Business development people put together partnerships and relationships with other companies that are closer than vendor-supplier relationships. Schmoozing, salesmanship, the desire to travel to conferences, to learn a lot about different areas, to stay on top of things, to read trade journals, to know who's hot and who's not. Business development is all about these skills. Read more .
Business development is currently one of the most prominent functional roles in Internet companies.
The Vice President of Business Development is charged with identifying, seeking out and executing these key alliances and joint ventures before competitors arrive on the scene. Sometimes the business development project goes beyond partnership to actual acquisition of a company that offers a proprietary technology or a product or service that will augment, compliment or otherwise render a current or planned product or service more competitive. The fact that Internet business models are constantly in flux adds to this sense of urgency and accelerated pace. Business developers must work closely with both marketers and product developers to do their job well. As companies begin to understand more about the behavior of their potential customers on the Internet, marketing strategies change and in turn require a recasting of business development strategy.