Business Development

Business – something that operates for profit in an open market.

Develop(ment) – moves things forward through a process of innovation, quantification and orchestration (see the E-Myth Revisted by Michael Gerber). In short, something that evolves.

But the reality is that professional practice, even though they may have christened this name, have no strong desire to develop their business. What they actually want is more sales.

Business development (manager) is therefore a misnomer.

I previously spent 5 years recruiting first and second line sales people for Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies. The candidature was exceptional and many were on a fast track graduate programme. A lot of them had key or national account responsibility, meaning they would be responsible for some of the biggest grocers in the country like Tesco or Sainsbury. But they were sales people. They had targets, promotions to push and were supported in their endeavours by marketing, product development, R&D and finance.