Successful proposal strategies for small businesses: using knowledge management to win government, private-sector, and international contracts. sixth edition (frey, r.s.) [book reviews]

The sixth edition of this book provides a valuable guide applicable to businesses small, medium, and large. The book contains 24 content-rich chapters, four appendices of additional resources and tools, a handy list of acronyms and abbreviations, an extensive bibliography for further reading, and a detailed index, as well as a compact disc (CD) full of usable forms and documents described in great depth in the book. Internalization and application of the tools and practices presented in this book should help any US business write successful proposals that win a variety of types of contracts both domestically and internationally. Overall, this book is an exceptional resource for companies of all sizes-not just small ones-looking to create successful proposals. One notable problem with the text is its incredible length. This book is a total of 716 pages of single-spaced text that would take approximately a week of five hours of reading per day for an employee to finish (figuring two minutes per page, plus time to peruse the CD), and it is unlikely the average employee or manager has that kind of time to spare. Another issue is that it does not provide any information for a foreign business looking to do business with the US. Though the general business advice and proposal writing strategies contained therein seem as if they would be equally applicable to an internationally-based company, a separate chapter or at least a section in Chapter 22 on such concerns would make the book more universally appealing and could enable greater international sales of it. Aside from those concerns, however, this book is a highly valuable tool crafted by an experienced professional.