I was fortunate enough earlier in the year to see the incomparable Simon Russell Beale – far and away Britain’s greatest stage actor – in the Royal National Theatre’s “The Life of Galileo”.

I could relate personally to one particular phrase which caught my attention, describing the lead character as a man “who cannot resist an old wine or a new idea”.

Certainly new ideas are a stock in trade for the proposal professional – whether it’s improvements to your processes, your tools, the way you engage proposal team members, or the content in your documents themselves. It might be a useful point of reflection for some readers: what five new ideas have you implemented in the past twelve months, and what five cool things do you want to make happen in the coming year?

Russell Beale’s next role, apparently, is in the West End production of Spamalot, the Monty Python musical. I guess “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” has its relevance to a proposal manager too!