Business Development (v angličtině)

ID: EN-MNG-07-11-407

Module annotation

The module highlights key growth and development challenges facing contemporary firms and shows how to analyse and solve them. After completing the course, the student should be able to describe and analyse the foundations of strategy and strategic perspectives, propose solutions to cope with internal and external strategic challenges and complexities, propose appropriate strategies to meet key dilemmas concerning for example innovation, product, process, organization, marketing and business models, critically reflect upon the consequences of strategic choices and assess.

Also, the student will be able to

• apply analytical skills in solving advanced tasks within business development,
• design and complete a business plan, including an executive summary, industry and market analysis, a marketing strategy and plan, operations plan, product/service development plan and company structure,
• identify the financial requirements of a new business,
• understand the organizational and human resource issues of business development, orally and in writing for stakeholders,
• present analyses, ideas and conclusions developed individually or in teams,
• show knowledge about and be able to identify different theoretical business growth perspectives,
• choose perspective and to explain it, and to discuss how to use it in different specific organizational situations,
• identify who are the right customers, clients, investors and referral sources for a specific business, 
• successfully prospect with effective cold call approaches, voicemail tactics or email strategies,
• make a persuasive presentation to pitch products and services, or influence any decision etc.

The course is given in English.

Contents of the module

Business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions. According to Porter's Generic Strategies model, there are three basic strategic options available to organizations for gaining competitive advantage. These are: Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Focus.

Business development activities extend across different departments, including sales, marketing, project management, product management and vendor management. Networking, negotiations, partnerships, and cost-savings efforts are also involved. All of these different departments and activities are driven by and aligned to the business development goals.

The main topics of the course cover

• Meaning, goals and importance of business development
• Three levels of business development
• The main tools of business development
• Strategies of business development and their analysis
• The goal and contents of the business development plan and the need for a business plan from the perspectives of the entrepreneur, the investor, and the lenders.

Module goal

Business development covers activities that increase, or are intended to increase, the profit, production, or service potential of an enterprise. It demands innovative and creative thinking, proactive and risk-taking behaviour on the part of individuals, and is centrally concerned with the identification and exploitation of new business opportunities. Purpose of the course is to explain that starting and developing business in not a “walk in” operation, that business development is a process of identifying, competing for, and winning new business opportunities and that developing new business can be an expensive and difficult, hard work activity which has to be managed professionally.

The specific aim of this course is to prepare students with skills involved in launching and leading businesses but also to use those skills to develop and run businesses or business units with a direction toward innovation, expansion and growth.

Module structure

Bringing and evaluating a new business idea/case study

Case study in market research and development for a new business opportunity

Assessment of marketing opportunities and target markets for business development 

Analysis of Customer Base for a business development

Case study in business planning

The need for a business plan from the perspectives of the entrepreneur

The need for a business plan from the perspectives of the investor

The need for a business plan from the perspectives of the lender

Practical suggestions to follow in writing a business plan

New product/technology development case study

Case study in a new customer segment development

Case study in a new distribution channel development

Marketing and sales program of a new business development

Media campaign for a new business development

Case study in preparing business proposition

Regulatory a tax issues in new business development

Key success factors in new business development       

Role of the business development manager/executive or department

Case study in account management building/development

Case study in sales development through cold calls

Follow-up sales activity for Business Development 

Funding a new business development/case study

New business development bases on a strategic alliance/case study

New business development bases on a merger/acquisition/takeover (case study)

Organizational and human resource issues of business development

Selected reading

Urban, Jan, Business development, class slides‘ presentation

Hans Eibe Sørensen, Business Development: A Market-Oriented Perspective, Wiley; 2012

Urban, Jan, Strategický management, ÚPPV a EBS, 2018

Urban, Jan,  40 manažerských mýtů, které škodí vašemu byznysu, Grada, 2017, ISBN: 978-80-271-0571-7

Ian Cooper, Financial Times Guide to Business Development: How to Win Profitable Customers and Clients (The FT Guides), 2012

Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea,  Little, Brown and Company, 2019

Ansoff, H. Igor (1965), Corporate Strategy, New York: McGraw-Hill

Barney, J.B. & Ketchen, D.J. & Wright, M. (2011). The Future of Resource-Based theory: Revitalization or Decline? Journal of Management, 37 (5), 1299-1315.

Covin, J.G., Slevin, D.P., & Heeley, M.B. (2000). Pioneers and followers: Competitive tactics, environment, and firm growth, Journal of Business Venturing, 15 (2), 175-210.

Drucker, P. (1985). The Discipline of Innovation, Harvard Business Review, May/June, 67-72.

Gerber, Michael E.  (1995). The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, Harper Business

James C. Collins (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, HarperBusiness

Johnson, Gerry and Kevan Scholes (1999), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th ed., Essex: Prentice Hall