The Pursuit of High-Stakes Business: The Competitive Discipline Behind Proposals That Win

By Jacques Keats, Ajay Patel, Dick Eassom

An up-to-date and expert strategy guide for winning high-value competitive programs

In The Pursuit of High-Stakes Business: The Competitive Discipline Behind Proposals That Win, three members of the senior leadership team at SMA, Inc. - the leading advisor for companies seeking large contracts in the defense, aerospace, and B2B sectors - deliver a detailed strategy guide for organizations engaged in the unforgiving, high-stakes process of winning large-scale competitive programs. The authors provide a revolutionary new manual for succeeding in these competitions, one that eschews the usual sales narrative and relies instead on a granular application of systems engineering, agile execution, and strategy-informed storytelling.

The book is a masterclass and practical toolkit for architecting strategies that create credible advantages and align technical, cost, and schedule strategies with integrated program architecture. You'll learn to avoid common pitfalls that torpedo promising initiatives and embrace techniques that are consistently successful in the face of ferocious competition.

Inside the book: A deeply informed, step-by-step manual based on SMA's Program Lifecycle Body of Knowledge A collection of real-world case studies and the practical lessons you can draw from each of them Specific strategies to prepare for the next RFP before you receive it

Perfect for executives, capture leaders, and proposal professionals, The Pursuitof High-Stakes Business is a must-have walkthrough for everyone involved in pursuing high-value, competitive contracts in an increasingly crowded market.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 139440249X
• ISBN13: 9781394402496
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 224 Pages