Abstract
To improve its chances of success, a project supplier will look at shaping the projects very early in the project cycle. These shaping approaches are well known for being particularly difficult to apply within the framework of public markets where the purchasing procedure is highly regulated. However, for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) a specific approach is covered by the regulations for a very precise case, that of unsolicited proposals. Through the case study of a company which presented an unsolicited proposal to the Italian Minister of the Interior aimed at reducing the financial outlay of the Italian State in the fight against fires, this paper aims at conceptualizing new macro-shaping practices that enable the nature of the project to be co-defined. The case makes it possible to bring the understanding of project marketing and the marketing of solutions up to date by investigating in detail the combination of the dual upstream-downstream movement of project suppliers and of the enlargement of the offering.