The Good Old RFP Process
April 15, 2008 10:23 AM | Written by Yan Shikhvarger
Working in our industry, one gets plenty of chances to participate in the RFP process. The internal debates, creative brainstorms, case studies, last minute revisions, nights and weekends are all part of it. In tough situations like this, I find it interesting to think of many others in these positions and the many others that to be honest have been in much more difficult creative situations.
Actually, the whole competitive request for proposal environment has been around for centuries. Anyone visiting Florence is struck by the design and beauty of the Duomo's cupola. Well, the person that made it happen, Fillipo Brunelleschi in the 1400s, won the RFP process and successfully finished the project. The RFP process would seem familiar to contemporary and past responders. The parameters were:
- Client: Wool Merchant Guild of Florence
- Request: solution to how this particular dome would be built along with the solution to the actual equipment that would be needed (nothing of this complexity has been invented at that point)
- Award sum: 200 Florins (very substantial at the time)
- Time to respond: 6 Weeks (to prepare designs, recommendations, and even physical mockups)
Brunelleschi eventually came out on top after beating out 11 other competitors. He came up with a very innovative yet risky solution and his mockup impressed the judging committee. He also happened to beat out Lorenzo Ghiberti to whom he had lost a previous RFP response for a different project and that must have been especially gratifying. The eventual project execution was a work of genius and the dome remains the largest before the invention of modern construction materials. The whole story is very well written up by Ross King in "Brunelleschi's Dome" and in this article.
And by the way, I guess the lesson is there have been many others working on RFPs for centuries and probably were asked to do tougher things than we are, so it's just part of the job. Oh, and mockups always help.
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Comments (1)
April 29, 2008 10:01 AM, Posted by Aaron Keller
Well, now I've got some rethinking to do. This part of our business was all figured out -- never again respond to an RFP was the directive from our crew at Capsule.
Now, with this small piece of knowledge I must reconsider. Such a beautiful symbol of innovative engineering delivered through such a challenging and often biased method of doing business. Well, I'm off to the chalk board to reconsider.
Thank you for the historical insight.
ajk.