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What Are Corporate Development Careers?
A corporate development career refers to the opportunity to grow in the field of designing and planning the development and expansion strategies for a company to make it more competitive and increase its market base. Such professionals help businesses reach new heights through skills in analysis, valuation, sales, marketing, and communication.
Candidates planning to pursue such a career should be eager to learn, be consistent in performance, research and gather information, and negotiate with clients to achieve tough targets. Good CV writing that shows solid experience in banking, management or equity research adds to their skill and knowledge base along with outstanding team spirit.
Corporate Development Careers Explained
Corporate development refers to the process of planning and implementing organizational strategies for the growth of the company. Careers in corporate development is a team which focuses more on merger & acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and strategic alliances in order to accelerate the company’s growth and reach in the market and gain a larger market share ultimately. It is headed generally by the Chief Executive Officer of the company under the guidance and support of the promoters.
- The Corporate Development job majorly revolves around deal sourcing and deal execution for the m&a transactions for the company as and when it is essential.
- In a large organization, more time is spent on the deal execution part as many m&a opportunities are readily available in the market, whereas, in a small company, more time is spent on deal sourcing since there are limited options available in the market for acquisition since the acquiring company does not have its firm footprints.
- In this role, a projected business plan is prepared under the guidance of the CEO, and the same is revised on a periodic basis as per the situation.
- One of the primary roles of the Corporate Development Team will be to reshape the management arm of the company if the same is not in tangent to the vision of the company. Hence many senior people in the company are asked to leave and replaced with quality professionals who can turn the company to its highest potential.
- This profile of careers in corporate development requires a higher level of expertise with regards to the overall management of the business, and hence mostly Chartered Executives like CA, CFA, MBA from Tier 1 are generally preferred for this role since they have the technical expertise to perform better than others in crisis situations.
Top 4 Corporate Development Careers
Professionals in the corporate development field need to have a good grasp over some skills that form an important part of their career development. Some of them worth mentioning are excellent communication, number crunching skills, ability to do research, dig out information, persistency in solving any problem, ability to do valuation and analysis, etc. Their in-depth knowledge about any business or industry helps them to design financial models that provide required details to investment bankers.
They need to continuously communicate with upper management as well as managers of different departments and external stakeholders with lot of confidence and detailed knowledge so as to give them the correct information regarding the business process. In a corporate development career path, their negotiation skills and due diligence strategies take them a long way.
Below is the list of top Corporate Development Career paths that you can look for.
Corporate Development is one of the most crucial departments of any company since it plays a vital role in shaping Business in the long term. Let us now look at the top 4 career options in Corporate Development –
#1 - Analyst
Analyst prepares deal books on the companies that are open for acquisition for the CEO to make strategic decisions. This is an entry-level position in the company which helps the analyst to understand the markets and the industry in which he is working.
Analyst - Job Description |
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Responsibilities | Responsible for updating the deal books on the potential acquisition opportunities on a periodic basis and perform industry analysis as well to complement the decision-making process. |
Designation | Analyst |
Actual Role | Is to work on company profiles in the market and highlight the potential opportunity to the CEO looking out for Acquisition. |
Job Statistics | No data has been shared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US. |
Top Companies | Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs are some of the Top 5 Companies that are active in the M&A space and there will be plenty of opportunities there in the corporate development team. |
Salary | The median annual salary for an analyst will be between $50,000 to $60,000. This is a very broad number and can vary from company to company. |
Demand & Supply | Highly demanded profile since it requires extensive presentation skills to prepare different types of pitches on the companies and report the same to the senior management. |
Education Requirement | CFA/CPA/MBA from Tier -1 Universities with at least 2-5 Yrs of Exp. |
Recommended Courses | CPA/MBA/CFP/CFA |
Positives | Be a part of the entire deal cycle and chances to earn huge bonuses at the end of the year. |
Negatives | Long working hours on building presentations can be boredom. |
#2 - Associate
The associate oversees the work done by the junior analyst and guides him in the deal process. He leads the execution of the deal and is the single point of contact between the CEO and the other company.
Associate - Job Description |
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Responsibilities | Responsible for checking the work done by the analyst and mentoring him with the required knowledge and expertise required for the job. |
Designation | Associate |
Actual Role | Support the vice president in the entire deal cycle and play an important role in the execution as well as he is supposed to handle a team of analysts under him. |
Job Statistics | No data has been shared on the Bureau of Labour statistics of US. |
Top Companies | Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs are one of the Top 5 Companies who are active in the M&A space and there will be plenty of opportunities there in the corporate development team. |
Salary | The median annual salary for an investment banking associate can be anywhere between $1,00,000 to $1,20,000 since it is a professional role. |
Demand & Supply | Highly knowledgeable and skilled role since it requires practical experience to execute an M&A deal in the company. |
Education Requirement | CFA/CPA/MBA from Tier -1 Universities with at least 7-10 Yrs of Exp. |
Recommended Courses | CFA/CPA/MBA |
Positives | Lead a team of analysts and report to the vice president. |
Negatives | Long working hours and is responsible for all the work done by the junior analyst. |
#3 - Vice President
Vice President leads the corporate development division in the company with a team of analysts and associates and reports to the director about the potential opportunities in the M&A space and draft strategies as to how we can accelerate the company’s growth.
Vice President - Job Description |
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Responsibilities | Responsible for corporate development and execution of deals. |
Designation | Vice President – Corporate Development |
Actual Role | To build relationships and alliances with corporate in the markets and help the organization to prosper. |
Job Statistics | The Bureau of Labour Statistics of the US does not display data on this role. |
Top Companies | Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs are one of the Top 5 Companies who are active in the M&A space and there will be plenty of opportunities there in the corporate development team. |
Salary | The median annual salary for a general manager can be anywhere between $ 1,00,000 – $2,00,000. |
Demand & Supply | Highly demanded profile in corporate development because he is a Single point of contact between the companies. |
Education Requirement | CFA/CPA/MBA/Valuation expert with 10-15 Yrs of Exp. |
Recommended Courses | CFA/CPA/MBA from Tier I Universities |
Positives | Leads the department and allocates deals to the team members for performing the required due diligence. |
Negatives | The salary component is less fixed and more variable or performance pay. |
#4 - Director
Director spearheads the corporate development department of the company and reports to the CEO about the potential M&A opportunities and the strategic alliances that can be made for the betterment of the company in the future.
Director - Job Description |
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Responsibilities | Responsible for sourcing potential deals from the market that will complement the current status of the company and help the same to accelerate. |
Designation | Director |
Actual Role | Lead the corporate development vertical and update the CEO about the future plan. |
Job Statistics | No data has been displayed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. |
Top Companies | Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs are one of the Top 5 Companies who are active in the M&A space and there will be plenty of opportunities there in the corporate development team. |
Salary | The median annual salary for the same can be anywhere between $ 5,00,000 to $10,00,000. |
Demand & Supply | Is a specialized professional role which the highest degree of networking skills and contacts to get the work done. |
Education Requirement | CFP/CPA / MBA from Tier -1 Universities with at least 15-20 Yrs of Exp. |
Recommended Courses | CPA/MBA/CFA |
Positives | Spearhead the most highly paid department of any organization. Opportunity to visit large corporate and develop a relationship that may have synergies in the long term. |
Negatives | Risky profile to work with as one wrong transaction may blow the company in no time. |
Thus, in a corporate development career path, we see from the above career options that there are various option in this field and candidates with varied educational and experience backgrounds may become successful here. Even undergraduates and graduates may enter in this job but typically they are experienced in fields like management consulting or investment banking. But their exit options are not very good. Mostly they tend to remain in this field itself or may just switch companies for better compensation or some variety in profile. Some may prefer to shift to private equity or investment banking, but the number is very less.
Example
Let us understand a day in the life of a professional in corporate development job with the help of a suitable example, as given below:
We assume Mark is such a professional who is working with ABC & Associates for the 5 years. He is currently working as a manager for external communications for the company. He has done an MBA in communications and is highly proficient in handling various creative software applications, in-depth knowledge about various social media channels, and print publications. His daily job profile includes managing teams with good communication and time management, with a very positive attitude.
Since the organization is mainly into digital communication, which may be internal or external, branding strategy and implementation of the same and communication based on themes, Mark has to work hard in developing global digital network, establishing media connect, and promote various projects online, to make the company visible in the industry.
He has to identify the correct platform that will help in presenting the proper content of the brand or company at not only national but also global level. This will ensure growth of customer base along with faith and respect of the business in the global space.
Corporate development is one of the most favoured roles in the industry since it comes with very high compensation and knowledge. With the Kind of technological advancement in the world, the M&A industry is going to get doubled from where it is now. Going forward, there will be a lot of scope in the corporate development profile. Since it is a CEO level role, it requires an extensive amount of technical and business management skills in order to drive the company strategy and lead the same to the topmost position in the market and further maintain the same in the long run.
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