Business development process

• US 20030083914A1
• Filed: 10/31/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Marvin, Ernest A. III, Monti, Joseph M., Hodor, Brian M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,415,437 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A business development process utilizing a business development database comprises collecting data for ideas from a plurality of sources. One type of collected idea data from said step of collecting is filtered in order to identify potential business opportunities. An opportunity analysis is then performed on said identified potential business opportunities to determine valid business opportunities. Resources are committed to the valid business opportunities, a business proposal is developed. This developed business proposal to a potential buyers. Success of the submission is determined and the business opportunity is executed if the submission is a success.

Claims

1. A business development process utilizing a business development database comprising the steps of:

collecting data for ideas from a plurality of sources;

filtering one type of collected idea data from said step of collecting in order to identify potential business opportunities;

performing an opportunity analysis on said identified potential business opportunities to determine valid business opportunities;

committing resources to said valid business opportunities;

developing a business proposal for said valid business opportunities;

submitting said developed business proposal to a potential buyer of said valid business opportunity;

determining if submission of said developed business proposal is a success; and

executing said business opportunity upon determining that the submission is a success.

2. The process according to claim 1 wherein said step of filtering is filtering formal announcements and further includes the steps of:

reviewing said formal announcements for potential business opportunities by a first designated point of contact;

retaining said formal announcements in said business development database for future reference;

identifying formal announcements that are within a predetermined scope of business by a second designated point of contact;

distributing a list of the identified announcements to a business development team;

conducting a review of all said identified announcements by the business development team; and

selecting specific opportunities from announcements reviewed at said step of conducting a review;

forwarding said specific opportunities from said step of selecting as identified potential business opportunities; and

archiving all non-selected opportunities remaining after said step of selecting.

3. The process according to claim 1 wherein said step of performing an opportunity analysis includes the steps of:

grading strengths and weaknesses of the identified potential business opportunity, said grading occurring in areas of the market, economics, competitive advantage, the team, and potential flaws, each area including plural criteria and high/low attractive assessments for each;

entering project identifying information into a computer for creating a master form;

automatically summarizing graded areas on the master form;

archiving opportunities having an overall low attractive summarized score; and

forwarding identified potential business opportunities having an overall high attractive summarized score as valid business opportunities.

4. The process according to claim 3 further comprising the step of representing each area by a separate electronic worksheet wherein the step of grading includes assigning a numeric value to each criteria according to the project parameters, computing a score for that worksheet and transferring the computed score to the master form.

5. The process according to claim 4 wherein market criteria include customers, user benefits, value added, product life, timing, market structure, funding potential, and potential market share.

6. The process according to claim 5 wherein economic criteria include time to break even, return on investment potential, capital requirements, impact on staffing, room for error, and funding structure.

7. The process according to claim 5 wherein competitive advantage criteria include fixed and variable costs;

control over costs;

prices and distribution;

barriers to entry by proprietary protection, lead time, legal and contractual issues, availability of contacts and networks, availability of key people, specialized criteria for an applicable industry; and

a level of technology and concept.

8. The process according to claim 5 wherein team criteria include having an entrepreneurial team, any industry or technical experience, integrity, intellectual honesty, and stress tolerance.

9. The process according to claim 5 wherein potential flaw criteria include real customer, under promise—

over deliver, a right corporate culture, a motivated team with correct skills, a correct market, confidence, engineering of product, stress tested properly, good subcontracting suppliers, trying to do too much, an experienced team, right location, price in line with competition, market window, competition, authority to act given to team, project within Code of Federal Regulations, a contractually fixed price, funding available prior to work startup, and available resources.

10. The process according to claim 1 wherein said step of performing an opportunity analysis includes the step of conducting a risk and reward assessment.

11. The process according to claim 10 wherein said risk and reward assessment step includes:

developing risk benchmark values for a combined plurality of risk criteria including new product, new customer, cooperative existing customer, team, time to meet milestone and deliverables, funding limited, customer pain, and internal process;

identifying a risk factor in relation to said risk benchmark value for each of said plurality of risk criteria;

developing reward benchmark values from a combined plurality of reward criteria including sustains/grows core equity, addresses critical need, new business development, competitive advantage, increase market share, and increase professional reputation;

identifying a reward factor in relation to the reward benchmark value for each of the plurality of reward criteria;

automatically updating a master sheet with calculated risk and reward factors; and

performing a final assessment based on said master sheet for an action selected from the group consisting of GO, NO GO, and MAYBE.

12. The process according to claim 11 wherein the final assessment action of “

GO”

is followed by the steps of;

identifying a potential customer;

establishing a rapport with the identified potential customer;

logging customer information into the database;

isolating problems and priorities in connection with he identified customer; and

installing a capture team and a lead for the capture team for the identified customer.

13. The process according to claim 1 wherein said step of committing resources includes the steps of:

conducting meetings to determine availability of resources;

rendering a decision on one of an action to commit resources, not to commit resources, and maybe commit resources;

adding relevant information to said business development database, providing feedback to a capture team and archiving unused data if a decision not to commit resources is made;

returning opportunity to the capture team if a decision to maybe commit resources is made;

completing a task sheet requesting support;

forwarding the completed task sheet to a selected company division; and

completing a capture plan in said business development database.

14. The process according to claim 13 wherein said task sheet includes identifying information about a contact, actions logged into said business development database, request being made, additional information and guidance, resources required, and requested due date.

15. The process according to claim 14 wherein said step of completing a capture plan includes entering information into capture plan worksheets, said capture plan worksheets containing information related to:

the buyer'"'"'s need;

the buyers;

the internal capture team;

information required about the need;

information required about the buyer;

information required about the money available;

information required on the competition;

the abilities of the competition;

internal investment required;

internal return on investment;

the response to the need;

the best sales argument;

key and ghosting discriminators;

return on investment analysis;

the team;

salespersons for each buyer;

pre-selling contact plan;

potential questions, objections and responses;

several appropriate closing proposal approaches; and

elements of the sales presentation.

16. The process according to claim 1 wherein said step of developing a proposal includes further steps of:

assigning a proposal number in said business development database;

completing a modular proposal process; and

performing a final review of the modular proposal to produce a final proposal.

17. The process according to claim 16 wherein said modular proposal process includes the steps of:

evaluating customer knowledge;

reviewing evaluation criteria;

identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats;

proposing a winning strategy;

developing organization and content of the proposal;

outlining sections of the proposal;

reviewing product designs;

identifying section strategies;

building compliance sheets;

assembling storyboards from section strategies, compliance sheets, and section outlines;

conducting a storyboard wall review from said storyboards;

drafting topics for discussion with a customer;

introducing an early review of drafted topics by an early review team including a mock customer;

conducting a wall review of the drafted topics;

editing the drafted topics;

conducting a wall review for proofing;

conducting a wall review with the early review team;

performing a final review; and

generating a final proposal.

18. The process according to claim 1 wherein:

said step of determining if submission of said developed business proposal is a success results in any one of a YES, NO, and MAYBE decision;

performing the following steps when the success determination decision is a NO decision;

post reviewing the business proposal;

providing feedback to said step of developing a business proposal; and

archiving the proposal by amending the business development database with information relevant to the decision;

returning the proposal to said step of developing a business proposal when the success determination decision is a MAYBE decision; and

executing said business opportunity when the success determination decision is a YES decision.