Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking


Book Description

The "livable city," the "creative city," and more recently the "pop-up city" have become pervasive monikers that identify a new type of urbanism that has sprung up globally, produced and managed by the business improvement district and known colloquially by its acronym, BID. With this case study, Susanna F. Schaller draws on more than fifteen years of research to present a direct, focused engagement with both the planning history that shaped Washington, D.C.'s landscape and the intricacies of everyday life, politics, and planning practice as they relate to BIDs. Schaller offers a critical unpacking of the BID ethos, which draws on the language of economic liberalism (individual choice, civic engagement, localism, and grassroots development), to portray itself as color blind, democratic, and equitable. Schaller reveals the contradictions embedded in the BID model. For the last thirty years, BID advocates have engaged in effective and persuasive storytelling; as a result, many policy makers and planners perpetuate the BID narrative without examining the institution and the inequities it has wrought. Schaller sheds light on these oversights, thus fostering a critical discussion of BIDs and their collective influence on future urban landscapes.




How to Write Bids that Win Business


Book Description

How To Write Bids That Win Business brings together over 30 years of know-how in creating and crafting successful bids for tendered contracts. This book is an invaluable guide for bid managers and bid writing teams. It shows you how to: - create a bid writing strategy that plays to your organisation's strengths - increase your success rate by focusing on bids you are more likely to win - avoid at the outset bidding for contracts you don't want to win - embed robust bid writing management systems that deliver results time after time - ensure you follow the three golden rules for bid writing success Based on extensive research, How To Write Bids That Win Business explains what bid evaluators are really looking for, by deconstructing the questions asked and explaining how to answer them to achieve top scores. Parts I to III guide you through the complete bid creation process, providing the tips, techniques and tactics for maximising your effectiveness at the shortlister interview. In Part IV the book examines the forces shaping the future of bid writing, and outlines the three key factors for success in the years to come. Co-authors Martyn Curley and Stephen Oldbury, co-founders of Bidwriting.com, have advised many UK business-to-business organisations across 35 commercial sectors. David Molian was for many years Director of Cranfield School of Management’s renowned Business Growth Programme and has consulted for numerous companies on developing their brands and growing their businesses. He is a Criticaleye Thought Leader and remains a visiting Fellow at Cranfield. If you are looking to take your organisation’s bidding performance to the next level, improving profitability and morale throughout the business, How To Write Bids That Win Business is the book you need.




Winning the Contractor Fight


Book Description

"The Contractor Fight" is what HGTV host and best-selling author Tom Reber calls the battle between your ears. We all have stories and experiences that have formed us into who we are. We are what we think, and the battleground is our mind. The Fight is not with the people you think are "cheap customers." It's not with the unlicensed competitors or the "illegals," as many contractors think. The Fight is with yourself. Sadly, most of the struggles contractors have are self-imposed. It's friendly fire. The negative ways we think about ourselves and our worth... friendly fire. The growing debt, working too much, small bank account... friendly fire. Winning the Fight is a choice. You're noble and full of integrity. You bend over backward to serve your family and clients. You have taken it on the chin more times than you can count. Now, it's time to get yours. Earn what you're worth. Create a business that serves you and energizes you, instead of one that beats you down. Choose to own your crap and get better today.




How to Sell Your Mid-Size Business


Book Description

How to Sell Your Mid-Sized Business is written specifically for businesses between $1 million and $50 million in sales - businesses which specifically benefit from marketing to strategic and private equity buyers. It covers marketing techniques as well as how to structure a competitive bidding process in order to maximize the selling price.The book covers all areas of selling, including preparation, timing, marketing, negotiation, due diligence and closing. It also describes the differences and services you can expect from business brokers, M&A advisors and investment bankers, and what types of fees and commissions they charge. Ney Grant, shares real-life experiences and stories of deal-making that help illustrate points in the book. Ney started his career by starting, growing and selling his own company, then worked with private equity groups buying companies, then as an M&A advisor selling companies ranging from $500K to $55 million in value. Ney is currently a senior DealMaker with Woodbridge International, a middle market M&A firm.







The Art Business


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the professional activities of the art business. Addressing this fast-moving industry, The Art Business: Art World, Art Market analyses the sector’s institutions and structures, including galleries, auction houses and art fairs. The rapid development of art finance and its deployment of art as an asset class are covered, and up to moment observations are delivered on the quickly evolving auction system that includes dramatic changes at the major auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. This edition highlights growing crises in the market including the ever more unbearable costs of art fair attendance and the lack of a reliable system for establishing ownership and title of artworks. Ever more pressing ethical issues such as toxic museum donors, cultural heritage compliance, and problems of corrupt provenances are explored in detail. Enhanced by new data analytics on the US art market, the author also distils advice and guidance for working art professionals hoping to build their careers. The result is an up-to-date picture of an art business suitable for students and practitioners across the creative sector.




Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals


Book Description

Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals shows suppliers and vendors how they can gain competitive advantage by being more effective and productive when pursuing sales opportunities and competing to win new contracts. Suppliers and vendors can also learn how to identify and reduce delivery risk and commercial risk. Responding to requests-for-tenders (RFTs) and requests-for-proposals (RFPs) is frequently a challenging time for the supplier and vendor bid teams. Within tight timeframes, they must finalise their win strategy, determine their delivery plans and create compelling documentation that responds to the customer's questions and requirements. This essential reference work explores what needs to happen when responding to RFTs and RFPs and explains the essential knowledge needed by the bid teams. In clearly written and well-structured chapters, Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals addresses everything a bid manager or bid team member needs to know. Understanding profit, pricing, value and risk are essential for competitive pricing and profitable business. How customers manage their procurement programmes drives the lifecycle of a sales opportunity. Sales governance based on objective criteria identifies the right opportunities to pursue. Knowing what to look for in RFPs and RFTs helps to structure powerful bid responses. Understanding contracts, finance and business cases protects the commercial position of the supplier or vendor. Mastering these topics makes bid management a complete discipline that places a premium on leadership and managerial skills. Not only are the fundamentals of bid management captured simply and concisely, Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals also explains how to plan and manage a bid response. Additional chapters define what makes a bid response compelling, as well as how to write and review bid documents to best position your bid, tender or proposal. Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals introduces the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework, a new and unique approach for responding to sales opportunities. In 16 procedural steps, the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework guides bid teams through the development process from identifying a sales opportunity to developing a compelling and competitive bid response. Any supplier or vendor in any industry that submits bids, proposals and tenders will benefit from adopting the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework. The framework provides a clear roadmap for implementing best-practice bid management at suppliers and vendors in any industry or market. The Bid.Win.Deliver Framework equips any professional with the skills to lead and manage a bid response. For experienced bid managers, the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework provides a common reference for discussion, reflection and professional development.




Putting Auction Theory to Work


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to modern auction theory and its important new applications. It is written by a leading economic theorist whose suggestions guided the creation of the new spectrum auction designs. Aimed at graduate students and professionals in economics, the book gives the most up-to-date treatments of both traditional theories of 'optimal auctions' and newer theories of multi-unit auctions and package auctions, and shows by example how these theories are used. The analysis explores the limitations of prominent older designs, such as the Vickrey auction design, and evaluates the practical responses to those limitations. It explores the tension between the traditional theory of auctions with a fixed set of bidders, in which the seller seeks to squeeze as much revenue as possible from the fixed set, and the theory of auctions with endogenous entry, in which bidder profits must be respected to encourage participation.




Sotheby's


Book Description

This volume explores the history of Sotheby's auction house, tracing its beginnings back to 1744. It was in the latter half of the 19th century, when economic instability forced the aristocrats to sell off many of their treasures, that Sotheby's began to lay the foundations of the modern art market. The Sotheby's-Christie's rivalry intensified in the early-1900s and they have been battling it out ever since over the likes of Cezanne, Picasso, Van Gogh and Monet. Lacey takes the reader through the unprecedented boom of the 1980s, when Van Gogh's Irises went for $53.9 million, and examines the catastrophic effects of an inflation still being felt today.




The Bid Manager's Handbook


Book Description

Winning significant business on the right terms is an increasingly complex, challenging and time-consuming task, and a successful bid is a vital part of any business offering its services or products to another. This book will help you to enhance the probability of success in winning bids at the desired margins and to set up and run effectively a bid management team. The revised edition expands on the writing and editorial side of the bid, the use of bid management software and the bid review process.