Corporate development

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corporate Development refers to the planning and execution of a wide range of strategies to meet specific organizational objectives. The kinds of activities falling under corporate development may include initiatives such as recruitment of a new management team, plans for phasing in or out of certain markets or products, establishing relationships with strategic business partners, identifying and acquiring companies, securing financing, divesting of assets or divisions, increasing intellectual property assets and so on. There is no formula for "corporate development" and the activities encompassed are often the role of the CEO or other executives. However, particularly in larger companies, corporate development is provided as a charter for a particular executive or team. In these cases, the opportunities and initiatives are numerous enough to justify specialists, instead of being delegated to the office of the CEO and line of business executives. Often the corporate development executives come from a legal background, due to the complex contractual issues associated with many transactions. When focused on product or financial issues, corporate development executives often have MBA or CPA credentials.

For example, if a company is looking towards non-organic growth expansion, a corporate development group will evaluate potential target companies. The acquisition of small or private companies by a large corporation is usually not conducted with the assistance of investment bankers, but executed by the corporate development team themselves.