The Reality and Future of UK Capture

What is capture, and why is it becoming an essential part of successful business winning?

In this episode of the Optimize Podcast, Matt Light is joined by Georgina Ayilara, Head of Tendering at Cyclife UK and author of The Current State of UK Capture white paper. Together, they explore why capture should be viewed as a business-wide discipline rather than simply a pre-bid activity, and how organisations can improve their approach to positioning for opportunities before a tender is released.

Drawing on experience across organisations including Thales, Serco, Rolls-Royce, PwC and Boeing, Georgina shares practical advice on customer understanding, stakeholder engagement, capture strategy and the role AI can play in making capture more accessible.

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction and welcome

01:20 – Georgina's career journey and how she discovered capture

06:10 – What capture really means and why it's about positioning, not pursuing, opportunities

09:20 – Why capture is often misunderstood in UK organisations

14:40 – Where capture begins in the business winning lifecycle

20:30 – The five principles of an effective capture strategy

30:45 – Why capture is about more than improving win rates

34:00 – Findings from The Current State of UK Capture white paper

39:00 – Engaging SMEs and stakeholders throughout the capture process

42:40 – The biggest surprises from the UK capture research

46:10 – How AI is changing capture and competitive research

49:00 – Practical steps to improve capture maturity

51:40 – Quick-fire questions and Georgina's advice for capture practitioners

In this episode, you'll learn

What capture is and where it fits within the business winning lifecycle

Why capture should begin before formal procurement starts

The five principles that underpin an effective capture strategy

How better collaboration improves capture and bid quality

Common misconceptions about capture and how to overcome them

How AI can support customer research and competitive analysis

Practical ways to build capture capability within your organisation

Key Takeaways

✔ Capture is about positioning for opportunities, not simply responding to them.

✔ Good capture starts with understanding the customer and their challenges.

✔ Capture is scalable and valuable for opportunities of all sizes—not just major bids.

✔ Better collaboration between business development, bid, technical and delivery teams leads to stronger outcomes.

✔ AI can help make capture more accessible by accelerating research and competitive analysis.

Featured Guests

Georgina Ayilara is Head of Tendering at Cyclife UK with more than a decade of experience in bidding and capture across organisations including Thales, Serco, Rolls-Royce, PwC and Boeing. She is also the author of The Current State of UK Capture white paper and a member of the APMP UK Capture Focus Group.

Resourced Mentioned

The Current State of UK Capture white paper

APMP UK Capture Focus Group

APMP UK Chapter

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Connect

Follow Georgina Ayilara and Matt Light on LinkedIn for more insights on capture, business winning and bidding best practice.