‘Big Hands – Small Map’

At an industry event, the Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said during her speech “We will reduce the cost of tendering, to better support SMEs.”  Then she moved on to the next political promise. No context, no detail, just the outcome statement. ‘Big hands, small map’.

In the military, they have a saying: ‘big hands, small map’. This essentially means you have completely skimmed over the details in your plan and are hoping for the best. It doesn’t instil confidence in your soldiers that the plan is well thought out, and they all know to expect massive problems along the way, which normally translates to more work for them, not less.

No disrespect intended. Just a fact. And with really big problems like the cost of tendering, that take a lot of time and effort to solve, it’s unfortunately all too common.

I initially welcomed the statement knowing the enormous cost that SMEs must absorb to tender within Defence, especially considering the steep slope they are already on to win against the larger players.

It’s often talked about in industry circles so it’s always topical. Give any small business owner an opening, and they will be venting their frustrations to anyone that will listen. So, of course it got a reaction and attention.

But after the initial relief of hearing the statement, I realised, much like every other SME I spoke to after, I was going through the ‘Five stages of Big Hand Announcement reaction’ – Relief, Excitement, Examination, Pessimism, Cynicism/Disregard.

By: Tim Walmsley

From: https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/key-enablers/8233-op-ed-big-hands-announcements-disengage-smes