Tips on preparing for a corporate development/strategic business development role

I recently received an offer to join a 4 person corp dev/strat biz team at a $3B public company. I read up on recent news and scanned the 10k before the interview, but now that I got the role, what how else would you prep?

I have a full week off between quitting my current boutique job and starting the new one.

At the moment, my plan is to read all of the press releases from the past 4 years or so, read industry reports like ibis world/ 1st research, and fully read the 10k and recent 10qs.

I have previously looked into the competition, but their are no public comps.

Any other suggested prep?

 

Step 1 is just to get a grasp of the industry. Get a picture of the current outlook, recent trends, major players, etc...the basics. But also don't forget to get a really good understanding of exactly what these companies do. No longer can you just say revenues will rise -- you need to be able to pinpoint exact products and services that will cause the rise. You're no longer just a financial monkey -- you need to have a good grasp on the individual company and industry that its in.

They'll let you know what step 2 is. Good luck.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

I would actually think smaller for Step 1. In order to be successful on the Corp Dev side, you MUST understand the company you work at, and its current make up. Learn what products they sell and to whom. Figure out the process for each product/division.

Then move Country's Step 1.

Step 3 is to think outside the box and come up with new/creative strategies that will help drive future growth.

 

but ive been told that its anything but "painless"

Depends on how many years experience you have i guess.

doing 1-2 years of banking and then 1-2 years of corp dev (assuming deals were done these years) then into MM PE will be a challenge, but definitely possible.

im in corp dev out of an analyst program..

 

Why would you say it would be a challenge to go from 2 years in banking --> 1-2 years corp dev --> MM private equity?

I think it would make it easier (ex. you work in corp dev for a tech company and then move to a tech-focused PE fund as a Pre-MBA Associate). Do you not agree?

I would say that if you had no banking experience and only 2 years in Corp Dev. it would definitely be harder to make the jump to PE.

 

Usually you'll be competing with people who have done 2 years IB, 2 years PE, MBA or just IB and PE are and switching over.

If you are interviewing because you have worked with the PE shop on a deal thru ur company and the firm is just hiring opportunistically, then its probably not that bad.

But from what I've heard, corp dev guys need to grab up an MBA or some direct investing experience at a smaller shop before getting to a decent MM PE fund. And this is from people who are MDs and Principals. Also through friends who made it into large cap PE funds after IB.

By the way, if you're coming from internal m&a / corp dev at Yahoo! or Microsoft, then its a different story. I'm referring to corp dev at a midcap company.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

I'm a first year MBA student at a top 10 program. My background is 3 years public accounting and then 2 years at a MM PE shop working on due diligence and valuation projects. My group worked with the deal teams to perform due diligence and monitor portfolio companies but we did not source or structure the deals. Do you guys think I have a decent shot at moving to a MM deal team post-MBA?

 

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