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 experience in banking, management or equity research adds to their skill and knowledge base along with outstanding team spirit.   

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.

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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

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.

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.

This has been a guide to what are Corporate Development Careers. We explain the top 4 career options in this field along with an example. You may also have a look at the below articles –

• Auditing Careers
• Careers in Mergers and Acquisitions
• Equity Research Careers List
• Career Options in Finance