Biz Dev 3.0: Changing Business As We Know It - Hardcover

Keywell, Brad

3.6

5 ratings by Goodreads

9780970597014: Biz Dev 3.0: Changing Business As We Know It

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0970597010 ISBN 13: 9780970597014

Publisher: ALM Media, LLC, 2001

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Business development is the most effective way for new and old economy companies to grow bigger and stronger very quickly-and this guide explains what it is and how it works. Business development is not just sales, marketing, or mergers and acquisitions. It entails aligning a company with complementary partners to meet or exceed goals with new economy speed. Regardless of a company's size, how long it has been in business, or the product it produces, this guide will help it prosper and grow by providing proven and practical tips, checklists, and toolkits on how to use business development.

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About the Author:

Keywell is the former president of HA-LO Industries (NYSE:HMK), a brand marketing organization and the world’s leading provider of promotional products. He began his career with HA-LO after the company acquired Starbelly.com, the leading business-to-business Internet solution for custom branded merchandise. Keywell founded Starbelly in May 1999, overseeing its growth to over 200 employees in four months and its sale to HA-LO for $240 million announced in January 2000.

Keywell is on the Board of Advisors of the Zell-Lurie Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Michigan Business School, and serves on the Advisory Board of several private Internet companies. He is an Executive Partner to the William Blair New World Ventures venture capital fund in Chicago. He was named one of the nation’s Top Ten Collegiate Entrepreneurs in 1991 by the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs, and received the 2000 Conrad Hilton Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from Loyola Marymount University. He was named one of the "Internet 100" by Crain’s Chicago Business, a listing of influential individuals in Internet-related business.

FOREWORD By Seth Godin Author Permission Marketing and Unleashing the Ideavirus

A collision is about to happen. It won’t be pretty and it won’t be quiet, and it will change the way you do business forever.

For years, we’ve been reading about how companies are becoming more interdependent. How share of mind matters as much as share of market or share of wallet. How businesses are moving faster and fast and that cooperating is far more effective than competing.

The problem comes at the last moment, when two huge ships try to dock with each other. If working with other companies is so important, how come we’re so bad at it? If the future of business is all about the interrelationships we create, how on earth are we going to go about setting up those relationships? If we do it wrong, the crashes will be loud and the fallout pretty devastating.

Should we pay them? Should they pay us? How long is the deal? Should we work with them exclusively? How fast can we do this deal?

The easy way to predict the next business revolution is to look at where otherwise smart companies are wasting a ton of money. Thirty years ago, we were hemorrhaging billions on robots and poor quality. Then it was the horrible waste of money that got spent on advertising. But over the last few years, the truly embarrassing flameouts have come from business development. I’ve watched companies waste 20 or 40% of their available cash in a single ridiculous deal with AOL. I’ve also seen dozens of previously great companies quietly fade away because they didn’t have the guts to do the right biz dev deal.

At Yoyodyne, and then at Yahoo!, I got to see the worst and the best of business development. At the time, I figured that we were doomed to continue making it up as we went along, having those that followed us make the same mistakes I was watching others make. Then along came Brad.

Brad Keywell is one of the smartest, fastest, most effective entrepreneurs I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. And he’s certainly among the top bizdev guys on the planet. Amazingly enough, Brad’s decided to tell us everything he knows about the most important topic facing your company today. In simple, clear and focused prose, Keywell tells you exactly what to do... and most important, why.

I wish I’d read this book ten years ago.

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