Definition: Corporate development refers to the strategic decisions of a firm that strives to achieve organizational excellence or restructure its business.
What Does Corporate Development Mean?
What is the definition of corporate development?Corporate development is mostly encountered in innovative companies that seek to deliver the best products and services to their customers while sustaining a competitive advantage. In the context of business development, companies strive to achieve excellence through the implementation of sophisticated strategies that can help a company outperform its peers as well as its own past performance.
Often, large corporations or well-established firms view firm development through the prism of a buyout. Smaller firms with the knowledge and the ability to improve the current state of business often become targets of acquisition by larger companies that invest in business development through M and A. Depending on the goal of firm development, companies implement the appropriate strategies.
Let’s look at an example.
Example
Company A is a leader is the pharmaceutical sector, providing customers with a range of medicines, medical supplements, and medical treatment devices. Lately, the company has sought to introduce a new medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. To that end, the company’s strategic advisor and his team met with the general manager to determine the strategic objectives and the course of action.
Given that the goal is product innovation, the strategies that the company should implement in the context of business development should be the following:
- Market entry with the aim to acquire a large market share.
- If there are barriers to entry, acquire or maintain the existing market share, while seeking to recruit the best talent available.
- Deliver the best possible solution to customers at a competitive price.
- Capitalize on the strength of the investor relations workforce (they are the ones that have a direct contact with investors, who are the ones to make or break a strategy).
The company will seek to strengthen the relationships with its existing customer base, seeking to enter the market with the new medicine and achieve firm development.
Summary Definition
Define Corporate Development: Business development means improving company operations, culture, and employee structure.
