Business Development: A Market-Oriented Perspective

This was required text for one of my MBA courses (Business Development). The structure of the book and all the content inside of it was extremely helpful for me to understand the topic. Strongly recommend for anyone interested in the subject.

One of the Best BD Books. This is the BD book that started it all. 🎖 Dr. Hans Eibe Sørensen deserves a BD medal for publishing this first collegiate level textbook about Business Development in March 2012. Before he published this book, many thought BD was just another word for sales or marketing. Some university faculty shunned BD as insufficiently scientific. Many now realize that BD is the Future of Business. 🔍 Do a LinkedIn search of top business school alumni and you may find more graduates in Business Development than marketing and/or sales. 🚀 Since 2012, the BD profession grew to 33M+ Business Developers globally with BD consistently ranking as one of the fastest growing jobs. WARNING: This isn’t the type of book you snuggle up by the fireplace with a hot toddy and get whisked away whimsically with grand designs of business domination. It’s a rigorously researched textbook ideal for MBA programs and undergraduate business courses, especially those culminating in business plan creation. However, Dr. Sorensen’s conversational writing style is easily digested like a Flødeboller. As both an academic and a BD practitioner, Sorensen shares real-world anecdotes that add colorful context to his profound concepts. BD professionals owe Dr. Sorensen a debt of gratitude. His research provided an academic foundation for the Business Development Body of Knowledge (BD-BOK) published in January 2023. The BD-BOK starts by quoting Sorensen’s stated purpose of business development as "the analytical preparation of growth opportunities, and the support and monitoring of the implementation of growth opportunities." Another major impact was his discussion of Market Oriented business strategies that prioritize community collaboration to develop new products and deliver value that exceeds the extrinsic needs of the customer. Dr. Sorensen’s book concludes with more than one hundred pages of detailed guidance for crafting and implementing successful business plans. I'm personally grateful to this gentleman and a scholar because he generously shared insights and inspiration with me when I wrote the BD-BOK. From me and the entire BD community....Thank you Hans!

This text gives the reader with an overview of what business development involves and its application. For the curious readers, it may motivate them to try many of the techniques described while developing their analytical skills as modifications are made in the conduct of various analyses that apply the tools and techniques presented.

As my function has changed from R&D to biz dev, I needed a book that can provide me a framework for developing new growth opportunities. This book provides understanding of creating a business plan, a solid perspective of how a business developer needs to think, and the author's experiences in the biotech field. It is an easy read and is excellent for those who are new to the business world, but I do not really recommend it for those who have had a business education or significant experience. It is not full of technical jargon and rather focuses on getting the reader to understand the thought process. Once again, a decent book for the beginner.

Excellent book that does what it says on the cover: describes exactly what business development is and the processes and disciplines involved. It also gives a very detailed recipe for creating a complete business plan including the marketing, organization and finance plans needed to present to the board or to a VC. In discussing business development Prof Sorensen presents most of the conceptional building blocks of marketing: Porters 5 factors, Pestle, VRIO framework etc. This makes it an excellent primer for any student of modern marketing. The bibliography alone makes it worth the price of admission. In an academic setting it will be invaluable in any courses on marketing or entrepreneurship and a useful adjunct to an organizational behavior class. I would recommend this book to any business person involved in or interested in strategic business development as well as to any B-school student. I would note that this is a book about business development as part of a formalized market oriented management discipline. Readers who view business development as synonymous with sales "hunting" may want to look elsewhere.

It's dearly a marvelous book for these ppl who just enter business development this area, particular for 2B. It gives a quite clear structure to know the tasks, processes and functions of BD. I am enjoying a lot and would definitely recommend to those of you who want have a good starting of ur BD journey.

Ich finde das Buch sehr ambivalent. Negativ ist, dass es viel zu sehr aufgebläht ist mit "Blabla", was ich als ziemlich langweilig, verwirrend und vom Thema abschweifend finde. Teilweise Aufgaben für den Leser, die der Autor wohl witzig findet. Ich kann aber keinen besonderen Lerngewinn darin erkennen. Ich erwarte von einem Biz Dev Buch komprimiert, verdichtet, zielgerichtet nützliche Informationen. Stattdessen ergießt es sich massiv in Theorie (mit Uralt Quellen aus den 1990er Jahren) und Nebensächliches. 3 Sterne, da es auch ein paar positive, nützliche Informationen im dritten Teil gibt bzgl Marketing, Business Plan etc. Das Buch hätte auch mit 30% des aktuellen Umfangs veröffentlicht erden können. Fände ich besser. Zeit ist zu schade, um 500 Seiten ohne Mehrwert zu lesen und nach nützlichen Informationen suchen zu müssen.

Very good book, recommended by RGU as main text for business development