Issue 12 - The Culture Club

Synopsis

Culture is defined and interpreted in countless ways. It may be as simple as a preferred music genre or as complex as a total sense of personal identity. In the workplace, it may be a “Work Hard – Play Hard” sign above the entrance or an open plan office celebrating the approachability of management. Cultural influences can dominate people’s entire lives. Some acknowledge or selectively embrace favoured elements. And others (rightly or wrongly) can find themselves fighting them.

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Culture is defined and interpreted in countless ways. It may be as simple as a preferred music genre or as complex as a total sense of personal identity. In the workplace, it may be a “Work Hard – Play Hard” sign above the entrance or an open plan office celebrating the approachability of management. Cultural influences can dominate people’s entire lives. Some acknowledge or selectively embrace favoured elements. And others (rightly or wrongly) can find themselves fighting them.

With The Culture Club, I wanted to explore the geographical differences, local influences and workplace variations within the bidding profession. I was keen for our Experts to explore how a country’s or region’s unique culture creates different approaches to bidding and the related impacts on the bid team. Building strong relationships is a key theme throughout BQ12; in bidding, they are your best friend.

Covid has changed the way most of us manage bids. Prior to its emergence, international travel and meeting our peers face-to-face was often the preserve of senior members of the bid and sales team. Today, all levels of an organisation are interacting with their peers around the world via Zoom or Teams. There has never been a more important time to understand our own cultural preferences and their potential impact (positive and negative) on the motivation of the wider bid and sales team, and on our ability to win.

It’s essential to get the basics right in the workplace, whatever your way of life. Do you have a ‘Cultural Bid Calendar’? Do you plan for Chinese New Year, the Islamic New Year, Tamil New Year, and the Jewish New Year? India, Nepal and various other countries celebrate New Year on dates according to their own calendars – are these accounted for? There was a significant social media backlash recently against procurement professionals issuing tenders over Christmas but I haven’t witnessed a similar furore when other cultural events are affected. Rita Mascia’s brilliant article discusses the impact of such ‘cultural myopia’ and suggests strategies for managing a mix of cultures.

Larissa Cornelius talks about power outages as a key part of cultural life in South Africa and the need to plan for these in her bids. It’s an alien concept to me in London, and a brilliant example of the need to understand the challenges our colleagues are facing.

We also mustn’t forget the working week is not the same for everyone. Karen Croshaw shares her experience of working in the Middle East and the importance of aligning to the work patterns of those you are supporting.

I’ve been fortunate to travel extensively and work with bid teams across five continents. Yet as Jon Williams rightly points out in his article, holidaying somewhere doesn’t make me an expert in local culture. I was starkly reminded of this recently when I failed to take account of Diwali in my bid plan on a major opportunity.

As a proud Yorkshireman, I’m very aware of my ‘direct’ communication style. It’s a style that has previously got me fired but also helps me run Bid Solutions. I’ve learnt the hard way (and have by no means perfected) the importance of ‘communication culture’ – adapting my style to match the candidate, client, or supplier rather than expecting them to adapt to mine. Rick Harris highlights this in his excellent article.

Nigel Dennis takes this a step further. In his article, he introduces a brilliant new concept – International Bidding Culture (IBC) – focussed on professional behaviours and values such as respect, timeliness, quality, honesty and empathy.

I hope you take as much as I have from the 15 insightful articles in this issue of BQ. Regrettably, several people declined the opportunity to participate in BQ12 – not for lack of opinion or perspective but for fear of recrimination from cultural strongholds in various parts of the world.

Adopting a global perspective is vital for success. As Michael Brown alludes to in his article, now is the time to embrace cultural diversity if you really want to gain a competitive advantage.  And if in doubt, you can always take Sarah Hinchliffe’s advice – when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

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Martin Smith
Issue 12

Synopsis

Culture is defined and interpreted in countless ways. It may be as simple as a preferred music genre or as complex as a total sense of personal identity. In the workplace, it may be a “Work Hard – Play Hard” sign above the entrance or an open plan office celebrating the approachability of management. Cultural influences can dominate people’s entire lives. Some acknowledge or selectively embrace favoured elements. And others (rightly or wrongly) can find themselves fighting them.

With The Culture Club, I wanted to explore the geographical differences, local influences and workplace variations within the bidding profession. I was keen for our Experts to explore how a country’s or region’s unique culture creates different approaches to bidding and the related impacts on the bid team. Building strong relationships is a key theme throughout BQ12; in bidding, they are your best friend.

Covid has changed the way most of us manage bids. Prior to its emergence, international travel and meeting our peers face-to-face was often the preserve of senior members of the bid and sales team. Today, all levels of an organisation are interacting with their peers around the world via Zoom or Teams. There has never been a more important time to understand our own cultural preferences and their potential impact (positive and negative) on the motivation of the wider bid and sales team, and on our ability to win.

It’s essential to get the basics right in the workplace, whatever your way of life. Do you have a ‘Cultural Bid Calendar’? Do you plan for Chinese New Year, the Islamic New Year, Tamil New Year, and the Jewish New Year? India, Nepal and various other countries celebrate New Year on dates according to their own calendars – are these accounted for? There was a significant social media backlash recently against procurement professionals issuing tenders over Christmas but I haven’t witnessed a similar furore when other cultural events are affected. Rita Mascia’s brilliant article discusses the impact of such ‘cultural myopia’ and suggests strategies for managing a mix of cultures.

Larissa Cornelius talks about power outages as a key part of cultural life in South Africa and the need to plan for these in her bids. It’s an alien concept to me in London, and a brilliant example of the need to understand the challenges our colleagues are facing.

We also mustn’t forget the working week is not the same for everyone. Karen Croshaw shares her experience of working in the Middle East and the importance of aligning to the work patterns of those you are supporting.

I’ve been fortunate to travel extensively and work with bid teams across five continents. Yet as Jon Williams rightly points out in his article, holidaying somewhere doesn’t make me an expert in local culture. I was starkly reminded of this recently when I failed to take account of Diwali in my bid plan on a major opportunity.

As a proud Yorkshireman, I’m very aware of my ‘direct’ communication style. It’s a style that has previously got me fired but also helps me run Bid Solutions. I’ve learnt the hard way (and have by no means perfected) the importance of ‘communication culture’ – adapting my style to match the candidate, client, or supplier rather than expecting them to adapt to mine. Rick Harris highlights this in his excellent article.

Nigel Dennis takes this a step further. In his article, he introduces a brilliant new concept – International Bidding Culture (IBC) – focussed on professional behaviours and values such as respect, timeliness, quality, honesty and empathy.

I hope you take as much as I have from the 15 insightful articles in this issue of BQ. Regrettably, several people declined the opportunity to participate in BQ12 – not for lack of opinion or perspective but for fear of recrimination from cultural strongholds in various parts of the world.

Adopting a global perspective is vital for success. As Michael Brown alludes to in his article, now is the time to embrace cultural diversity if you really want to gain a competitive advantage.  And if in doubt, you can always take Sarah Hinchliffe’s advice – when in Rome, do as the Romans do.