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?






really depends on the
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"
I'm only familiar with a
I'm only familiar with a couple groups called "business development," but all include both the financial and operational/consulting-ish facets of the job. My sense is the meaning of the name vaires just like "corporate finance" varies: at some places, CorpFin is just glorified accounting; at others, it's internal M&A and the like.
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bus dev is sales (in most
bus dev is sales (in most places). corp dev is like strategy/finance
Can someone else add anything
Can someone else add anything to this ? My understanding is that Business Development at a Startup is basically Sales. Business Development at a more mature firm is usually M&A-type work.
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Wouldn't business development
Wouldn't business development be more internal consulting rather than internal M&A?
it all depends on the firm.
it all depends on the firm. IBM bus dev. is mostly sales.
At my consulting firm, we
At my consulting firm, we have a position called Business Development Executive, and these guys are responsible for bringing in clients.
-MBP
Don't know about IBM, but at
Don't know about IBM, but at any law or consulting partnership, the phrase "business development" almost always refers to bringing in clients/selling work. There are at least some F500s that don't have a group called corporate development and do internal M&A in a group called business development.
One of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over.