Robust Go No Go Decision Making Process

Every tender or bid submitted to clients and customers, is done so with the aim of placing your organisation in a better position, whether that position is strategic or financial. 

Decisions not to submit have the same aim. However, no go decisions can also be taken as a way of making sure you focus on the areas where you will get the best rate of return, or avoid a potentially worse position that may come from any unreasonable project or contact risks. 

With smaller projects, the risks and rewards are generally also lower, so bid-no bid decisions can be easier to make. As project values rise, or contract conditions become more onerous, the decision on whether to bid or not becomes much more important. 

Go decisions for high value or more risky contacts will often need to be reviewed and revisited at different points in time. This is often called decision gate reviews, and are worthwhile undertaking as more information becomes available and capture planning actions are completed. It may be that marginal go decision becomes a no go.

No matter what scale contracts and projects you are  in your pipeline of prospects, we recommend putting in place a robust go no go decision making process. This process should include:

• A go-no go template or decision sheet.
• Agreed sign off limits or delegations, based on contract size.
• Decision gates at which go-no go decisions need to be reviewed. 
• The level of investment (time and actual spend) agreed to for each go opportunity.
• The creation of a Tender Review Group or Tender Evaluation Committee tasked with overseeing any tenders recognised as being strategically important or as large value by your organisation, or that bring undue risk.