Entrepreneurship

Girls in Tech…What’s in for girls in Business Development?

I must admit my mixed feelings about entering a room full of 150 women last week for my first Girls in Tech Event in the city. Somewhat not accustomed to a higher and more strident tone of voices/brouhaha

150 women all ears to listen to the amazing and inspiring panel of the -female- business developers of CBS, Yelp or Adbright- to discuss about the role of business developer and what it is to be a women in this field.

5 years ago and the world of business development was all about men. Now it is almost the contrary: the new comers are more and more women and it appears that, especially in the tech industry, being a woman is a great advantage and factor of differienciation.

Why?

Women are usually on the the softer side when it comes to managing and doing business -which does not make us less determined or professionnal-. Also, there might be numbers game: because there are so few of them, they do grab attention.

Overall, regardless of these almost-feminist-acknowledgments, what is the role of a business developer in a start-up?

This role is key to any start-ups’ strategy and relates to long term vision and execution of the following: Definition of business model and revenue generation; Customer/user acquisition;  Customer/user engagement; Definition of diffferenciation and competitive advantage.  The business developer “puts together the puzzle and figures out the dots” for the companies’ long term success, said a panelist.

So, what makes a great biz dev person?

Outgoing and great personnality- dealing with customers, partners as well as the rest of the team; Saviness in the industry; perfect knowledge of the landscape and trends- they are the roots for credibility;  Long term vision and a great execution.

Which gets me to talk about what a business developer is not: a sales person!

When sales are focused on the short term and customer care, business development remains more strategic and long term-focused. Profiles of sales and business development people differ a great deal.

Recently, the crisis has forced business developers to focus on the most revenue generating activities.

Before, biz dev departments were given great time to identify new business opportunities vs today all new activities have to be revenue generating almost from day one.

And you, are you a business developer? Do you agree with these statements?

© 2009 The Bridge.