Dear Colleagues,
I have been invited to put together a proposal for the executive
development and/or continuing education departments of a local college in
Toronto, Canada -Seneca College.
We've discussed the idea of introducing a program in Business
Development...an often nebulous, mysterious and misused term.
At a very basic level, I define business development as not just sales, as
an answer to the wider question: Do I have a program that allows me to
spot or design ongoing opportunities for my firm, at various levels?
Many senior managers have "business development" functions in their roles,
but no one offers a "program on Business Development", per say at least in
the Toronto area. Many managers have and know the bits and pieces of
"business development" but have never thought of it from a holistic,
multi-disciplinary approach or framework.
Just in the past week, the following jobs have appeared in Workopolis.com,
which require "business development" skills:
-VP Sales-VP Marketing
-VP Business Development
-VP Strategy-Director
-President
-CEO
-Account representative
-Account Executive
-Sales Manager
-Sr Financial Analyst
-Business Analyst
-Account Manager
-Business Development Manager
-Operations Manager
-Branch Manager
-Business Development Executive
-Department Head
-Project manager
-eBusiness Manager
-Director, Brand Revitalization/Project Management
-Director, Knowledge Based Business
-Commercial Banking and others such as entrepreneurs etc
The 7 workshops/courses that I'm proposing for this program would include
the following offerings:
-Introduction to Business development
-Designing a Business Development Program in your firm
-Designing winning business models
-Strategic Lateral Thinking
-Strategic Alliances and Partnerships
-The Opportunity Clinic-Spotting and designing opportunities for your
business
-Leadership issues in Business Development
-Advanced Business development concepts and tools
I'm assuming that most managers would have the basic sales/marketing 101
tools at this stage of their career, so these ideas or concepts won't be
taught /repeated, but integrated together into an comprehensive framework.
My questions to you are:
1) Is a similar program being offered anywhere else at the college or
university level ? ( why reinvent the wheel?)
2) Is there a syllabus available?
3) What would you suggest as other topics for courses?
4) Are the 7 courses /workshops enough to give you a solid grounding?
would you include something else?
5) What are some of the must have tools , methods or concepts that could
be included in this course?
Please reply and share your thoughts with me & the list
regards
Walter Derzko
NewBizDev.org
wderzko@pathcom.com
416-588-1122
http://www.newbizdev.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newbizdev
--"Walter Derzko" <wderzko@axxent.ca>
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