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Helping aerospace and defense (A&D) companies develop effective strategies for winning contracts with critical customers, contributing to stronger growth

Every contract bid presents unique challenges, and A&D companies must truly understand their customers’ priorities, preferences, and budgets to win. What’s more, they must keep pace with change and respond quickly to shifting customer requirements. Slow movers, or those that lack customer insights, may lose business to more nimble competitors.

Although future budget uncertainties persist, it is imperative for defense players to continue investing in growth pockets, especially as new technologies emerge and the speed of innovation accelerates. We assist clients with all aspects of the bid process, from business development to proposal to capture. Working in partnership with capture teams, we help design customer-focused solutions. Our insights allow companies to invest in the right research, create the best product offerings, and maximize their chance of winning bids.

What we do

Finding pockets of growth

We work with clients to identify the best investment opportunities, leveraging Radar, our proprietary analytics platform, and our global panel of senior advisors to pressure test potential growth areas. We combine our A&D knowledge with our expertise in strategy and corporate finance, including our leading-edge valuation techniques, to provide our clients with a comprehensive perspective on their investment opportunities and growth portfolio.

Capture Excellence

We help companies redesign the overall bid process with the goal of reducing both costs and timelines. Our expertise includes pricing to win, developing competitive intelligence, and providing proposal support.

Design-to-value

As clients develop products, we help them conduct design-to-value analyses that consider both the costs and benefits of different features. By removing any attributes that customers do not value, A&D companies can lower production costs. That decrease will translate into lower product prices, which could increase the likelihood of winning bids.

Examples of our work

Optimizing product costs

We performed a design-to-value analysis during the bid phase for a client. Our insights helped reduce proposed costs significantly and helped the client win an $800 million contract.

Creating capture excellence

By helping a client create a two-speed capture process, we reduced the effort needed to bid on all contracts, including those with lower value, unlocking an opportunity to save 40 percent.

Refocusing business development

We worked with a defense-services player to re-orient the focus of the business-development team and business-unit investments toward pockets of relevant growth in a post-merger world.

Featured Capabilities

Radar
Combines hard data with analytical tools to provide extensive information on A&D markets. The insights help companies develop their portfolios, reduce spending, and make better decisions about budgets, growth opportunities, and research.

Cleansheet
Analyzes a product’s cost structure to help manufacturers improve design and capture savings.

Design-to-Value
Helps companies obtain deeper insights about products, customers, and the supply base. It draws on both digital tools and the knowledge of experts in our design-to-value labs.

Featured Experts

Ryan Brukardt
Senior Partner
Advises global aerospace, defense, and space companies on achieving sustainable growth and operational excellence
Frank Coleman III
Partner
Serves Industrial clients on strategy and M&A, driven by value creation fundamentals and underpinned by complex technology investments
Jesse Klempner
Partner
Assists aerospace, defense, and industrial companies with strategy, growth, innovation, and mergers and acquisitions, and consults on diligence, strategy, and portfolio-company optimization for private equity funds
Simone Vesco
Partner
Serves clients on strategy, marketing and sales, operations, working capital, and aftermarket and services transformations

Featured Insights

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Creating strong digital B2B channels at industrial companies
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How industrial companies can cut their indirect costs—fast
– New technologies go beyond what traditional cost optimization can offer.
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How generative design could reshape the future of product development
– Smart algorithms won’t just lead to better products—they could redefine how product development is done.
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Making cost engineering count
– Cost engineering isn’t just for car companies and chipmakers. Across sectors, complexity and cost pressures are giving companies good reason to follow a more disciplined approach to finding savings.

How We Help Clients

Connect with our Aerospace & Defense Practice

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