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Newsletter Volume 5 from Linda Wolstencroft

Business Development Maturity - Are we relying on heroes, or on high-performing teams?

Where are we on the continuum of maturity in our Business Development activities? As a company grows and matures, so do all areas of its organization. Even large, established companies can review the maturity of their Business Development activities to ensure they haven’t gone stale.

The five-phase continuum of Business Development organizational maturity is described by ten characteristics:

Linda Wolstencroft’s Practical Model of Business Development Maturity

What is a hero? A hero is an individual who almost single-handedly achieves the win. The hero is highly engaged with and exerts control over nearly every aspect of the process of winning. The hero typically initially identifies the business opportunity and develops it to the point at which the customer is interested in the company’s solution, and in the best case, even favors the company’s solution. The hero will analyze the competition and develop a win strategy without much input from the organization. During the proposal phase the hero drives the solution and often develops many aspects of the bid single-handedly. The hero is concerned with putting all elements correctly in place to achieve the win and grow the business. The hero’s objective is not only to win the new business for the company, but also to receive personal credit. The hero is not as concerned with developing a mature, repeatable win campaign that will serve other projects as he is about doing what it takes to achieve the immediate win.

In contrast, a Business Development leader is distinct from a hero in that the Business Development leader’s primary role is enabling the win of new business. This individual facilitates the progression of the business opportunities and not only plays a key role in the development and planning of the win, but also with expanding the knowledge level of the involved areas in the organization to understand what it takes to win and how to get there. This Business Development leader focuses on moving all ten of the organizational characteristics listed above, further to the right, subsequently setting the organization up for current and future sustained success. While concerned with putting all elements correctly in place to get the win and grow the business (indeed these are the objectives of the Business Development organization), the Business Development leader takes more of a long-term view. In this dynamic, it is key that reliable and repeatable processes are developed with inputs by various involved areas of the organization. Therefore, it can be seen that this type of leader is less focused on his or her self as an individual and more concerned with setting up other leaders within the Business Development team for success in their own campaigns.

Depending on the organization’s overall position in its marketplace, there can be a time for a hero or a time for a Business Development leader. In some cases, there is even a time for both. The key is to knowing which approach you are using and to determine whether such approach is appropriate for the stage of development in your company.

For help with your organizational maturity, and how to bring your company to the next level, contact Linda.