On Friday, September 6, 2013 7:42:42 PM UTC-4, Wayne. B wrote:
On Fri, 6 Sep 2013 19:28:13 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"

wrote:



She probably typed the technical proposal. We didn't have computers

or word processors then so they were all written in longhand on legal

pads. I'd do the electrical. process and control sections and another

guy did the writing for the mechanical hardware. I'd utilize the

original "cut and paste" method for all the boilerplate sections.

Then they went to Mrs.E. and another typist and typed up on IBM

Selectric typewriters that had that rotating font ball.



That's when I got in the habit of getting up at about 2 am when Mrs.

E. and the mud rats (kids) were sleeping and I'd make a pot of coffee,

sit down at my desk and start writing. I could finish my part of a

40-50 page technical proposal by 8 or 9 am if it was similar to

something we had built before.



Here's a long winded story. Delete and skip if you're not interested

but it was quite a big deal for me back in 1990:



The longest proposal .... and the one that took the most time .... was

for a unique, large system for the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at

the University of Rochester. They had a huge program called "Omega"

funded by the DOE and the DOD for building a laser system consisting

of 60 beams that focused their energy onto a "target" the size of a

piece of rice. The "official" goal at the time was to produce energy

by nuclear fusion by compressing deuterium ... an abundant element

found in sea water with very high powered lasers. There were also

defense applications, allowing nuclear research without having to blow

stuff up.



I had just incorporated my company when this project came along. As

"newbies" in the industry, we typically got the scraps of contracts

that the big boys weren't interested in. The UofR request for

technical proposals and price quotations went out world-wide to all

the major manufacturers of custom vacuum deposition systems ... about

13 companies in total. We were not on the original bidder's list

because we were so small and unknown at the time. A friend in

another company called me and said his company was going to "no-bid"

the project and asked me if I wanted the technical specifications to

look at. I said, "sure" ... and then called the UofR purchasing

department to see if they would accept a proposal and quotation from

us. He welcomed all comers, and said yes.



I had absolutely no allusions that we would ever get the contract,

but I figured it was an opportunity to submit a strong technical

proposal, get our name out there, and maybe get on the bidder's list

for future, smaller contracts. With that in mind, I suggested to

Mrs. E. that she take the kids on a vacation to Disneyworld with some

friends and I spent over a week researching the requirements and

writing the best proposal I could.



It was submitted and I basically put it out of my mind and

concentrated on getting contracts that were more realistic for the

size of the company.

About 3 months later we received notice that a more detailed

specification was being forwarded to a small group of the original

bidders.

We had 48 hours to respond to it.



When I reviewed the new spec, I realized that they had now included

some specific process criteria that the successful bidder would be

obligated to achieve. Now I was getting a little nervous. I read

the requirements and felt that some were beyond current state of the

art and were probably not achievable.



After much thought, I called the assistant to the project leader at

the UofR and respectfully withdrew our bid. He thanked me for the

time and effort and said he'd forward my withdrawal to the program

leader.



A half hour later, the project leader called. He wanted to know why I

withdrew our bid. I explained that there were two parts of the

process (had to do with the uniformity of coating over a very large

optic) that I did not feel was possible to achieve. He wanted to

know why and we talked a bit about this.



He then told me that he knew they weren't achievable and that we were

the only company out of three that made the final "cut" that took

exception to that part of the spec. He *strongly* encouraged me to

send a revised proposal taking exceptions to any part of the spec that

I didn't feel comfortable with. He then told me that our price had

"plenty of room" for adjustment and told me to make sure I was

comfortable with it.



So, I did as he instructed ... took exceptions a couple of the

spec's requirements and added another $100k to the price for

"insurance". Two weeks later I received a call from one of the other

companies that had bid, offering congratulations. "About what?" I

asked. "You don't know? ... You won the UofR project".



I called the project leader and he confirmed it. He asked to keep it

quiet for a couple of days because they were contacting and thanking

all the other bidders before making a formal announcement.



That project was a huge success, both for us and the UofR and it put

my little company on the "map" so to speak. Good memories.



===



Great suuccess story, thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see

honesty and hard work pay off in the end.

I agree. The company I work for is a family owned business that I started with over 30 years ago. Their success story is similar... winning contracts with large entities that just wanted someone to partner with to get the job done. We've been very successful in doing that over the years, but it's coming to an end.

We're now hooked up with some very large companies that we are integrating to, and the large direct sell companies that we've been doing business with are changing as well. The bigger and more sucessful you are, the less fun it is.

Among other things, this country was built on the small business men who did the very things that our company does (or did). The excessive regulations that are now in place stifle that free enterprise.