The nature of SEA’s work means that we service a number of long-term contracts concurrently, and are tasked with designing, manufacturing, and supplying systems to a range of large organisations including the Royal Navy and navies across the globe.
But what is the source of the contracts we work on, and how do we begin working on them?
We spent five minutes with Bid Manager, Lindsay Boxsey, who is responsible for managing the multiple bids SEA responds to on an ongoing basis. Here’s what Lindsay shared with us about the role the Business Winning has in maintaining SEA’s healthy growth.
Thanks for giving us the time to chat to you today. Can you start off by telling us about your role at SEA?
I’d be happy to!
For those that aren’t familiar with a Bid Manager’s role, I form part of SEA’s Business Winning team, helping to plan and coordinate the process of selecting and submitting bids for contracts. We receive various RFIs (Requests for Information) and invitations to tender from existing or new clients, and we select those which are best suited to our skills, experience, and resources.
We then go about coordinating a huge team effort from multiple departments in putting together a compelling bid that ticks all of the boxes for the potential customer and demonstrates why SEA’s team is the best team for the job.
And how does this work underpin and enable the growth of SEA?
A large part of what our team does is evaluating a project and concluding whether it’s a piece of work we can and should deliver. And when a company is growing fairly rapidly and looking long into the future with certain contracts, it’s so important for our team to ensure that we have the right resources in place, often looking 10 or 15 years into the future, to deliver on a project that we intend to bid for.
To do this efficiently, we work very closely with senior members of any particular division, and we have a very structed gate process - or review process – that we go through to ensure everyone is informed of what’s going on with a bid at the right stages. This enables us to adapt our resources or plans for the future as required.
What would you say are the key skills needed for your job?
Can I say a healthy competitiveness?
I have actually worked as a Bid Manager for 25 years now with only a short break in between to try project management, but I missed the competition! And I think that competitiveness drives us all to do the best possible job we can and, when selling what SEA can offer, the determination and passion of the whole business comes across in our work.
Empathy is also vital as we often require people to step outside of their day job in order to work with us to put together a successful bid. Of course, our work is a necessity for everyone but it’s important we understand that other contributors might have a million-and-one other things to work on that aren’t to do with a project that is 10 years in the future.
Lastly, I think communication skills and organisation are important attributes. I know they’re mentioned a lot, but when you are tasked with coordinating several different people from different areas of the business who wouldn’t normally work together, to work on high value bids, you really do need to be organised.
Point well-made there Lindsay! What would you say is the biggest challenge of your job?
It’s tricky to pinpoint the biggest challenge for me and the Business Winning team, but I would probably say is making our processes more efficient and modernising the way we work.
Technology is continually evolving, and this makes more modern and efficient tools available that we can implement. Whether this be to reduce the admin burden or streamline the bidding process, it can be difficult to enact significant changes to a system that has been effective for a long time. This is an industry wide challenge, but we are determined to take that step back and find where we can implement tools and embrace the different ways of working that are out there that can make our jobs easier.
The final question for today is what do you enjoy most about working at SEA?
Of course, there are lots of perks to working at SEA, but the people are at the top of that list without a doubt. Right from when I first interviewed, everyone has been friendly and approachable and really like-minded, which makes for a flexible workplace and a great environment to work in.
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