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Diaspora Matters

The art of winning tenders-what they did not teach you at college

strive

One of the fastest ways to grow in the business sector is through winning tenders! If you master the art of winning tenders then congratulations to you. Tenders mean big dollars and in the case of Zimbabwe more than $300 million is spend every year through public tenders.

Like we always say at ZBIN, if you want success then follow the money! If you want to succeed in Zimbabwe the rule is to know where money is or flows and then simply follow the trail. The Government is always flighting tender adverts, Parastatals do the same, NGOs are not left out, schools, universities are actively involved. We have introduced a tender tracker that is only available to subscribed members. We produce this tender on a weekly basis and it basically shows the sectors where tenders are coming from and what it means about that sector.

If you get more than 2 months access to our tender tracker then you can have a feel of what is happening in terms of sectors where money is flowing to. We developed it because we realised that the Diaspora community does not have access to the tenders and are therefore left out in terms of knowing investment trends and opportunities.

So how do you win tenders?

The answer is simple-preparation! There is a wrong assumption that all tenders are corruptly awarded in the country. This writer has had an opportunity to oversee a substantial number of tender adjudication processes and am happy to report that i did not witness any misrepresentation of fraudulent activities. Most of the of the multi-million tender processes that i witnessed were above board, no conflict of interest and tenders being awarded to the best bidders. I however cannot talk about the rest of other tender processes that go on in the country but my recommendation is that there is still a window of opportunity to those that participate in tender processes in Zimbabwe.

No School of Tender Processes Education

I said it all depends on preparation right? So how does one prepare? As a company you must always be ready for tenders and getting ready is not a one day event, you have to continuously develop systems and processes that develops a strong company or organisation. Everyday processes you need to follow includes:

1.Company registration-register your company from day 1, do not wait for tenders inorder to register your company, all Zimbabwean tenders need registered companies.

2.Tax Compliance-Always make sure that you are up to date in terms of tax matters with ZIMRA, tax may not be enjoyable to pay but paying tax earns you marks during tenders.

3.Bank Management-Ensure that you bank all funds received, have a good track record of banking funds. Tenders need 3 month bank statements and if you produce a bank statement with no funds invested then you lose considerable marks with the tender review committee.

4.Credit Reference-It pays to be in good books with your customers and buyers, their good word or reference will earn you passing marks with tender review committees.

  1. Audited Financial Statements-Preparing financial statements is a good thing to do so that you can know how you are faring financial wise, these reports are also required by external stakeholders such as potential funders, ZIMRA and others. One key benefit that is rarely talked about is ‘financial statements as a competitive advantage during tenders’. I remember once disqualifying a very good company whid had bid for a water reticulation tender. They had everything inorder-great experience, nicely designed files, a lot of funds in the bank , qualified personnel. They had submitted everything and were on there way to win a multi-million tender-only one document costed them the tender-an audited financial report! Come on, an audit that would have cost $1,000 versus $2million business? Yes that small document costed them the tender and chances are high that they will never know how they lost. A lot of SMEs are in the same boat, not appreciating the value of engaging qualified accountants to prepare their financial reports and also having them audited.

6.Presentable premises– Final evaluation of tenders involve visiting premises of shortlisted bidders. They will visit offices and award marks based on appearance and presentation. If you have offices in downtown and its a multi-million dollar tender then you should kiss goodbye the chances of winning it. Its even worse when you do not have offices! If you are a manufacturing company then there will be a warehouse assessment and interview with warehouse staff.

I have only covered 6 but there are a lot of other areas that you need to do but the above ones are the key ones that usually appear on tenders. You can pick any Zimbabwean newspaper, look at 3 tender adverts and verify.

Dr Strive Masiyiwa and Tenders

So how did Dr Strive Masiyiwa rise to multi million dollar wealth in a short period? A lot of factors can be attributed to his success but the model he used can be summarised into ‘Winning Tenders’. Sometimes he would win tenders without sufficient funding! He would then go and seek funding after winning tenders. His latest blog post on pitching to investors lifts a lid on how he won the mobile tender in Botswana.

He won because he had thoroughly prepared for the tender, he left no stone unturned as he thoroughly prepared for a tender which pitted him against some of the biggest telecoms giants in the world! The giants took everything for granted-imagine a French company with a global presence and a lot of resources competing against a small Zimbabwean company without experience….the company did not give a second chance to this minor unknown company.

They were to learn the hard way later when Mascom(Masiyiwa Communication) snatched the bun from under their noses. They were later to learn that Zimbabweans are indeed some of the most intelligent people on earth when the multi-million tender was awarded to MASCOM-what a hard lesson!

Below i will feature parts of what he wrote on his blog:

Our competitors came in private jets. On our side, some of my team traveled by car from Harare in Zimbabwe (a day’s journey) because we could not afford air tickets!

# Did you know that Faith has a twin?

It’s called Grace!

# We planned meticulously. # We rehearsed the bid questions over and over again. # We set up a mock process in our offices, and got a team to act as the adjudicators, and ask questions. # We practiced and practiced and practiced for two solid weeks!

When the day came, we appeared before a panel of adjudicators made up of Botswana government officials and telecoms experts from Sweden. The meeting was chaired by a leading Botswana lawyer called Mr Moses Lekaukau, a huge man with a thundering no-nonsense style.

I began my pitch by greeting the chairman in Setswana, their mother tongue. I then went into my pitch.

I can still remember some of the data that I used on Botswana’s demographics, its economic growth, the potential market… numbers, numbers, numbers!

After my initial pitch, they began to grill us on our presentation which was more than 900 pages: “On this page, you say that… Please explain, and what is the source of your data?”

My team and I knew that document like the back of our hands, and we enjoyed each question. The grilling lasted the whole day. I was fasting on that day, too!

A few weeks later the Botswana government announced the winner was Mascom Wireless and France Telecom (Orange) had come in second!

It’s is now 21 years since that “pitch.” We went on to set up Botswana’s and our own first telecoms business, which remains to this day the country’s number one operator.

Imagine my position at the time:

# No experience; # Facing global competitors; # No money.

I was also black. (In the minds of most people at that time, there was no such thing as a serious black entrepreneur).

Important Points from this:

We planned meticulously.# We rehearsed the bid questions over and over again. # We set up a mock process in our offices, and got a team to act as the adjudicators, and ask questions. # We practiced and practiced and practiced for two solid weeks!

Dr Masiyiwa is basically talking of the importance of planning, you need to thoroughly plan for tenders especially when the odds are stacked against you. The word ‘over’ is mentioned twice, the word practice is mentioned thrice.

Why is he repeating these key words several times? He is doing so because most tenders are poorly prepared. Some are prepared by 1 or 2 people but here we are being told that Masiyiwa did not do it alone, he had a team that practiced and practiced before leaving for Botswana for their biggest foreign tender assignment.

Mock Tender Process

You can tell that Masiyiwa was ahead of his times! He did what the Global Giants had taken for granted-thorough preparation! The giants who flew in by private jet obviously would not waste time and resources in preparations, they would simply follow processes that had worked well in the past-they were to receive a rude awakening when people who drove cars got the tender. A lot of big companies are in the same boat-few take tenders seriously, few practice enough. Dr Strive Masiyiwa knew of this weakness and took advantage. His practice sessions included a mock tender process-how many companies do that?

Conclusion

There is no school of tender processes for obvious reasons-this is where the big monies are and therefore those with information would rather keep it to themselves. Tender processes are not covered in financial subjects at university for obvious reasons- if you all participate in tenders then someone is going to lose out. Dr Masiyiwa mastered this art in 1997 and see where he is today! ZBIN will cover the art of tenders in detail in future and follow ups will include a Facebook Live coverage on this topic and more trainings for the business sector-do not be left out when we cover some of the issues and tips that i left out.


ZBIN Services

We provide  tender trackers to interested clients and also offer tender drafting, review and mock services.

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Ntate Victor

The author Ntate Victor

Ntate Victor is a Chartered Management Accountant, ACMA, CGMA and an award winning business coach and consultant. Author of 6 books and skilled in financial analysis, strategic planning, risk management, and business coaching. Contact +263 773 055 063

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