Business Development

Question

Found this PPT on the different Business Development roles from the Haas GM/Strategy club website:

https://www4.mbafocus.com/careernet/resources/cp/cp_bd_0605.pdf

The Hass GM/Strategy Club:  https://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/sgm/careers.html

ncp · Answer

BD jobs tend to vary significantly in function and importance, across industries and even within companies in the same industry. In service based industries, BD tends to be more of a sales role, while in industries which involve licensing partnerships(say DuPont working with a cooking pan manufacturer or JNJ licensing a new drug from a start-up), it may be more numbers focused. In essence, keep in mind that some companies look at BD as a purely finance driven function, while some others look at BD as more of a marketing/strategy role. Be cautious when evaluating companies for BD opportunities.

All BD jobs are not created equal!

All BD jobs are not created equal!

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

Thanks for the great info guys. kudos to both.

ncp,

How would you suggest someone go about their due dilligence to understand what various business development jobs entail? Are the job descriptions pretty obvious? Do you have to go as far as contacting alums in the company to get a sense for what their business development role entails? Thanks!

isa · Answer

ncp - one more question: where does business development recruiting fall within the 1st year timeline? Is it around the same time as gm jobs? thanks

ncp · Answer

I would say job descriptions, company recruiting events and related Q&A sessions, and MBA2s who interned the previous year are usually sufficient to understand what BD at a specific company entails.

Beyond this, talking with alums and visiting companies can be of great help as well.

AlexMBAApply · Answer

The compensation structure can be a strong indicator of what kind of "business development" role.

If a large chunk of the comp is "bonus" or "% of the deal" (in excess of 30%) it's basically a sales job. If it's more a traditional salary + modest fixed bonus and/or stock then it's more finance/strategy/overhead - you're providing a supporting function to the core activities of the business (engineering, sales).

It's not kosher to ask upfront comp figures, but even asking the recruiters how the comp is structured will tell you a lot about what kind of job it is.

Class2012 · Answer

Is Business Development different from Corporate Development?

refurb · Answer

From what I've gathered Corporate Development is  typically  more centered on finance.

However, it seems like there isn't any consistency in the naming of these positions. I've seen a few corporate development positions that have nothing to do with finance (more in-licensing).

I also talked to an alum who works in business dev (biotech) and he said you can't tell anything by the title of the position. It varies too much company to company.

RF

AlexMBAApply · Answer

As refurb said, it varies from one company to the next.

One way to gauge it is the compensation.

If a large chunk of your total compensation (i.e. 30-100% of base) is in the form of year-end bonuses, then the "business development" job is more of a sales role, where your comp is dictated by your ability (or your group's ability) to bring in business for the firm.

If the total compensation is relatively fixed (or there is a modest bonus - around 10-20%), then it's less of a front office role and is more akin to "corporate development" (i.e. internal consulting).

In fact, outside of Wall Street, that is usually how compensation works -- when bonuses are multiples of your base salary, it's a sales job.

bigfernhead · Answer

Great topic. 
I have a few questions.

1. What are the exit opportunities for business development/corporate development roles?

2. What is the usual career track? Does experience this take you up to a CEO for example?

3. Also, what is the typical starting compensation for these roles within the financial services in NYC for a Bulge Bracket?

4. How does hiring work during the MBA season?

Ginetta · Answer

bigfernhead · Answer

So if once you work in corporate development, it's impossible to make the transition to PE/VC?

Ginetta · Answer

I dont want to speak in absolutes, but generally speaking:

CD you could have a shot at VC, but you better be in a blue chip CD group such as cisco, intel, google etc. It will be up to you how much you network with your VC counterparts to make the switch.

For PE, this would be an extremely uphill battle (more than it usually is). Its not a traditional feeder into PE, you would be better off going to banking and then trying to switch.

If you want to go to VC/PE, I would try to get there right out of school, corporate development isnt really a stepping stone to either of these industries.

That being said, from the people I know, corporate development can be a very fun and rewarding career path. Less money than banking, but much less stress and hours as well.

Good luck!

bigfernhead · Answer

Good perspective.

I've pretty much decided I can't make the hours in IB, and I don't have the experience prior to make it into IB/PE anyway - so give Corporate Dev since it seems to fit more for me.

Do you know the starting salaries/bonus for Blue Chip firms for BD/CD?

Ginetta · Answer

Figure on 90-115k depending on your background and company, with bonus being 15-30k, again depending on the company and your experience. If there are incentives for deals etc, could be more.

wiredo · Answer

This is great info, folks. It sounds like one may want to focus on the following areas in the MBA, for BD/CD
Business Development: Strategy, Marketing
Corporate Development: Strategy, Finance

And if you're interested in keeping your options open between the two, that's three concentrations you need!

Any idea which schools are better at placing non-IB/non-MC students in BD/CD post-MBA roles? From the employment reports, it looks like most schools only place a small number in these roles (Kellogg - 4% => ~22 MBAs, Booth - 2.2% => ~12 MBAs), but it's hard to gauge whether these students were in IB or MC pre-MBA.

yamikikyou · Answer

Great/informative topic. Thanks for all the input!

I'm also curious as to what schools and their respective programs would be better suited for people interested in pursuing CD/BD. Thanks in advance!

sesamemochi · Answer

i'm also considering bd post-mba. is there a better concentration to focus on for bd placement, as in finance, strategy or marketing? and more specifically, for bd at a biotech or pharma, is a science background prior to going back for an mba necessary?

thanks in advance for the help.

thanks in advance for the help.

fedexunledded · Answer

Hey Alex,

I was intrigued by your comment that Corporate Development is akin to Internal Consulting. I looked up the internal consulting units of two tech firms and this is how the career path is laid out: Work in different lines of business for the first 18-24 months (rotational assignments of six months each approx) and then transition to a general management role.

I am looking at these internal consulting units since I want to stay in the industry post-MBA (I have done Pre-Sales Tech and Telecom Consulting) and progress to a position of greater responsibility in the near future. Based on what you wrote above, what are the most likely job titles I should be looking at? So far, I restricted my search to firms which state specifically that they recruit for "Internal Consulting" units.

Cheers,

Business Development

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