a chance to paint those walls. Sigh. Maybe sometime soon...

I finally caught up with Sandy helping new customers use Qvidian. She took me along to her latest Qvidian training session. Here I am, getting up close and personal with some of the delegates. I bet their proposals are whizzing out of Qvidian as fast as you can say Wendy Word.

Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee Hee

'Tis the season to be jolly and the laughter of the man in the red suit is rather catching. Fa la la la la. I've been twirling around on my broomstick at high speed for a few weeks, spreading proposal magic here and there. And now it's time to celebrate not only the end of the year but our glorious successes. Bring on the bubbly!


In October, Sapphire Logistics won a bid to provide fulfilment services to one of the largest oil companies in South Africa. nFold was given a proposal to check and transform over a weekend in August. We improved the readability statistics, edited the executive summary and enhanced the layout within less than a week. “There is no doubt that a large part of our success was a result of nFold’s ability to turn a good proposal into an incredible proposal. Thank you for your amazing work on such a tight time line. The final result was even better than expected.”, said Graham Wooding, MD of Sapphire Logistics.

Another reason to celebrate, is that Jon Williams, Proposal Star Supreme, will be visiting South Africa in 2013. Jon has worked live proposals with many big companies in countries around the world. Anyone who saw his keynote address at our first ever local APMP conference in 2010 will remember Jon's quirky British humour, charisma as a presenter and his experience in both procurement and proposals. I do hope he brings my friend Proposal Panda to visit us again. He eats shoots and leaves but is great company all the same.

Check out this Youtube video of Jon in action in 2010 and watch this space about his 2013 visit:

http://youtu.be/gslDcKi6hs8

Last but not least, nFold has had such a great year that we're ready to move into a bigger office. One small step for nFold, one giant leap for proposal magic. All our systems bounce around in the clouds, so the move will be more virtual than physical. But do take note of nFold's new switchboard number: +27-10-125-0123. And make a point of popping in for a quick potion as soon as we've settled into our new digs. I'll be painting the walls bright colours. Let me know if you can think of better colours than azure, chartreuse and tangerine. I bought some rainbow stockings to match. Watcha think?

Wendy is a broad

I mean Wendy goes abroad of course. Although, I did lose my heart to a handsome fellow, mysteriously called Qwin. I went to the Qvidian conference in San Diego with Theresa Monoyoudis, via New York.

 

I met such an enthusiastic bunch of proposal automation customers saving time on proposals. So I'm ready to spread the gospel according to Qwin. He says users save an average of 44% of their time on proposals and win 38% more. Wow! No wonder he swept me off my broomstick.

 

I returned to South Africa to find that nFold has been quietly growing while I was away. There is such a buzz in the office, and I didn't even have to cast any spells for it to happen. Sandy Pullinger says she's delighted to have so many bid network folks filling her shoes. I'm not sure why anyone would want to wear her stinky shoes, but it's great that the larger than life poster is not the only Sandy clone floating about. Watch out Dolly!

 

2012 has been a bumper year for nFold so far. Everyone seems as hungry to win as we are. Our portfolio is bursting with proposals and bids galore. And customers keep coming back for more. Our strategy is to fly this year and our dreams are coming true. There's room on the broom for more so bring it on.

Last chance saloon

Next week I will be making a guest appearance at the third annual APMP conference in SA. All proposal and sales and new business development people eager for my autograph - oh and to "Raise your Game" - must register this week. You snooze you lose! You're in the last chance saloon...click here to book now: events@apmp.org.za. Spread the word like wild-fire by bush telegraph before it's too late.

Neil Philipson, with one 'l', is the current chair person of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals in sunny South Africa. He's SO excited about the line-up. Here I am looking over his shoulder while he shares the programme with me on his zooty ipad. Doesn't he look excited?

Other than my distinguished and humble self, there will be no less than TWO international guest speakers. Rick Harris, executive director of APMP international, will be making the keynote address. He has oodles of global business development experience. Chris Kaelin from Switzerland will be yodelling too - all about putting the sizzle back into proposals. But wait, there's more. For a copy of the programme, visit www.apmp.org.za. The conference is cheaper for members - at only slightly more than the cost of a meal for 2 with wine at a local restaurant, it's a positive steal. To check out the calibre of previous international guest speakers, click here to find out some more great reasons to become a member of the APMP: Colleen Jolly and Jon Williams promote APMP Membership at 1st APMP SA Conference.

Neil says Theresa Monoyoudis has been the key driver behind the conference. I overheard her make no less than 90 phonecalls last week to check up on members and to promote the conference. In the last few weeks she only flew off the broom handle once while knocking off all the items on the lengthy 'to do' list to make such a great conference happen. But luckily I wasn't to blame for the mishap. Close shave! And within minutes Theresa the cheer leader was her usual enthusiastic self. Go T Go!


Neil has no reason to climb the walls about the conference. But he has a day job at PDNA that makes him responsible for winning engineering projects worth billions. So there are never enough hours in a day. Since he handles it all without breaking a sweat, I decide to climb the walls for him. Or does it look as though he's encouraging me to fly off the handle? What do you think?

Room on the Broom

"Down!" cried this witch, when I flew into the underground parking at Standard Bank. I was reminded, as I entered the proposal centre, about that brilliant book Julia Donaldson wrote about me, called "Room on the Broom". It features my cat, a frog, a dog and a bird. My friends overcome a dragon by disguising themselves as a swamp creature, and "Whoosh!" we are gone.

You may be wondering what this has to do with proposals?

Sally Jacques' Favourite Book

For 2 years or more, Christian Figenschou from Standard Bank has been on the APMP committee in charge of Accreditation. Go Christian! Sally Jacques hopped onto the broom in 2012. She's been arranging the study group towards passing the Foundation exam in July. Here she is, reading the Shipley Proposal Guide, no doubt her favourite book at the moment...about a person writing a proposal about a person reading a book about a witch watching Sally.

Study Tips from Wendy
If you are one of the 25...you heard me...25 people taking the exam with Sally, then you'll be needing some tips from me.

Tip #1: Visit www.apmp.org to see why to bother.
Tip #2: Drink a lot of coffee.
Tip #3: Read the Shipley Proposal Guide at least once.
Tip #4: Drink more coffee.
Tip #5: Phone in for the last 2 of 4 study group sessions.
Tip #6: Attend the cramming session.
Tip #7: Breathe.
Tip #8: Write the exam, and whoosh! you'll be accredited.

No less than half...you heard me...4 people in the Standard Bank proposal team will be writing the exam. "Yes!" cried the witch, and "Good luck!". Here's the whole team pretending to join the study group session using Christian's phone. "Ha, Ha" said the witch.

Whoosh the Proposal was Done (with apologies to Julia Donaldson)

"I am a proposal, as green as can be. Is there room on the broom for a proposal like me?"
"Yes!" cried the witch and the proposal climbed on. The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh! they were gone.

Over reviews and processes they flew, minding the dragons and the date it was due. "Smile!" cried the witch, and the writers all did, the cubicles waved but the other folks hid. Away from requests that make your head itch. As I flew out the door they said, "There goes our witch."  

Hakuna Matata

I spent the last few months as a silent observer in the Vodacom bid management office. While I had coffee with their team this morning, the words made famous by the Lion King came to mind: "Hakuna Matata...it means no worries." What a wonderful phrase indeed. I have decided that is now my new life motto.

This ICT procurement business is quite complicated. With all sorts of requirements from sms bundles to providing entire communication solutions for customers, the life of a bid specialist is chaos, just chaos I tell you. Although at Vodacom the chaos seemed quite organised.


Here I am, lying on my back under a proposal file, hiding while the Vodacom proposal team independently go about doing what they do best.

So what have I learnt here? Zen and the art of proposal management. Here are the top 8 ways of finding your ‘hakuna matata’:


1. Bring your jovial presence to the office before you forget you have it. Walk in singing or telling a knock knock joke.

2. Have regular coffee sessions as a team to talk about absolutely nothing in particular but everything at the same time, a conversation may come in handy at same point.

3. Always have an emergency proposal kit. Flu medicine, vitamins and shifty looking regmaakers pumped with caffeine.

4. Create a wrestling tag team, tap them in when necessary.

5. Find time to eat and drink.

6. Ask for help, you never know how many people are willing to jumpstart your car.

7. Keep true to your objectives in your life, your career. Don’t get your priorities twisted.

8. And my personal favourite; when in doubt say a spell or two! You just never know…

And there you have it. As a proposal manager, remember there are no problems just ways to deal with life. The bid specialists at Vodacom remember this. And look how relaxed they seem.

The Road to Hell

My plan to write more blogs didn't happen in 2011. And it's a bit late for new year's resolutions in March 2012, don't you think? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I suppose I'm on my way there with Chris Rea. But then, as a witch, maybe that's where I was headed anyway.

I'm sure you're bursting with curiosity to know what I've been doing on my proposal journey since visiting Colleen in Washington. Well, it all began with an evil cat.

I visited Kirste Webb in the US. She planned to take me to Tennessee and Maryland . It's all a blur. One day I was watching her work, when her cat mistook me for a mouse. I soon showed him not to mess with me and my broomstick.

Kirste introduced me to Beth Wingate before the US conference of the APMP. I helped Beth to stuff bags for the conference. I made sure there were a few spiders in them.

Beth then gave me to Inas Younis from Egypt. She took me home on a magic carpet. At last I was back in Jozie, after 6 months away. I was delighted to find that in my absence, nFold was recognized by Strategic Proposals as Partner of the Year for 2010. I was devastated that Proposal Panda got to pose with my nFold family for the photo instead of me.

Panda had just been to visit Aurecon. Their team won the first ever nFold Proposal Award in South Africa. Here's a happy snap of Sonja Jansen Van Resnburg from Aurecon, accepting the award from my hero, Dr. Tom Sant. It was a pleasure to meet such a proposal guru. My knees wobbled when I took the photo.

Tom spoke at the 2nd local APMP conference in 2011, was a judge for the first proposal award, he did some exec sessions and he told more than 250 sales people how NOT to commit the 7 deadly sins of proposal writing. Then he had a little holiday in the sun. I hope he visits us again soon.

nFold celebrated 10 years in proposal pioneering with some special customers. What a milestone! Keep rocking nFold.

A whole lot more happened in 2011 and 2012 started off with a jolly loud bang. But I was inside my box napping at the time. And that's where I'm going now. See you next time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Spells in the graphics hothouse

This week I traveled to 24 Hour Company in Falls Church, VA. For those of you who are geographically challenged, that's near Washington in the US. I'm convinced that Colleen Jolly, my travelling companion, is descended from a leprechaun I once knew. I wish she would tell me where he hid his croc of gold.

It started as a pleasant journey to the DC Metro area complete with sites of the Pentagon and Kennedy Center. I was lucky enough to ride in Colleen Jolly’s horse-less carriage to the office. Trees line almost every street in this very green region. I looked up at the building when we arrived. “Are you ready for a productive, busy day, Wendy?” asked Colleen. “Yes!” I exclaimed. While flying up the stairs, however, I heard booms of laughter coming from the office. “How could such a productive office waste time by laughing so much?” I thought as I whizzed up to the fifth floor. I approached the door to see Mike Parkinson telling jokes to the other designers. As I sauntered in he asked me, “Why did the scarecrow win the Nobel prize?” A little confused, I hesitantly asked, “Why?” He replied, “Because he was outstanding in his field!” Everyone laughed but I was taken aback. What was this place and why had I come? Suddenly I saw these odd objects on their desks. They grasped my attention and didn’t let go.

What were these horizontal viewing portals they had? They were using the most interesting cauldron that didn’t need any newt tails or chicken eyelashes! These bottomless drawers were terrifying. Dennis Fitzgerald noticed my curiosity and took me into his office to explain these were computers and mice. Mice! I quickly realized I could use my patented five-mouse-flight spell to escape. Before Dennis could get any further, I put him under a sleep spell and stole his mouse for my escape plan. I went from room to room putting designers to sleep and snatching their mice. With a handful of hairless mice I snuck down the hall and out the door.

“WEEENDY!” Colleen’s voice stopped me in my tracks. “Did I forget my purse?” I thought.

“Why is my staff asleep on the floor with pixie dust on their eyes?” said Colleen,

“First, it’s pulverized unicorn dandruff. Second, this place is too strange. I want to leave.” I said.

“Wendy, I think you need some explanation about what we’re about. Come back in and I’ll show you what we do.”

As I used my emergency bottle of frog sweat to revive everyone, Colleen explained that they were graphic designers making graphics for bids, proposals, and presentations. They needed their mice to work.

After returning the mice, I spent the next few minutes observing the designers creating graphics.

I was mesmerized by their speedy spells and intrigued by their aesthetic accuracy. “These are not mice like you know it.” said Colleen. “These mice control computer programs to help us make pictures. Let me show you.” She opened up Adobe Photoshop and we tinkered with a picture of Terry, my black cat. I was amazed. These are the best cauldrons ever made. I spent the rest of the day learning tips and tricks from the designers. When it was time to go, I apologized for my spells and said goodbye to everyone.

Update: I researched getting a computer for myself, but it wasn’t a good time to renew the mortgage on my broom.

Blink and it's gone

It's November and 2010 is galloping to a close. For South Africa, this was the year of the soccer world cup. For me, it's been a whirlwind of fun in the sun since April. I had so many things to do and places to see that my poor blog took a back seat. So this bumper edition is my attempt to atone for my sins as I wave goodbye to Africa to embark on my world tour. Happy reading, and why not subscribe? I have good intentions to be a regular writer next year...

Proposal Review at Hiside

In May, I helped nFold train their bid network how to do proposal reviews. I also did one for Hiside. Their proposal had great images of their fun team-building events, but I helped them to become a bit more persuasive. By now, they're using all the tricks in the book such as quantifying payback, client focus and differentiation. What a great bunch of motivated people. I guess they must practice what they preach. I'm the shadow 2nd from left in front of the boss.

In June, my friend Sandy Pullinger made a guest appearance as a cardboard cutout at the annual APMP conference in the US. She was part of the panel discussion arranged by Graham Ablett from Strategic Proposals on virtual bid teams. The panel acted out some typical voice conference scenarios. You know, those telecons that go horribly wrong and lose you the bid? The boss walks in late, rushes out early for a phonecall, misses his deadline and then wonders why no one else meets their promises to win the bid. Sandy enjoyed doing a video recording and writing one of the scenarios based on her experience working on a virtual bid in Africa. I guess you can't get much more virtual than a cardboard cutout. Sandy wishes she could have been at the conference in person because it was at Disneyland. Oh well, better luck next time Sands.

Jon Williams and Proposal Panda

In July, the APMP committee reviewed its strategy for the year. I started to get excited about the first ever conference planned for October. I was hoping to see the proposal panda again, with his friend Jon Williams, the keynote speaker. When I looked into my crystal ball, I could see that the reunion would be pleasant. I predicted that the future would hold a bottle of red wine (or two) at an African restaurant called Moyo. I could see that there would be a philosophical discussion about serif and san serif fonts. The writing was on the wall in times new roman, bold, italics, 10 points.







Tea break before 2nd SA Sant User Group Meeting

   In August, I had a tea break in preparation for the 2nd local Sant user group meeting in South Africa, planned for September. I watched Sandy get excited about telling everyone what snazzy new features were launched with Sant 9. She's such a software junky that I couldn't restrain her from enthusing that the user interface is even easier to use, search is improved, content management is unified, and architecting is now a piece of cake. Talking about which, some cake would have been REALLY nice with my tea.

In September I signed up on Facebook. If you want to be my friend, my profile is here: http://www.facebook.com/wendywordproposal#!/profile.php?id=100001635338520. I also did some Persuasive Proposal training with Sandy and Errol at DHL. Their proposal team came up with some catchy proposal titles. I can't wait to see what the boss thinks. I mean the customer of course.

Persuasive Proposal Training at DHL

First APMP Conference in SA

In October, the big day finally arrived. The first ever local APMP conference was sold out with more than 75 people attending. Our international guest speakers, Colleen Jolly and Jon Williams were both brilliant. Apart from sharing some brilliant graphics and proposal tips, they also managed to drum up the local APMP membership to the target of 50. Chris Rademeyer told us all about how to avoid bid burnout, and a brave panel of procurement specialists shared some insights from the buyer perspective. But Panda and I were the stars of the show. Just look how rapt my audience was.

And now, at last in November, I'm ready for a little break. Or maybe that's a breakdown after all the bid deadlines I've met? 2011 promises to be a fun-filled year too. nFold turns 10. What a great excuse for a party. Bring on the streamers and balloons and I'll be there like a shot. But first, I think I'll hide in Colleen's suitcase. So long for now.