Corporate development largely involves the planning and execution of diverse strategies in order to meet the important organizational objectives of a company. The type of activities that fall under corporate development tends to include arranging strategic alliances, management team recruitment, management of intellectual property, securing corporate financing, as well as identifying and acquiring companies (M&A). As per Steven Rindner, these duties are typically done by corporate development executives. Steven himself is a business and corporate development executive who has special expertise in growth strategy and business development.
The role of corporate development executives in each and every organization differs to an extent, depending on their individual concerns and industry demands. In the general sense, this sphere of a company is largely focused on strategic initiatives that can include acquisitions, partnerships, and transactions. Steven Rindner says that while the broad role of these professionals may change from a company to another , they must have a few important traits and features in order to be truly successful in their job. The following points underline some of the attributes that all corporate development executives must surely have:
- These professionals must be capable enough to assess their business, state, and condition in a very objective way. It is crucial that they are absolutely practical in their approach, and see a company how it truly is, and not how they want it to be. There usually is a great temptation faced by these individuals when it comes to agreeing with the consensus view, however, in case of any doubts and disagreements, they must take a stand. These professionals must have a degree of candor to be able to fight for their views even from their own team members.
- The point of view of the corporate development executives must never be stagnant. It, in fact, should keep evolving with time, and with the ever-changing business trends. The majority of organizations face a lot of difficulties in changing and evolving with the passage of time. In such scenarios, the corporate development executives must take the responsibility of taking the company towards the road of the future. They must try to find the best ways to help the systems and staff of the company to cope up with any major deviation from their typical strategic initiatives.
- Patience is an attribute that corporate development executives cannot ideally do without. These professionals are not just required to make one or two decisions. They must have the patience to deal with the wide range of duties and tasks to be completed by them. Such professionals must be focused on finding the business style that works the best for their company, and use it to their advantage in the long run.
- Good evaluation skills are also important among corporate development executives as they often need to acquire an accurate sense of where their business process is going, and what position it would be at the end.
Being associated with the field of corporate development for quite some time has made Steven Rindner a good expert on this topic.