Successful Business Planning Using Client’s Business Model

Successful business delivery is always based on client satisfaction. Understanding your clients’ needs means loyal customers and sustainable growth. Sustainable growth is a challenge on containing market changes. Market analysis history shows patterns of market expansion and recession. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States, there have been 11 business cycles from 1945 to 2009, with the average length of a cycle lasting about 69 months, or a little less than six years. The average expansion during this period has lasted 58.4 months, while the average contraction has lasted only 11.1 months. However, from 2009 to date the current recession extended beyond that analysis.



Therefore, in economic downturns, distress becomes much more widespread. Are we prepared to lead to sustainable growth of income and to manage it to be more resilient to shocks tournaments and risky competition?

In this article, recommendations on how to maneuver the downturn by understanding and integrating client’s strategy and procurement process with your internal process considering markets conditions to make transparent and firm bidding decision making process.

In such changing markets, most companies find difficulties to forecast the coming opportunities to target and win. There are many uncertainties. This make the decision makers take more percussion and risk analysis to invest and rather than expanding or maintaining the current position, cost reduction becomes the norm. This usually happens because the current system is incapable of reflecting the right analysis of client’s new strategy and processes. Part of this failure is the lacking of data or late data gathering.



The business model needs a running system which demonstrate the updated wide big picture; (where are you now? Where is your operation now? and What’s the market direction? The first two questions supposed to be easy to answer. However, many companies will have difficulties to get it fast. The last Q is the crucial to answer faster.

Having said that, your intelligence and data gathering is good as your current system capability to integrate it with your current situation. It depends on your business development process, your operation process and the enterprise portfolio management you have. Incorporating the right data and using the right parameters to manage your enterprise portfolio management should be ready to go. This system to be perfect, it has to be built around clients’ new strategy and process by integrating it within the organization internal conditions.

So what do you think your client business model would be built around?



I think all of us know the answer which is optimization, value engineering, cost reduction and focusing on clients need.Therefore, the first recommendation will be rather waiting to find out the client’s new strategy and becomes a victim of the market changes, organizations should open their eyes to the new opportunities around (needs for more project control, needs for project management systems, needs for project commissioning systems & resources, needs for asset management systems, needs for institutional building, needs for training … etc.). In the same time reevaluate the risks they were taking in the projects in hands. They should analyze the new risks which will come from the current operation considering that companies who will take the financial hit more on the way down are the ones who profited from the risk taking on the way up.

The second recommendation is don’t get ahead of yourself’. Never take decision without having the full picture of the current operation (In particular confirming projects delivery progress against approved invoices and true cash flow status) of your organization and its compatibility to adopt to the new changes.



The third recommendation, make your services unique by not just replying to the clients need but also to suggest successful approved solutions which clients don’t know before. These solutions might be part of your organization gained experience. Make a brain storming between your team and you will be surprised with the new solution they can offer. These solutions would be your new unique products. It should be around optimizations, creative technologies, cost effective methods.

The fourth recommendation will be monitoring and developing the labour productivity through a firm measurement, output per hour worked. Here comes the project management software, models and the training to help. Be ready with it.

The fifth recommendation, keeping close to the client’s mind. In such changes, the history we saw in USA and Europe let the clients change their current contracts by engaging the private sector more and more to take over some of the project risks through new contracts like Design and Build, PPP or even BOOT contract. You should be ready to be part of it to takeover any opportunity when it is activated. Here, ensuring minimum cost delivery on is not the only evaluation measurement. The main measurement becomes what unique value you can add to the project to delivery, project operation and maintenance.

Adding more insight about client’s changes strategy, as it is mentioned above, clients will change how they do their business. They will suggest new contracts types. They will promote more competition, they will remove the barriers that inhibit small and medium size companies to enter new business segments. They will put new policies on capabilities focusing on the development of local human capital, as well as the institutions for creating and transmitting knowledge and linking business with community more and more). They will change to deliver to new develop products. You should have the insight to be ready to it and to suggest it to your clients too.



Finally, I think there are limited companies in Middle East who are ready to this changes. They used to the current way of business. If the companies will not react to integrate their systems with the new client process, they will lose their share. The new system might not be clear yet. However, here comes the company’s intelligence to forecast and prepare themselves for it to be ready when the client active it. For example, the new Saudi 2030 Vision and the news coming from UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar about new client’s thinking are enough to react. React Now, evaluate your current system and be ready for the future.

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