CLICK FOR DETAILS BUS 505 Business Strategies and Proposals BUS 505 Week 1 DQ 1 Winning New Business BUS 505 Week 1 DQ 2 Anatomy of a Government RFP BUS 505 Week 2 DQ 1 Federal Government Source Selection BUS 505 Week 2 DQ 2 Strategic Business Planning
BUS 505 Week 3 Assignment 1, Firm Research BUS 505 Week 3 DQ 1 Long Term Positioning BUS 505 Week 3 DQ 2 Sealed Bidding
BUS 505 Week 4 Assignment 2, Bid Strategy BUS 505 Week 4 DQ 1 Pre-Proposal Phase Activities BUS 505 Week 4 DQ 2 Bid Strategy BUS 505 Week 5 DQ 1 Building and Organizing the Capture Team BUS 505 Week 5 DQ 2 Contractor Qualifications BUS 505 Week 6 DQ 1 Analyzing Customer Requirements BUS 505 Week 6 DQ 2 Developing a Proposal Plan
BUS 505 Week 7 Assignment 3, RFP Response BUS 505 Week 7 DQ 1 Preparing the Winning Cost Volume BUS 505 Week 7 DQ 2 Types of Contracts
BUS 505 Week 8 Assignment 4 Proposal Preparation Plan BUS 505 Week 8 DQ 1 Writing the Winning Proposal BUS 505 Week 8 DQ 2 Tips for Effective Proposal Writing BUS 505 Week 9 DQ 1 Proposal Reviews BUS 505 Week 9 DQ 2 Proposal Production and Improper Business Practice
BUS 505 Week 10 Assignment 5, Proposal Presentation BUS 505 Week 10 DQ 1 Post-Proposal Submittal Phase BUS 505 Week 10 DQ 2 Contract Award and Performance BUS 505 All Discussion Questions Week 1 DQ 1 Winning New Business
Analyze the list of common proposal mistakes discussed in Chapter 1 and determine which types of mistakes are probably the most commonly made. Explain your rationale. Then, discuss how you as a manager would work to ensure those who work with you are mindful of the common mistakes. Review the 10 characteristics of winning bids listed in Figure 1-1 and propose at least one more that would further describe a winning bid. Explain your rationale. Week 1 DQ 2 Anatomy of a Government RFP Analyze the elements of a RFP and determine which section is the most difficult to correctly complete. Explain your rationale. Recommend at least two tips or practices that can be employed to simplify the process. Assume you have been hired by the federal government to redesign the RFP format that is referenced in Figure 2.1 in Chapter 2 of the textbook. Explain what changes you would make and why. Week 2 DQ 1 Federal Government Source Selection Assume you own a small company that makes widgets. Carefully review the federal government acquisition process and determine how you would best position yourself long before you place your first government bid. Discuss the benefits of your preparations. Analyze the elements of both the technical evaluation and the past performance evaluation. Next, determine which is the most difficult to evaluate from the federal government perspective and how you (as a business owner) could make the evaluation process easier. Then, directly respond to the assessment of a fellow learner and evaluate his or her post (on-ground students will discuss the positions). Week 2 DQ 2 Strategic Business Planning Assume you own a company that manufactures a specific product of your choice. Create a oneparagraph mission statement that addresses the what, who, how, and why of your company. Then, discuss how each component is addressed in your mission statement. Based on the same company you described above, create a strategic business model that incorporates the four major elements of strategic business modeling discussed in Chapter 4 of the textbook. Week 3 DQ 1 Long Term Positioning Analyze the elements of collecting market information and determine which would provide the most valuable information to a company seeking business with the federal government. Explain your rationale. Review the eight types of information the author recommends go into a bid proposal library, as discussed in Osbornes Long Term Positioning, and recommend at least one additional type of information that could / should be included. Provide your rationale. Review the various improper practices and conflicts discussed in Chapter 5, and make at least one recommendation for preventing them or stopping them before they become a significant issue. Explain your rationale. Week 3 DQ 2 Sealed Bidding
Describe the purpose, general requirements, and awarding of the contract in a sealed- bidding process. From the e-Activity, provide at least two examples where sealed bidding had a positive effect on the contract selection process. Discuss two of the problems that might be encountered by an agency in producing a sealed bid, and how apparent and obvious mistakes can be addressed. From the e-Activity, provide at least two examples to support your response. Week 4 DQ 1 Pre-Proposal Phase Activities Evaluate the overall phase of pre-proposal activities based on the best practices identified in Chapter 7 and make at least one recommendation for improving the phase. Provide specific examples that illustrate how your recommendation would help. Determine and discuss the worst possible mistake a proposal team could make during the preproposal phase. Explain your rationale. Identify a strategy that prevents this mistake. Week 4 DQ 2 Bid Strategy Analyze customer assessments, program requirements, and competitive assessments, and determine which of the three would be the most difficult to collect information for and why. From the e-Activity, make at least one recommendation to address the difficulty you have identified. Analyze the specific bid strategies section of the text and compare what the author says to what you discovered in the e-Activity. Week 5 DQ 1 Building and Organizing the Capture Team Analyze the roles and responsibilities of capture team members and determine which two roles could be combined into a single role. Explain your rationale. Analyze the required qualifications of capture team leaders and determine which leadership role best suits you (where you would be the most successful). Explain your rationale. Week 5 DQ 2 Contractor Qualifications Assume you were preparing to be a contractor. Identify what you would begin to work on first to sure up your qualifications. As part of this process, analyze the three types of materials used to assess contractor qualifications and determine which types would yield the most viable information. Explain your rationale. Develop a one-paragraph scenario that exemplifies behavior discerning debarment or suspension. Provide specific examples to support your reasoning. Discuss the necessity of such communications. Week 6 DQ 1 Analyzing Customer Requirements Based on the e-Activity, describe how you could leverage the ambiguous language you found in the RFP. Provide specific examples to support your response. Analyze each of the key proposal preparation documents discussed in Osbornes Developing a Proposal Preparation Plan and recommend at least one additional document that would help you analyze customer requirements. Week 6 DQ 2 Developing a Proposal Plan The author states that a proposal outline that deviates from the order of instructions in Section L will almost guarantee a losing proposal. Discuss possible strategies for not following the instructions in Section L that might still result in winning the proposal. Analyze the contents and intent of the author guide outlined in Chapter 10 of the textbook. Determine the section with which you believe most proposal teams would have the most difficulty. Explain your rationale. Week 7 DQ 1 Preparing the Winning Cost Volume
Evaluate the list of common cost proposal mistakes described in Chapter 14 of the textbook. Select three from the list and determine the most likely cause of each mistake. Suggest a recommended action that either the federal government or the offerer could take to avoid the mistake in the future. Determine which of the following would be more difficult to execute correctly across the greatest number of projects: preparing cost estimates or preparing the cost volume. Explain your rationale. Week 7 DQ 2 Types of Contracts From the e-Activity, identify a contract offering that you believe is beneficial to the government. Describe the type of contract based on what is described in Chapter 16 of the textbook and explain why you believe the government has benefitted from the contract. From the e-Activity, identify a contract offering that you believe is beneficial to the offerer. Describe the type of contract based on what is described in Chapter 16 of the textbook and explain why you believe the offerer has benefitted from the contract. Week 8 DQ 1 Writing the Winning Proposal Drawing upon your experience writing papers for this class, discuss three additional tips for writing the first draft of a proposal. Provide specific examples to support your response. Evaluate all the elements of writing the proposal outlined in Chapter 12 of the textbook and determine the three most critical elements that are more important than all the others. Explain your rationale. Week 8 DQ 2 Tips for Effective Proposal Writing Discuss the degree to which the proposals you found in the e-Activity followed the tips for effective proposal writing found in Chapter 13 of Osborne. Cite where you obtained the proposals. Then, discuss the main area where deviation was present and speculate as to why. Using the criteria presented in Chapter 13 of the textbook for writing effective proposals, rewrite at least one section of a proposal that you identified through the e-Activity and explain why you made those changes. Week 9 DQ 1 Proposal Reviews Evaluate the list of common cost proposal mistakes based on the recommendations in Chapter 15 of the textbook. Select three from the list, and determine the most likely cause of each. Then, recommend a strategy that either the federal government or offerer could take to avoid the mistake in the future. Determine which proposal review would be the most effective in gaining a competitive advantage based on the reviews in Chapter 15 and explain why. Create a new review thats not part of the review process listed in Chapter 15and describe how the review adds value to the process. Week 9 DQ 2 Proposal Production and Improper Business Practice Analyze the different types of revisions discussed in Osbornes Proposal Reviews and recommend a completely different review process that would bejust as effective or better. Explain your rationale. Analyze the statutes (laws) designed to curtail improper practices and conflicts and make at least one recommendation to improve the current system. Explain your rationale. Week 10 DQ 1 Post-Proposal Submittal Phase Review the steps involved in the final proposal production phase that are described in Chapter 18 of the textbook and make at least one recommendation for improving the process. Explain your
rationale. Then, evaluate the recommendation of one fellow learner (on-ground students will discuss the recommendations in class). Discuss how a successful debriefing could benefit a company in future proposals. Include the areas of importance to discover in debriefing and what information is available to those who were not awarded the contract. Week 10 DQ 2 Contract Award and Performance Review the procuring agency, Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims forums presented in Chapter 33. Then, describe an actual case where a protestor is arguing using one of the forums. Devise a strategy for significantly limiting the number of post-proposal inquiries you might receive. Provide specific examples to support your rationale.