In advance of our Symposium 2025, we reached out to APMP chapters from around the world to hear about winning the business, bid processes and more. Here is what our friends in the Japan Chapter had to share!
I am a member of the Creative Proposal Center (CPC), an organization that promotes proposal management at Hitachi, Ltd. a global company, and I would like to share with you some of the advanced initiatives that the CPC has undertaken, which have improved our win rate by 15 percent.
CPC provides services for procurement projects in all industries covered by Hitachi. Particularly in the public sector, which I am in charge of, proposals are highly valued in vendor selection. In Japan, government and municipal procurement is divided into technical points, which are evaluated based on the content of the proposal, and price points, which are calculated based on the bid price. The vendor with the highest total of technical and price points is selected. Proposals are prepared in accordance with the evaluation items listed in the RFP, and evaluators score the proposals based on their contents. Therefore, the vendor that makes a proposal that resonates with the client according to the evaluation items will receive the highest score.
I would like to share with you one of the most impressive cases I have assisted in the past. In this case, the other company had the upper hand. Initially, sales and sales enablement focused on functionality and interacted with the customer, but they ended up talking about how highly functional the product was compared to other companies. Midway through the process, CPC joined in and organized the information to connect our proposal with the customer’s interests. As a result, we were able to make a proposal that satisfied the customer, and we won overwhelmingly in technical points in the proposal.
All members of CPC are qualified for APMP Foundation, and having learned APMP, we have common Body of Knowledge (BOK) terminology, discuss more actively than ever, and try new things every day. Last year, we joined APMP as the first corporate member in Japan. We have been actively participating in APMP activities, such as chairing and presenting presentations at Japan chapter’s meeting and volunteering to translate the BOK into Japanese. Last year, a representative of our members attended BPC Orlando. This year, two of us will be attending BPC Dublin again, so please feel free to call us if you see us.
Outside of work, CPC members are very cheerful and active. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we primarily work online, but we use the Teams bulletin board to send “bravos” to each other whenever we notice something commendable. When we meet at the office, we often go out for drinks or attend baseball games organized by a baseball-loving member. This cheerful and supportive atmosphere is one of our team’s strengths.
Yuko Nishikawa, Assistant Manager
Creative Proposal Center, Executive Strategy Unit
Digital Systems & Services Sales Management Division
Hitachi, Ltd.
