20141213 Redefining the role of BD in the Digital Generation

Derek Chim

December 13, 2014

Redefining the role of Business Development in the Digital Generation

© 2014 Balance Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved

How much do you know about business development? What is your experience in working with them?


The Usual Charter of Business Development


Drive Sales (Prove it works)

Grow partners (Strengthen position)

Identify opportunities (Seek growth)

“Inner” Challenge: BD Hard to Survive as a Role Back to basic: who actually “owns” BD when every departments have their own way


Sales

Marketing

Product

R&D

BD

BD BD

BD

The “Dark side” of Business Development





Great! We have new budget to try new things!

I am not Sales, so I should get

80-90% fix salary.

We focus on long-term, not immediate ROI

Our World Has changed! How much do you know about digital generation (your future customers & partners)? What disruptions it will bring to the role of Business Development?


•  Ethnically diverse, best-educated, technology savvy and independent (because of divorce, day care, single parents, latchkey)

•  Put high value on personal and family-related goals than their career goals •  Proactive in purchase decisions & providing input •  Usage Experience is as critical as design & features

The Digital Generations

Understand the Digital Generations

7

Retiring “Boomers” (1946 - 1964)

•  Long hours •  Wealth creation •  Post retirement work

•  Flexible and motivated •  Want career advance yet

value freedom & time-off to balance their personal and family-related goals

•  Skeptical (after seeing the multiple bust & crisis)

•  Money is means to an end.

Maturing “Gen.X” (1965 -1980)

•  Work-life balance •  Good benefits •  Career progression

•  Complex & full of contradictions – Confident, yet yearn for praise – Demand respect/instant rewards

even without experience – Expect to achieve now (goal-

oriented), but rely on rescue •  Environmentally conscious, highly

mobile & connected •  Impatient, irrational & Info.

obsessed •  Value relationships over Money

Awakening “Gen.”Y”

(1981-2000)

•  Presence •  Interesting work •  Flexibility •  Learning

•  Grew up at a time of dramatic social change

•  Widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of affluence.

•  Rock & roll & Beatles = their generational identity

Digital “Gen.”Z” (2000-)

•  Instant/now! •  Connected •  “Inner-centric”

•  Lack the ambition. •  Impatient & instant minded •  Born with Internet, lifelong use

of communication & media technologies with little privacy/security concern

•  More introverted and aloof generation - "socializing" might not consist of outing (or even leaving your home) with peers for this generation.

“Outer” Challenge: Digital Generations Makes Existing BD Approach Irrelevant


Retiring “Boomers” (1946 - 1964)

Maturing “Gen.X” (1965 -1980)

Awakening “Gen.”Y”

(1981-2000)

Digital “Gen.”Z” (2000-)


Lock-in customers/partners through proprietary software and expensive hardware

Lock-in become rare as more companies and individuals use open source & cloud

Drive sales (Prove it works)

Service Quality + Upsell customers/partners as their data are mostly siloed with proprietary platform

Service Quality + Uniqueness = name of the game as data are more open & transferable


Cash-rich HQ/venture-backed incubation BD

BU/Angel-backed incubation

Micro-angel/Bootstrapping via customer development

Your new customers & partners

How would you redefine the role of your Business Development Leads if you were the CEO?


Future

Current

Served Unserved

Cost innovation (We are good at today) – Improve or replicate existing products at lower cost

1

4

– address new customer needs using incremental/new technology capabilities

3 - serve new customer groups in existing market with new products

- meet un-served customer needs using existing technology capabilities

2

Broad-Based Innovations Are Required To Grow

Multiple Challenges Exists During The Transition

Future

Current

Served Unserved

Cost innovations - Improvement or replication of existing products at lower cost

1

2

Huge “me-too” competitions without patent/IPR protections

3 •  Increasing cost & time to develop more complex

technology (per product) at shorter product lifecycle •  Lack of co-creation capabilities

4 •  Internet and digital convergence are

changing the rules (Increasing horizontal expansion)

•  Rapidly changing market needs

IMHO: The Charter of Business Development in the Digital Generation’s World of Constant Change





Own & drive as many initiatives as possible related to the three

innovation forces only

Measure the “voice” of internal “customers” (Sales, Marketing,

Products, RDs)

Measure the number of initiatives (related to the three innovation forces only) co-developed with customers & partners

Questions?


Thank you


Documents

20141213 Redefining the role of BD in the Digital Generation