Business Development: From Start to Scale

The course "Business Development: From Start to Scale" is being offered by C Bhaktavatsala Rao, also known as C B Rao, who has a PhD in Industrial Management and MTech degree in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai.

C B Rao has over 48 years of experience in strategic and operational leadership of large reputed companies, including global MNCs in India, and has served as Managing Director and Executive Chairman of Pfizer Healthcare India Private Limited.

He has over 170 publications in economic and business dailies and refereed journals, and has established LeaderCrest Academy for high-quality academic publishing, authoring and publishing ten books under the LeaderCrest banner.

C B Rao is currently serving as Ajit Singhvi Chair Professor in Management Studies, DoMS, at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, and serves as non-executive director on the boards of select companies and renders advisory services for Indian and multinational corporations.

He has offered three courses on NPTEL-Swayam Platform, including "Entrepreneurship: Perspectives of Business Strategy and Economic Development", "Leadership for India Inc: Practical Concepts and Constructs", and "Strategy and Technology: A Practical Primer".

This course "Business Development: From Start to Scale" is a comprehensive study of business development concepts, models, methodologies, and tools, integrating adjunct domains such as strategic marketing, business strategy, and business models.

The course provides end-to-end value chain perspectives needed for effective business development, integrating several real-life examples and case studies, and covers business fundamentals, business development strategies, industry structure, company analysis, market and competitor analysis, and more.

The course is a 12-week course, with 61 lectures, 5 lectures per week, excluding the summary course at the end, with end-of-the-week assignments, and features case studies of business development leading to enterprise value creation.

The course materials include around 1600 data and information related slides, providing global and local perspectives, and focusing on strategic and tactical aspects of business development.

The unique features of the course include providing a detailed and integrated overview of the growth driving domain of business development, laying out strategies and tactics through multiple frameworks and models, and linking business development with strategic marketing.

Upon completion of the course, participants are likely to achieve four important developmental capabilities: acquiring critical business development skills, becoming a development visionary, leveraging multiple functions in business development activity, and enhancing personal gravitas.

Business development integrates various strategies, processes, and tasks to drive a firm's business performance, requiring close interface with various other functions, aligning with the vision, mission, and strategy of the firm.

Business development involves initiatives within the company and between the company and its customers, and is a process that is both tactical and strategic in nature.

The course covers the hierarchy of companies, from small companies to large companies, and the importance of understanding the vision, mission, and strategy of the firm, developing business strategy, and cascading those strategies into functional strategies.

The course provides insights into short-term performance and long-term performance, which are critical for the company's success and sustainability.- Firm level factors include the constituents of an industry and the products they provide.

Demand side factors include customer needs, environmental requirements, and behavioral response factors.

Supply side factors include the nature of the industry, number of competitors, and collaborators.

Demographic factors related to customers, attitudes, beliefs, and preferences are relevant to demand side factors.

Enabling factors that influence demand include economic, environmental, social, community, and global factors.

Business development methodology is a key component of business strategy and corporate development.

The role of the head of business development is to partner with the CEO and other CXOs.

Different contexts require different business development strategies.

The course will focus on mastering tools and techniques to build long-term value for customers and companies through business partnerships.

A critical thinking process will be developed through the course.

Professional analysis will be presented through formal presentation.

Sales, marketing, and business development are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct differences.

Sales is the process of selling a product or service to a customer at a given point in time.

Marketing is the process of addressing the total market for a product to develop and fulfill demand over a product lifetime.

Business development is the process of creating partnerships between the company and other stakeholders for developing the business.

A salesperson looks at the transaction between the firm and the customer.

A marketing person looks at the experience of the customer with the product and tries to create a long-term association.

A business development person looks at the business synergy between the company and its customers.

The scope of a salesperson is typically at the sales level.

A marketing person looks at all activities including market research, piloting of a product sale, and service.

A business development person looks at all activities related to analyzing mutual business needs and fulfilling the needs.

The methodology of a salesperson is to induce shoppers and customers to buy.

The methodology of a marketing person is to create a customer-centric experience.

The business development executive looks at developing a value proposition that is tenable for a strategic association.

The metrics by which a salesperson judges themselves are through revenue and profit metrics.

Marketing is judged by the brand value it creates.

Business development is assessed through business growth.

Sales adopts the rule of caveat emptor, marketing adopts caveat vendor, and business development requires transparency.

Techniques used by salespeople include 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion).

Techniques used by marketing include 4Vs (which will be presented in the course).

Business development looks at 4Cs (which will be presented in the course).

The skills required for a salesperson are selling and communication skills.

The skills required for a marketing person are conceptual and analytical skills.

The skills required for a business development person are strategic business skills and value chain capabilities.

The objectives of sales, marketing, and business development are aligned, but each has a unique role.

Business is the activity of an organization to develop, manufacture, and/or market products and/or services to individuals or entities to earn revenues and profits and generate returns to investors.

There are many types of businesses, including manufacturing-oriented, marketing-oriented, product-oriented, service-oriented, integrated, and R&D businesses.

Business development involves anticipating, identifying, and developing opportunities for enhancing business.

There are three aspects of business development: transactional, reinforcing, and futuristic.

The transactional aspect of business development involves providing products and services to customers through commercial relationships.

The reinforcing aspect of business development involves continuous reinforcement of relationships by developing collaborations, alliances, and partnerships with various business entities.

The futuristic aspect of business development involves identifying opportunities by spotting mega trends of the future.

The responsibility of business development is vast and involves allied functions and processes such as business strategy, marketing, and sales.

Business strategy sets the context and provides direction for business development.

Business development must eventually lead to marketing and sales.

The selling process involves prospecting, understanding customer needs, making initial contact, qualifying leads, demonstrating products, proposing and clarifying, closing sales, and collecting cash.

The strategic marketing process involves discovering and developing marketplaces, identifying trends, defining markets, segmenting markets, creating products, proving concepts, aligning business and market strategy, positioning companies and products, executing and monitoring marketing plans.

The business development process involves introspecting on company value chains, identifying value points and gaps, identifying potential partners, understanding complementary value points and gaps, creating combined value propositions, testing strategic feasibility and economic viability, aligning business market strategy and business models, and entering into partnership agreements.

Strategy is a plan of action to achieve certain goals and involves understanding the environment and competition.

Michael Porter popularized competitive strategy as a key concept.

Strategy formulation involves setting goals, understanding strategic context, and developing a unique strategy for each firm.

Strategic context is crucial for firms in the FMCG or edible oil business, as it affects the supply of grains and crude edible oils.

Industry analysis is a core discipline for understanding the strategic context, including linkages with the environment and competitor behavior.

A company's strategy should be futuristic, forward-looking, and take care of emerging mega trends, while also considering short-term performance.

Competitive strategy goes beyond the sum of functional strategies, requiring a synergistic approach that integrates various functions.

Functional strategies should be derived from the overall business strategy or corporate strategy, rather than the other way around.

Strategy has three layers: business strategy, corporate strategy, and conglomerate strategy, with each layer building upon the previous one.

Business strategy involves specific actions for a particular business or product, while corporate strategy combines and harmonizes multiple business strategies.

Conglomerate strategy involves networking corporate strategies across multiple companies.

Within the corporate strategy, there are various functional layers, including R&D, operations, marketing, finance, HR, and IT.

Business strategy leads to functional strategies, and iteration occurs between functions and business strategy.

A company's capabilities, such as superior IT, should be leveraged to support a sustainable and revenue-producing business strategy.

Founders' interests and values, as well as the overall group philosophy, also influence business strategy development.