The Start Of The Deal

, I write about business development and partnerships. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

I love business development.  The inner workings at play when a good deal gets done involve a simply fascinating mix of business, psychology, and human relationships.

And yet, for too long, the role of "business development" had been relegated to being the junk drawer of the business world: it's got a lot of stuff in it, but nothing is organized enough to be useful.  It's a job title so widely held, and yet a function so rarely understood at a fundamental level.  From sales to partnerships to entering into new territories, the term "business development" has a nearly unlimited supply of meanings, rendering it almost meaningless.

This fate is not alone amongst business buzz words.  Not too long ago, "Entrepreneurship" was an ambiguous term that simply described the jumble of skills needed to run a business.  "It's a pinch of marketing, a sprinkle of management, a dash of finance and accounting," some would say.  Only in recent years has more attention been truly paid to the nuanced-but-critical differences between starting a company and running one.  Methodologies specific to starting a business - such as The Lean Startup movement or Blue Ocean Strategy - have gained attention and traction and have enabled new ways of approaching the creation of companies.  Now, Entrepreneurship has been elevated to a level where it's studied in academia just as much as in the garages of Silicon Valley.

I believe Business Development is in a similar place to where Entrepreneurship was just a few years ago: a discipline that has been around for a long while but is still lacking in discourse about what it is, and how it's done.  Only once we understand the nature of Business Development, and engage in a conversation around what separates the exceptional execution from the aimless approaches, can we pay the role it's full due.  The fruits of this more thorough examination of what, exactly, is Business Development can be enjoyed by many: the companies who create greater value for themselves, their customers, and the global economy at large.

"Wait a second," you're telling me.  "isn't it a bit high and mighty to suggest that merely talking more about business development can change the world?"

Of course it is.  But just as any great entrepreneur must believe their vision is so world-changing that it is worth the sacrifice of their nights, weekends, and comfort, so do I believe that a proper study of business development can change the way we build our businesses.

My goal - starting with this post, but continuing with many others to come - is to seed that conversation, to engage in the debate around what business development is, what it's not, how it's done well, and how it's done poorly.  Eventually, I envision a generation of students securing a bachelor's degree majoring in Business Development with a minor in Entrepreneurship.  But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves: that future where business development is a recognized discipline may be some ways away, but now the time is right for the start of the deal.

Scott Pollack writes, lectures, and teaches about business development.  His next class on "What, Exactly, Is Business Development" will be held on March 26th, 2012 in New York City.