Naval Deal of the Century
Copyright: BAE Systems
Ian Forbes, Managing Partner of ADS member Sales Ignite, was the sole external bid advisor to BAE Systems in their hotly contested bid to supply the design and to manage the construction of nine anti‐submarine Frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. SEA5000 is the world's largest naval contract in a decade according to the UK PM’s office, and is valued at approximately £20 billion.
In a BBC report Francis Tusa, editor of industry newsletter Defence Analysis, said the selection of BAE Systems as the preferred tenderer for the SEA 5000 program was the "Deal of the Century". He added that the UK has had an "abysmal" export record for warship sales for the past five decades, but this represented "a massive sea‐change". It is the first international order for a new high‐tech British designed warship in decades. British Prime Minister Theresa May hailed the announcement and said it was the “perfect illustration”' of the deals Brexit Britain will be striking with countries outside the EU.
BAE Systems’ bid ‐ based on the UK Type 26 frigate currently under construction in Glasgow for the Royal Navy ‐ won through against strong bids from Spain and Italy despite being described as “the riskiest and most expensive design” by the Australian Financial Review newspaper in its report of the announcement.
There was undoubtedly a price premium because of the advanced design of the Type 26. and it was described as risky as it was the only one of the three proposed designs not already in the water to demonstrate real world performance. This of course meant it was even more critical than ever that the bid proposal and associated communication was powerful and persuasive.
Bid Strategist Ian Forbes was called in over a year ago to work with more than 100 technical, commercial, military, and in‐house communication experts, and was given the mandate to evolve a clear win theme and positioning for the bid, and to ensure the strength of the bid was clearly articulated in every section of the substantial proposal submitted that ran to 8 volumes and more than 5000 pages. Working directly with the global commercial director and the bid leader, Ian Forbes provided a range of strategic bid consulting services including facilitation of a Win Room, development of win messages and the critical bid positioning statement, structuring, and editing of the bid document and associated video, and authorship of key bid summary sections.
Ian Forbes commented “Working on this most complex bid that is of great strategic and economic importance to both the UK and Australia was a great privilege. I am proud to have been the sole external bid adviser working alongside a massive highly motivated dedicated team of naval architects, engineers, and internal pursuit professionals from the UK and Australia that came together to deliver this outstanding result to BAE Systems”
The partners of Sales Ignite have supported teams to win more than £31 billion in revenue from delivering realtime consulting services across a wide range of sectors over the past ten years. Business worth billions more has also been won by individuals who have applied Sales Ignite processes and skills from their training and coaching programmes.
Ian’s clients enjoy a better than 80% success rate on those bids he has provided a full strategic advice service on. Other recent multi‐billion pound client successes have been the delivery of the UK's largest water infrastructure project, a major health network consolidation in the UK, and the design and engineering of a new underground railway in Australia, as well as a number of smaller bids that were ‘must‐win’ opportunities for the organisations that retained Sales Ignite.
