Acorn in Nuclear Opportunities News

Acorn in Nuclear Opportunities News

See Our Article in Nuclear Opportunities News

Acorn is the subject of an article in this month’s Nuclear Opportunities News where we were invited to offer our advice and tips on developing a successful bid strategy when bidding for contracts under Sellafield Limited’s new procedures for procurement.

Nuclear Opportunities News is published by West Lakes Renaissance and is read by all senior officers and suppliers involved in the Nuclear supply chain.

Steve Gee, senior consultant at Acorn commented: “Businesses need to understand the underpinnings of collaborative working. Teams can often fall down after the first hurdle because the partners have not looked deeply enough into what it takes to realise the true capability of the bid teams.”

Steve’s key advice for bid teams:

  1. Establish a clear profile of what you will bid for – and stick to it. Know the financial and technical thresholds a tender must pass to be an economically viable, technically appropriate and reputation-enhancing in the event that you win it.

  2. Review against these thresholds at key points in the process. Be prepared to pull out – or stick your necks out and put more in. Make sure the decision is made against your original objective criteria, don’t just get sucked along.

  3. Define the added value or uniqueness resulting from the make up of your partnership.This is not just the sum of the parts – what is created by putting these parts together? Consider how you will communicate, demonstrate and live up to this value proposition.

  4. Know the bid process – the rules of the game. Make sure it’s the real rules you are playing by and avoid constraining yourselves unnecessarily by operating in fear of breaking the rules.

  5. Understand the culture of the client. What facets of your partnership will interact most effectively with them? Consider how to manage your own culture and approach to be aligned with the client.

  6. Listen to the client, get inside their heads, see what they really want and even what they fear. Seems obvious, but how do you know how good you are at this? Don’t be afraid to play back to the client what you think you’ve understood of what they want. If you have made a ‘mistake’ it’s better to find out sooner rather than later.

  7. Establish clear leadership, roles and communication processes in your bid team. Don’t muddle through as a committee. Roles should match the strengths and experience of the players – they should not be determined simply by financial clout.

  8. Invest time in getting to know the other members of the bid team and build strong working relationships. Until this is done, you are just a paper partnership with little capacity to be truly innovative and responsive to the client.

  9. Create a culture of robust honesty and challenge within the partnership. When necessary, be prepared to take the fight back into the partnering organisations to ensure the commitment of time and expertise to the bid is sustained throughout the process.

  10. Don’t just focus on presenting a technical solution. All organisations, but particularly partnerships, also need to convincingly portray how they will operate as a cohesive and effective entity. The client needs to feel confident about how the bid winner will interact with them. In our experience, bids are not lost in the latter stages due to questions of technical competence.

Acorn helping improve your successful bid hit rate

Acorn has developed a bid team support programme which begins with an honest and impartial assessment of your team’s performance. This considers vital issues such as:


  • Cultural compatibility
  • Strategic capability
  • Clarity of vision and levels of buy-in
  • Realism of partnership expectations
  • Functioning and distribution of roles and responsibilities
  • Quality of communication and interaction
  • Recognition and management of stakeholders
  • Team climate, confidence and motivation
  • Capability to innovate


Results from the team’s assessment will quickly establish a focus for a tailored programme of team coaching and training expertise to meet the exact needs of the team, for example:

  • Bridging and melding cultures to focus on team performance and success
  • Building and maintaining a unifying, bid-winning vision and strategy
  • Optimising communication, relationships and interaction within the team
  • Optimising the conditions for innovation, problem-solving and ‘can do’ attitude


Early involvement from Acorn can make a significant difference in your bid outcome. To find out more, contact Steve Gee on 0044 (0) 1539 741511 or click here to contact us.

Click here to see a copy of the Nuclear Opportunities News article.