Is Corporate Development Different From Business Development?

Hi,

I was doing some reading and/ stumbled upon a division in finance called "business development" which doesn't seem 100% the same as "corporate development". Now, as stupid as this sounds, I read the two pages on wiki and it seems that business development seems more like something a consultant does: namely doing due diligence, researching the broad scope of the environment and working with the business holistically to make decisions (akin to management) while corporate dev seems like a very finance-heavy, M&A-oriented work. Is this a fair assessment or am I way off? If they are separate groups, what would be the way to get into business development as I think this seems more interesting than corporate development? I'd imagine MBB consulting would be an obvious feeder, but any others?

11 Comments
 

really depends on the company. business development is a very large umbrella. in some companies, corp dev. is internal m&a. some companies, internal m&a falls under corporate finance. in some companies all of what u described is under one group. regardless, u geenrally need some work experience in ib/consulting

"I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people"
 

At my consulting firm, we have a position called Business Development Executive, and these guys are responsible for bringing in clients.

-MBP
 

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