
If you're not getting dirty, you're not doing biz dev. We recently called out to theHacker News crowd with a job opening for a non-hacker “hustler type.” We got a load of resumés, thank you. While we were pleased with the applicant pool, we were also surprised at the general attitude of many of the job seekers.
image and text via Forbes
Christopher Steiner does a nice write up of the true nature of "biz dev." It reminds me of one of my own posts from the archives: Death to bizdev! Long live bizdev! where I argue that the entire concept of biz dev is a fallacy. It's an amalgamation of so many different kinds of dirty work or, as Steiner, says, "the kind of tasks that founders do." Business Development is many things, and all of those things involve getting your hands very, very dirty. The tasks are varied, valuable and oftentimes very tactical. I think they're both good reads for those in the consumer technology space, especially in startupland and would love to hear your thoughts both on the Fortune piece and my own.
I always thought business development was more along the lines of discovering and creating a consumer base...searching to find out wants and needs related to your idea, and then narrowing the focus and creating something specific that people will buy. It actually occurs before business has even begun.
It should be called something different, like "digging for something that might work, but could possibly fail". I guess biz dev just sounds better.
I'm currently in the process of searching, so I found this interesting.
Posted by: Carmen | April 26, 2012 at 09:41 AM
Maybe it should be retitled as "Business Digger" or "Opportunity Archeologist"??
Posted by: jeff reine | April 26, 2012 at 12:02 PM