The document discusses how the role of business development needs to change to adapt to digital generations of customers and partners. Traditionally, business development focused on driving sales, growing partners, and identifying opportunities. However, the new generations value flexibility, work-life balance, and instant gratification over long-term career goals. They also expect open access to information and a seamless experience across platforms. As a result, the existing business development approach of locking in customers and partners is no longer effective. To succeed, business development must focus on cost innovation, serving unmet customer needs, and co-creating solutions with customers and partners through multiple initiatives that address the forces of innovation in a constantly changing market.

1. Redefining the role of
Business Development in the Digital
Generation
Derek Chim
December 13, 2014
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2. How much do you know about business
development? What is your experience in
working with them?
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3. The Usual Charter of Business Development
Drive Sales
(Prove it works)
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Grow partners
(Strengthen position)
Identify opportunities
(Seek growth)

4. “Inner” Challenge: BD Hard to Survive as a Role
Back to basic: who actually “owns” BD when every departments have their own way
BD
Sales
Marketing
BD BD
Product
R&D
BD
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5. The “Dark side” of Business Development
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Drive Sales
(Prove it works)
Grow partners
(Strengthen position)
Great! We have
new budget to
try new things!
Identify opportunities
(Seek growth)
I am not Sales,
so I should get
80-90% fix
salary.
We focus on
long-term, not
immediate ROI

6. 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?
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7. Understand the Digital Generations
• Presence
• Interesting work
• Flexibility
• Learning
Awakening
“Gen.”Y”
(1981-2000)
The Digital Generations
• Work-life balance
• Good benefits
• Career progression
Maturing
“Gen.X”
(1965 -1980)
• Instant/now!
• Connected
• “Inner-centric”
• 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
7
• Long hours
• Wealth creation
• Post retirement work
Retiring
“Boomers”
(1946 - 1964)
• 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.
• 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
• 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-)
• 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.

8. “Outer” Challenge: Digital Generations Makes Existing
BD Approach Irrelevant
Your new customers & partners
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Retiring
“Boomers”
(1946 - 1964)
Maturing
“Gen.X”
(1965 -1980)
Awakening
“Gen.”Y”
(1981-2000)
Digital
“Gen.”Z”
(2000-)
Grow partners
(Strengthen
position)
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
Identify
opportunities
(Seek growth)
Cash-rich HQ/venture-backed
incubation BD
BU/Angel-backed
incubation
Micro-angel/Bootstrapping
via customer development

9. How would you redefine the role of your Business
Development Leads if you were the CEO?
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10. Broad-Based Innovations Are Required To Grow
Future
Current
1
Cost innovation
(We are good at today)
– Improve or replicate
existing products at
lower cost
4
Served Unserved
–
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

11. Multiple Challenges Exists During The Transition
Future
Current
• Increasing cost & time to develop more complex
technology (per product) at shorter product lifecycle
• Lack of co-creation capabilities
1
3
Cost innovations -
Improvement or
replication of existing
products at lower
cost
4
• Internet and digital convergence are
changing the rules (Increasing
horizontal expansion)
• Rapidly changing market needs
2
Huge “me-too”
competitions without
patent/IPR protections
Served Unserved

12. IMHO: The Charter of Business Development in the
Digital Generation’s World of Constant Change
Drive Sales
(Prove it works)
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Grow partners
(Strengthen position)
Identify opportunities
(Seek growth)
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

13. Questions?
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14. Thank you
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