IT Bus 101

IT Business Venture
Jan Leo R. Crisanto
Instructor
Business
Development
• the practice of making one's living by engaging in commerce.
• is defined as an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial,
industrial, or professional activities.
• is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or
buying and selling products (such as goods and services).
• refers to an enterprising entity or organization that carries out professional
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activities. They can be commercial, industrial, or others.

 Business Development
Business development is the activities, ideas, or initiatives that a company
takes to improve its business over time. It aims at creating long-lasting value
for the company from its markets, customers, and other relationships.
Business development initiatives may be taken to increase revenue, sales,
profit, or form strategic partnerships. A business development, when
successfully implemented, affects all the business departments of a company
such as marketing, finance, sales, production, product development, and so
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on. Let's examine business development in further detail.

Business Development Strategy
A business development strategy is a
plan the business will follow to reach
the business development goals.
Businesses adopt
different strategies based
on their goals. Business
development strategies
include business growth
and scaling, innovation,
internationalisation, or
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the use of digital
technology.
 Examples of Business
Development
Strategies and their
Benefits
Business development
strategies may vary
depending on the business
goal. Each strategy benefits
the company in its own way.
A few of the strategies
commonly adopted by
companies are:
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 Business Growth and
Scaling

Business
growth strategies focus on
expanding the business as a
whole through organic or
inorganic growth methods to
increase profits.

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 Growth strategies include vertical
integration (forward or
backwards), horizontal integration,
and conglomerate integration,
which focuses on making various
types of strategic partnerships.
(These strategies will be further
explained under "Business
Growth").
 When a business grows, it scales in
terms of economy. This is
commonly known as economies of
scale. Economies of scale are the
decrease in production costs and
the parallel increase in production
volume. This production volume
increases when the demand
increases,
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and the business grows.
 Benefits:
 Increase in profits
 Reduction in costs
 More market share and assets
 More attractive for financial
investors
 More skilled management and
their expertise

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 Innovation

Innovation strategies help to

better an organisation’s
existing products or services,
or generate ideas for new
ones.

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It helps organisations
to add value to their
offerings and stand out
in the market.
Benefits:
Helps the organisation
to stay relevant in the
market
Competitive advantage
Improve market
position
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 Internationalisation
 Internationalisation is the process of
adapting an organisation’s offering so
that it can be consumed
internationally.
 This involves understanding every
target market: the needs and
requirements of the consumer, the
legal requirements, pricing techniques,
packaging, etc.
 Benefits:
 Diversification
 New markets
 Foreign investment opportunities
12  Competitive advantage
 Access to more talent
 Digital Technology
Companies adopt strategies related
to digital technology when they
want to improve the customer
experience, add value to the
business models, and simplify core
business processes.
Benefits:
Improved efficiency and increased
productivity
Improved customer experience
Digital security
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 Digital Technology
Companies adopt strategies related
to digital technology when they
want to improve the customer
experience, add value to the
business models, and simplify core
business processes.
Benefits:
Improved efficiency and increased
productivity
Improved customer experience
Digital security
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 Business Development Plan

A business development plan is a roadmap to achieve the company’s goals

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Creating a Business Development Plan
As a business developer, these are
some steps that you can take to create
a business development plan.
Defining the goals: define a
goal that is relevant and
attainable by the business.
Having a specific goal is very
important in knowing what
step to take next. Using the
SMART technique can help
businesses set achievable
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goals for the future.

Creating a Business Development Plan
Developing profiles: the
target market and potential
customers should be clearly
defined to generate a
business strategy and
marketing plan.

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Creating a Business Development Plan
Understanding marketing
channels: a well-established
marketing plan is crucial for
successful business
development. The plan is
dependant on the budget and
the type of target group. It is
important to constantly re-
evaluate the established
marketing plans.
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Creating a Business Development Plan
Setting KPIs: KPIs or Key
Performance Indicators help
to analyse and quantify the
business performance. You
should choose KPIs wisely
depending on the specific
requirements of the
development plan. That way,
you will be able to monitor
the progress.
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Creating a Business Development Plan
Evaluating customer
service: providing excellent
customer service to both old
and new clients is important
for any business as it is the
building block of customer
loyalty. It significantly
influences business growth.

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Creating a Business Development Plan
Analysing resources: you can
create a successful
development plan only after
analysing the business’
resources. A development
plan that doesn't take into
consideration the available
resources, can not be
successfully implemented.
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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Growth opportunities: it is crucial
to understand the business’ growth
potential. It may be from venturing
into new markets, forming strategic
partnerships, product innovation,
improved services, or from a
combination of these.

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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Funding: understanding the current
financial situation and analysing
how much capital will be required
for the completion of the process is
very important. You should know
how the plan will be funded.

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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Financial goals: set financial goals
for the business based on the
current numbers, and analyse how
the business should grow in order to
reach those goals.

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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Operational needs: a business
development will require more
supplies in terms of people,
materials, machinery, etc. All the
needs and requirements should be
noted and met to achieve the goal.

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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Sales and marketing: you should set
up a strong sales and marketing plan
that can effectively support the
growing business. This will help to
promote and inform the market
about the business developments.

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 Components of a
Business Development
Plan
Team building: as the business
grows, it is important to build an
efficient team that understands the
tasks and can carry them out
responsibly. The effective delegation
of tasks, and hiring the right people
can go a long way.

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 Example of a business
development plan

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Skills Required for Business
Development
Business developers require
certain skills in order to
successfully implement the
development goals. The
business’ improvements
should be properly and
efficiently communicated,
marketed, and sold to make
the plan successful.
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Skills Required for Business
Development
Communication skills: when
the company is undergoing an
important change, the ability
to listen to feedback and
concerns of both customers
and employees, maintain
long-term relationships, and
effectively convey all the
necessary information to the
stakeholders is fundamental.
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Skills Required for Business
Development
Marketing skills: a business
developer must promote and
market the business’ new
improvements to the right
potential or existing
customers. Business
developers analyse the
market, the target customers,
and the competitors, similarly
to a marketing team.
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Skills Required for Business
Development
Sales skills: much like a sales
team, the members of a
business development project
take care of updating the
databases of customer
relationships and sales
activities, finding qualifying
leads, etc.

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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Business development can be
challenging not only because it
brings about major changes within
the organisation, but also because
of the continuous changes taking
place in the external environment.
Some of the commonly faced
challenges are:

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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Staying relevant: the market and
customer demands are always
changing. Therefore, an organisation
should carry out continuous market
research and product innovations to
stay relevant in the market.

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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Inventory management: when the
business grows, demand increases,
meaning you stock more items. You
are at the risk of losing customers to
competitors if you fail to meet their
demands. But overstocking affects
the cash flow negatively. Therefore,
you should have a Just-in-time
inventory management to deal with
the rising demands.
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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Growing workforce: as the company
grows, it becomes necessary to
increase the workforce to avoid
burdening the existing employees.
However, more employees mean
more challenges, as many tasks,
especially the administration
and management tasks, become
increasingly complex.
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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Diverse customer needs: as the
company enters new markets, the
customer needs and requirements
vary. Therefore, you should make
sure that you collect and analyse
customer data continuously to meet
their demands, and also maintain
customer relationships.

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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Using the right systems: when an
organisation continuously expands,
it becomes difficult to maintain and
track productivity and efficiency. You
should be able to find the right
software package for your
company's needs from the many
available.

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 What are the challenges
of business
development?
Welcoming change: this can be
difficult, as a change in an
organisation can have a different
impact on each employee. This will
affect employee performance and
reflect poorly on the company. You
should introduce change
management for employees to deal
with the change and the problems
they face as a consequence.
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Business Strategy Definition
A business strategy explains how a
business plans to compete in the
market and achieve its objectives.
Every business organisation needs to
have a vision that shows what the
organisation stands for and aims to
achieve. A business strategy outlines
the plan of action that will help a
company achieve its major goals and
objectives. It guides the decision-
making process and helps gain a
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competitive advantage.
Examples of a Business Strategy
Business strategies may be set up to achieve
many objectives. The most common examples of
business strategies are shown below:
Grow sales from new products
Increase customer satisfaction
Produce better and more innovative products
Cross-sell more products
Product differentiation
Change pricing strategy
Sustainability
Technical advancement
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Business Development - Key Takeaways
Business development is the activities, ideas, or initiatives taken up by a
company to better its businesses over time.
A business development strategy is a plan the business will follow in order to
reach the business development goal.
Business development strategies include business growth and scaling,
innovation, internationalisation, use of digital technology, etc.
A business development plan is a roadmap to achieve the company’s goals.
A business developer should possess good communication, marketing, and
sales skills.
Staying relevant, inventory management, growing workforce, diverse customer
needs, using the right systems, and welcoming change are a few challenges of
business development.
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A business strategy explains how a business plans to compete in the market
and achieve its objectives.