An environmentally friendly approach to organizing tenders (Pt.1)

Why should we care about an environmentally friendly approach to the use of human resources?

One of the most pressing problems of our time is professional and emotional burnout of employees, and one of the reasons is the lack of meaning and undervaluation of invested efforts and resources. By doing work that does not bring results, we drain our energy and strength, after which it becomes increasingly difficult for a person to recover and find the motivation to invest in the process again.

One reason we consistently encounter inefficient consumption of services, particularly human resources, is due to a system where companies are compelled to develop concepts and proposals totally for free.

According to statistics, 34% of tenders that come to us remain unrealized because the event itself was cancelled or because of a change in concept and format. Sometimes companies resort to the method of making a request and then making the decision. Which can be understood, but does the company evaluate the resources spent on, so to say, “visualization” their idea?

 

How does non-environmental approach manifest itself in the use of human resources?

The scale of agency resources employed in participation in a tender is often underestimated.

In addition to the work of the agency team on development of the idea, drawing up the estimate and presentation, we need to involve our contractors, and depending on the scale of the event, this can be from 4 to 7 different companies, dozens of artists, musicians, and other participants from the event industry.

In order to provide the client with a high-quality and realistic offer, it is necessary to communicate with each participant to clarify availability and price. Run multi-team brainstorming sessions, conceptualize and develop visualizations.

Of course, experienced agencies have already learned to optimize many processes when developing tenders, but it is still impossible to reduce communication to an absolute minimum if the agency wants its proposal to be competitive and realistic.

This is precisely why the concept of paid tenders has long existed in many countries.

 

Why unpaid tenders are tricky for the client?

Upon receival of the proposals from the agencies the client encounters lack of creativity and poor quality, which is often mistakenly associated with the relatively small size of Latvian market. However, that is fallacy. In reality, what they are faced with is the unwillingness of agencies to take financial risks for the sake of unpaid tenders. 

 

What are paid tenders?

A paid tender approach is as sustainable as possible in relation to human resources. 

This puts responsibilities on both the agency and the client companies. The first ones are to deliver the proposal of corresponding quality, and the second are to respect the resources and time spent by the agencies. 
This financial compensation does not cover all the expenses that occurred in package proposal preparation, but it does cut part of them, provides motivation and incentive to participate, as well as guarantees that the proposal will be compiled employing a personalized approach to client’s need.

Paid tenders are our potential future as, in a way, those are beneficial for both the clients and the agencies. 

 

The advantages of paid tenders:

Conscious decision-making

The company takes a more conscious approach to deciding whether to make a request and assesses possible risks. And in case of uncertainty, it will simply save its own resources otherwise spent on a useless tender. 

Efficiency

More accurate selection of tender participants and their number.
It is a common client mistake to invite 5 or more companies to a tender. With the idea that “the more the marrier” companies employ as many agencies as possible in the development of proposals, obviously, hoping to get as many good ideas as possible. However, it is impossible to devote time for meeting with each agency, so companies opt for writing a very generalised, vague inquiry. The issue here is that with this little detail, the interpretations of the requirements may be very different. 

As a result: agencies of different profiles and levels take part in the same tender; the comparison will not be objective. And client will spend a lot of extra time considering offers that do not meet their level and request.

Result

Professional, creative work on proposal creation is expensive. That is why many agencies with highly skilled teams and years of experience choose not to participate in questionable tenders. Of course it is not always easy to deny the request, especially if the client himself is aspiring! In those cases the agencies do participate, but the proposal are not that highly detailed. This creates a loop for smaller, less experienced agencies to enter the market. They tend to overexaggerate their own abilities and possibilities and underscore the risks to be taken. 

As a result the client receives a semi-finished product or simply unconvincing ideas, forced to choose from what he has received, while all the imprecisions will lead to additional time spent on coordination later on, exceeding the initial budget.

Loyalty

In our experience, the agency is more likely to be involved with greater detail in a small tender, where both you and they will have the opportunity to devote time to meetings and developing a proposal. This way you will receive a more personalized and detailed offer. And as a result, by completing the tender you are more likely to maintain the loyal attitude and trust of all tender participants, which will allow you to receive high-quality proposals within your requests in the future.

In conclusion – paid tenders are just a minor part of the event budget, but they have a crucial role in bringing the client closer to the desired result, increasing sense of loyalty among partners and most importantly saves time.