Proposal Reflections

As I asserted the last two articles ( Article 1 , Article 2 ), roughly two months after the season finale aired of Game of Thrones, I still can’t help but see similarities between the cutthroat environment of the show and the world of business development. The show is about a web of alliances and conflicts among the various parties involved—all of whom are seeking to gain control and power. Within the world of business development, it is much the same. Various companies are competing against one another for work—each wanting to gain more and more control and power over their sector(s). Within these organizations, individuals are similarly fighting for power and control—some with the company’s interest at heart, and others looking out only for themselves. And within this world, we develop a web of partners and competitors—both at the individual and corporate levels. In the last two articles, I looked at eight popular  Game of Thrones characters, drawing parallels to ...

As I asserted in last week’s article, roughly two months after the season finale aired of Game of Thrones, I still can’t help but see similarities between the cutthroat environment of the show and the world of business development. The show is about a web of alliances and conflicts among the various parties involved—all of whom are seeking to gain control and power. Within the world of business development, it is much the same. Various companies are competing against one another for work—each wanting to gain more and more control and power over their sector(s). Within these organizations, individuals are similarly fighting for power and control—some with the company’s interest at heart, and others looking out only for themselves. And within this world, we develop a web of partners and competitors—both at the individual and corporate levels. In last week’s article , I looked at four of my favorite Game of Thrones characters, drawing parallels to the types of individuals we ...

Nearly two months after the season finale aired of Game of Thrones, I still can’t help but see similarities between the cutthroat environment of the show and the world of business development (BD). The show is about a web of alliances and conflicts among the various parties involved—all of whom are seeking to gain control and power. Within the world of business development, it is much the same. Various companies are competing against one another for work—each wanting to gain more and more control and power over their sector(s). Within these organizations, individuals are similarly fighting for power and control—some with the company’s interest at heart, and others looking out only for themselves. And within this world, we develop a web of partners and competitors—both at the individual and corporate levels. In this week’s blog, I’ll take a look at four of my favorite Game of Thrones characters, drawing parallels to the types of individuals we might come across in our li...

I recently posted an article that aligned the proposal development process to the standard 5-Step Writing Process  (if you missed it, you can check it out here ). This week I’m expanding on the last two steps of this process: revising and editing. We often use the terms revising and editing interchangeably, but they are actually unique processes, each with differing goals: Revising, which happens between the Pink and Red Team Reviews, aims at making content updates and structural changes that will clarify your narrative and message. Editing, which happens between Red and Gold Team Reviews, aims at making grammatical and mechanical changes so that your narrative is clean and correct. Mirroring similar memory devices, to help you remember the difference between the two, I have come up with this fun little mnemonic device: follow the ROAD and play the GAME . REVISING, MAKING IT BETTER: FOLLOW THE ROAD After the Pink Team review, you’ll want to read what you h...