Posted by Jon
Greetings from Afghanistan! Well, not actually from Afghanistan per se – from a plane seat 38,000 feet above it en route back from Australia to the UK. I’ve exhausted the catalogue of films (loved “Good Night, and Good Luck”, George Clooney’s movie about the McCarthy era – but how come he won the acting Oscar rather than the guy who played Ed Morrow?). So my mind wandered to proposals, and out came the laptop…
Greetings from Afghanistan! Well, not actually from Afghanistan per se – from a plane seat 38,000 feet above it en route back from Australia to the UK. I’ve exhausted the catalogue of films (loved “Good Night, and Good Luck”, George Clooney’s movie about the McCarthy era – but how come he won the acting Oscar rather than the guy who played Ed Morrow?). So my mind wandered to proposals, and out came the laptop…
I was just pondering a discussion I had yesterday with a Sales Ops manager in Sydney, about the applicability of proposal ‘best practice’ to different audiences. He bought in very strongly to our “80/10/10” rule – 80% of what we do applies no matter what market you’re in, or where you’re operating in the world. 10% has to be tailored to the market and organisation we’re working with; 10% needs tweaking according to local culture.
It’s quite flattering to be invited to work with teams around the world. My personal list in the past couple of years includes Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, England, Scotland, USA, Ireland, China, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Belgium, Ireland, Singapore. Amusingly, despite being from the UK, Wales hasn’t featured on my personal list – although one of our team has been working there a fair amount of late (being from the valleys himself!).
So are there any proposal writers in Argentina or Brazil reading this and wanting help? BJ’s worked there, and I’ve been to both on vacation, but I’d love to go back. And I’m wondering about a side trip to New Zealand next time I’m in the Southern Hemisphere…?
But I do wonder what Afghan proposals would look like.
It’s quite flattering to be invited to work with teams around the world. My personal list in the past couple of years includes Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, England, Scotland, USA, Ireland, China, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Belgium, Ireland, Singapore. Amusingly, despite being from the UK, Wales hasn’t featured on my personal list – although one of our team has been working there a fair amount of late (being from the valleys himself!).
So are there any proposal writers in Argentina or Brazil reading this and wanting help? BJ’s worked there, and I’ve been to both on vacation, but I’d love to go back. And I’m wondering about a side trip to New Zealand next time I’m in the Southern Hemisphere…?
But I do wonder what Afghan proposals would look like.