01 — Programme Outcome Map & Business Diagnostic
1. What you will learn
This lesson turns tendering into three outcomes for the next ninety days and gives you a diagnostic for choosing them. You will learn to identify which of four barriers actually stands between you and public work, because the remedies for an eligibility barrier, a compliance barrier, a pricing barrier and a capital barrier are entirely different and cost very different amounts.
2. The idea explained
Four barriers, and almost every small firm faces one dominant one.
The eligibility barrier means you cannot bid at all for the tenders you find: turnover, similar works, registration, manpower or plant conditions exclude you. The symptom is that your reading exercises fail at the first section. The remedy takes months and involves building a record or acquiring a capacity.
The compliance barrier means you can bid but your bids are rejected at technical evaluation: a missing document, a wrong form, an unsigned page, a late submission. The symptom is bids that never reach financial evaluation. This is the cheapest barrier to fix and the most frustrating, because it costs you contracts you were otherwise entitled to win.
The pricing barrier means you reach financial evaluation and are consistently well above the winner. The symptom is a price gap of, say, more than about ten per cent repeatedly. The remedy is either a cost structure change or an honest conclusion that this segment is not for you.
The capital barrier means you could qualify and could price but cannot fund the securities and the payment gap. The symptom is tenders you decline for cash reasons. The remedy involves your accountant and possibly a facility, and it is the barrier most likely to make the honest answer no.
The diagnostic follows directly from your examination record: of the tenders you worked, how many failed at eligibility, how many at compliance, how many on price, and how many you declined for cash. Whichever dominates decides your three outcomes.
A usable outcome has a baseline, a target, a deadline, an owner and a review date. Obtain completion certificates for the six largest works completed in the last three years, by the end of the quarter, owned by me, reviewed fortnightly, is an outcome. Get into government work is not.
Expect at least one of three outcomes to be unachieved, and expect that a full diagnostic may tell you to stay out of this market for now.
Apply it
3. How to apply it in your own business
From your examination record, count the failures at each of the four barriers.
Where you have fewer than eight examinations, complete them before diagnosing; three tenders will mislead you.
Write three outcomes addressing the dominant barrier, each with five parts, and put the review dates in your calendar.
For a capital barrier, take the figures to your accountant before setting any target.
For a compliance barrier, the outcome should be a procedure, not an intention: a fresh checklist per tender and an independent second check.
Worked example
4. Worked example
A small printing firm runs the diagnostic after twelve examinations and three bids.
Eligibility: it met all conditions in nine of twelve. Its turnover and works record are adequate for the tenders it targets. So eligibility is not its barrier.
Compliance: of three bids submitted, two were rejected at technical evaluation. One for an unattested copy of a document; one because a schedule was submitted unsigned. Both were clerical.
Pricing: the one bid that reached financial evaluation finished second, about three per cent above the winner. That is close, and it suggests its pricing is competitive.
Capital: it declined none for cash reasons, and the security amounts on the tenders it targets sit within its committable capital.
The diagnosis is unambiguous: compliance, and it is costing it contracts it is otherwise entitled to compete for.
Quantify. Its three bids concerned contracts it estimates would have produced contribution of about two hundred and sixty thousand, three hundred and ten thousand and one hundred and eighty thousand rupees. It cannot claim it would have won any of them; on the one it reached financial evaluation for, it came second by three per cent. But two of three bids were removed from contention for reasons that cost nothing to avoid, and preparation cost it about fourteen days of work across the three.
Its three outcomes therefore address compliance. First, adopt a fresh per-tender checklist built from each document, with an independent second check before submission, from the next bid. Second, assemble a standing document file with every commonly required document in attested form, refreshed quarterly, so that assembly is not done under deadline pressure. Third, submit at least three further bids this quarter, so that the procedure is actually tested.
The third outcome matters. A procedure that is never used is not a fix.
5. Common mistakes and how to fix them
Diagnosing from three examinations. Complete at least eight; the dominant barrier does not emerge from a handful.
Assuming your barrier is price. For most small firms it is eligibility or compliance, both of which are cheaper to fix.
Treating compliance failures as bad luck. They are clerical and entirely within your control.
Setting an intention rather than a procedure. A compliance outcome must be a named procedure with a second checker.
Ignoring the capital barrier until you win. Calculate your committable capital against target security amounts before bidding.
Refusing to conclude no. A full diagnostic may honestly tell you this market is not yet for you, which is a valid result.
Key takeaways
6. Board summary
Four barriers stand between a small firm and public work: eligibility, compliance, pricing and capital. Diagnose from at least eight complete tender examinations; the dominant barrier does not emerge from three. Compliance failures are clerical, entirely controllable, and cost contracts you were otherwise entitled to compete for. A compliance outcome must be a named procedure with an independent second check, not an intention. A full diagnostic may honestly conclude that this market is not yet for you, which is a valid and cheap result.
Check your understanding
7. Practice and self-check
Question one. What are the four barriers? Answer. Eligibility, compliance, pricing and capital.
Question two. What is the symptom of a compliance barrier? Answer. Bids that are rejected at technical evaluation and never reach financial evaluation.
Question three. Which barrier is cheapest to fix? Answer. Compliance, since the failures are clerical and within your control.
Question four. In the example, how many of twelve examinations failed on eligibility? Answer. Three, since the firm met all conditions in nine.
Question five. Why were two of its three bids rejected? Answer. One for an unattested copy of a document and one for an unsigned schedule.
Question six. How close was its one financial evaluation? Answer. Second place, about three per cent above the winner.
Question seven. What were its three outcomes? Answer. A fresh per-tender checklist with independent second check, a standing attested document file, and at least three further bids to test the procedure.
Question eight. Why did the third outcome matter? Answer. Because a procedure that is never used has not been tested and is not yet a fix.