Most of us would prefer a radio to a raid, especially if the radio provided early warning of an incoming raid (showing my age a bit here!), but I’m going to be looking at RADIO in respect of bid or project management.
In today’s world, we have all got used to the term RAID and know that we always need to create a log of Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies when creating a bid or running a project, the intention being to avoid surprises and to shepherd the parties into one point of view regarding project variables.
Have you ever thought it was a somewhat negative process? Me too. You spend a lot of time concentrating on risks, probabilities, mitigation and likely costs so it’s no wonder you end up feeling a bit glum. The same is true for assumptions, issues and then, last but so not least, dependencies. The game with dependencies is to try and attribute responsibility elsewhere (I will only do X if you have done Y, etc.) While some dependencies can be logical, others are a straightforward attempt to shift risk.
To overcome this incipient gloom, I add a section for Opportunities and recast the log as a RADIO instead of a RAID.
Start to consider each risk as an opportunity for your organisation to shine; look at how you can put in place a permanent solution to a potential problem (and charge for it), e.g.:-
- onboarding an in-house resource rather than continuing to engage outside counsel in mitigation of legal risk;
- adopting an automated solution to record time and billing to reduce the need for manual intervention across the contract and across the company as a whole;
- linking your data systems to your customers’ systems to record, e.g. service outages and process-related invoice adjustments; this has the joyful side effect of reducing time spent on monthly review meetings, as all of this ‘noise’ will be dealt with automatically. Consider also the savings on time and travel costs, in addition to the potential improvement in payment dates, since there will be no need to await approval for service disruption adjustments.
The board naturally wants to have as much info as possible concerning the risks the company has taken on but, by breaking away from good old spreadsheets into a database and re-casting the RAID as a RADIO, we can show them a real-time dashboard showing where the firm is at, with a positive perspective on available opportunities within existing contracts and bids.
Adding opportunities invites the Sales and Marketing teams to the conversation. It enables them to contribute ways to ensure no stone is left unturned in the search for new ways for your company to add value – and charge for it.
Have you switched on your radio yet?
