WHAT DOES A CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DO?
Published: September 10, 2024 - The Corporate Development Manager oversees financial evaluations and manages analysts to assess investment opportunities, including project and company document reviews. This role conducts extensive financial modeling to support investments and develops strategies to enhance the portfolio, increasing revenue and shareholder value. Additionally, the manager leads due diligence, negotiates new investments, and supports strategic industry relationships.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Corporate Development Manager
1. Corporate Development Manager Duties
- Opportunity Tracking: Keep track of Allica’s corporate development pipeline, helping to identify, qualify, and monitor live opportunities.
- Financial Analysis: Conduct investment appraisal and financial analysis.
- Strategic Analysis: Produce strategic and financial analysis to evaluate lending partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, and portfolio purchase transactions.
- Transaction Management: Support the end-to-end management and execution of transactions, including due diligence, review of contracts, and implementation.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Work with the cross-functional squad, including credit risk, legal, engineering, and analytics on both partnership implementation and integration, and ongoing commercial and risk performance monitoring.
- Fundraising Support: Help drive Allica’s fundraising activity, including the drafting of information memorandum materials and investor updates, and responding to ad hoc investor-related requests.
- Market Analysis: Monitor and analyze UK economic, regulatory, SME, and competitor trends to create actionable insights and benchmarks that can shape Allica’s direction.
- Presentation Development: Produce logical and compelling presentations that explain analyses to support executive and board decision making.
2. Corporate Development Manager Details
- Opportunity Scanning: Organize and execute opportunity scans in areas of M&A, various corporate opportunities, strategic partnerships, and innovation.
- Analysis Development: Perform related analysis and develop business cases, business plans, and implementation plans with stakeholders involved.
- Process Management: Manage and continuously improve the evaluation, selection, and development process for internal and external ideas and proposals.
- Project Execution: Develop project proposals and execute complex projects with senior multidisciplinary teams across business units.
- Corporate Development: Execute M&A and other corporate development projects with internal and external stakeholders in different phases including detailed synergy analysis, overall business case, business plan, valuation, deal structuring, implementation plan, and due diligence.
- Stakeholder Partnership: Be a sparring partner for business units with (commercial) business sense and broad multi-disciplinary expertise.
- Value Roadmapping: Identify and implement value creation roadmaps and business improvement potentials.
- Investment Evaluation: Evaluate and execute new business investment opportunities, partnerships/alliances, acquisitions, mergers, and joint ventures.
- Transaction Planning: Plan and structure transactions as well as their implementation and execution, project management, budget control of cross-functional project teams within the framework of the entire transaction process for buy-side and sell-side in different industries and jurisdictions, and accountability for the successful closing.
3. Corporate Development Manager Responsibilities
- Project Management: Work on project-specific tasks and project management activities.
- Research Analysis: Research, conduct self-guided analysis, produce reports, and present information clearly to management in and across a wide variety of industries.
- Trend Identification: Identify business trends based on key strategic initiatives or leadership requests by utilizing real data, conducting analysis, and compiling useful business processes to assist with leading new venture opportunities.
- Process Improvement: Continually strive to improve processes and procedures to reduce waste.
- Team Leadership: Inspire, challenge, and motivate others to reach their highest potential and perform their best.
- Talent Development: Passionately build the team by attracting, interviewing, assessing, mentoring, and retaining top performers.
- Strategic Thinking: Think strategically about the company’s opportunities and challenges, its customers, and its competition.
- Strategic Presentation: Present recommendations based on ideas and research and assist with leading new venture opportunities.
- Value Communication: Effectively communicate CS Energy’s value proposition to existing and prospective customers to consistently identify value to customers and what differentiates us in the industry.
- Customer Engagement: Pursue existing and prospective customers through networking, cold-calling, and conferences to evaluate future opportunities.
- Market Strategy: Evaluate market information, identify target geographies and opportunity types, and develop and execute strategies to successfully grow business.
4. Corporate Development Manager Accountabilities
- Opportunity Sourcing: Source external growth opportunities in line with the company growth strategy.
- Relationship Development: Systematically curate and find promising external growth opportunities by developing relationships with key industry players, entrepreneurs, and using available databases.
- Tool Creation: Create and implement tools, checklists, and models to evaluate potential partners.
- Detailed Analysis: Develop and provide detailed analyses of the company’s people, science, products, technologies, go-to-market plan, competitive position, regulatory plan, synergies with Polyplus core business, and anything else relevant to making an investment decision.
- Integration Planning: Prepare post-deal integration plan for business case realization and track progress in collaboration with the stakeholders.
- Strategic Support: Support strategic planning updates working with the leadership of the different regions and functions of the company.
- Market Analysis: Perform market analysis and identify potential targets for strategic commercial partnerships and/or acquisitions.
- Strategic Insights: Provide the Leadership, Commercial, and R&D teams with regular market intelligence and strategic insights.
- M&A Support: Support in M&A transactions from origination to completion, particularly around due diligence.
- Financial Modeling: Create and evaluate financial models, perform valuations, and forecasting.
- Executive Preparation: Support the Executive team in preparation of Board papers and Company-wide presentations.
- Shareholder Communication: Support in Shareholder communications.
5. Corporate Development Manager Functions
- Investment Case Development: Under the supervision of Sr. M&A leader, assist in the initial development of investment case for potential acquisitions and strategic projects.
- Target Screening: Oversee and conduct target screening, including the development of financial models and business cases that help drive M&A decisions.
- Business Case Presentation: Create, manage, and present business cases on potential acquisition targets to business units and other managers.
- CRM Management: Update and manage CRM and deal tracking tools.
- Governance Leadership: Under the supervision of Sr. M&A leader, lead the M&A governance process and act as the project leader to ensure all diligence efforts are sufficiently completed and all approvals are in place.
- Business Development Execution: Under the supervision of Sr. M&A leader, lead the execution of business development initiatives, including acquisitions, partnerships, and other projects.
- Due Diligence Oversight: Assist in overseeing and organizing a team of analysts to conduct due diligence on prospects and verify prospect company data to test initial assumptions for the deal.
- M&A Coordination: Coordinate personnel from other Company functions and business units in executing M&A projects.
- Integration Planning: Assist in the development of the integration plan for acquired businesses.
- Performance Tracking Preparation: Coordinate with finance, operations, and integration team to prepare post-close performance tracking for acquisitions.
- Strategy Refinement: Review deal tracking and refine M&A strategies based on deal feedback.
6. Corporate Development Manager Overview
- Deal Lifecycle Management: Driven M&A deals and investments across the deal lifecycle, from sourcing to diligence to execution.
- Market Analysis: Deeply analyzed market trends and Komodo’s corporate positioning to develop theses spanning different markets, sectors, and opportunity types.
- Industry Coverage: Built industry coverage of key ongoing areas of M&A and investment opportunity.
- Strategic Analysis: Delivered detailed and insightful strategic analyses to senior management of overall corporate development theses and specific opportunities.
- Insight Delivery: Leveraged qualitative and quantitative analysis to deliver clear, action-oriented insight.
- Strategy Partnership: Partnered with senior executives to develop M&A strategy, priorities, and pipeline.
- Market Research: Researched the market landscape to identify acquisition, joint venture, partnership, and strategic investment opportunities.
- Network Building: Built an extensive network with key industry players including CPG companies, VCs, startups, and investment banks.
- Deal Execution: Led end-to-end deal execution, including strategy development, sourcing, valuation, and financial assessment, due diligence, negotiation, execution, and integration activities.
- Acquisition Analysis: Conducted rigorous analysis to provide deep insight and judgment regarding potential acquisitions.
- Financial Modeling: Developed detailed financial models, valuation scenarios, and recommendations for potential transactions.
- Presentation Development: Distilled complex diligence findings and investment cases into clear, compelling presentations for senior executives and the Board of Directors.
7. Corporate Development Manager Details and Accountabilities
- Financial Oversight: Provide financial evaluation and oversee and manage the Analysts in evaluating project investment opportunities including review of project & company documents and financing agreements.
- Financial Modeling: Conduct and lead extensive financial modeling including sensitivity analysis to support potential investment opportunities.
- Strategy Development: Develop and implement strategies for the investment portfolio to increase revenue, improve operations, strengthen financial controls, and increase shareholder value.
- Investment Memoranda Creation: Create investment memoranda to support potential investment opportunities, which include economic analysis and market studies.
- Market Assessment: Examine and assess economic and market trends, earnings profiles, and risk/return characteristics to determine suitable investment strategies & sectors to focus on.
- Economic Modeling: Develop statistical and economic models, collect and analyze data, and identify trends and economic relationships targeting opportunities that enable the investment and growth strategy.
- Due Diligence Leadership: Participate, lead, and mentor analysts in due diligence and negotiations for new investments dealing with purchase agreements, partnership arrangements, financing arrangements, and other contracts which impact forecasted return.
- Project Management: Project manage and operate as an implementation lead for successful merger & acquisition activities.
- Team Support: Participate as a team member and support the development of strategic equity and/or industry relationships.
- Economic Reporting: Prepare economic reports, tables, charts, and forecasts based on findings, which will be presented to various stakeholders, including the executive management team and board of directors, as well as potential third-party stakeholders including minority shareholders and financing counterparties.
- Stakeholder Interaction: Frequently interact with the management team, as well as executive management of prospective & current companies in the company’s portfolio, providing business-related analysis and guidance.
8. Corporate Development Manager Tasks
- Industry Research: Research target industries & companies, and conduct in-depth analyses using traditional and advanced methods.
- Market Insights: Prepare market research and competitive intelligence to identify insights that drive key decisions across the organization.
- Document Preparation: Assist peers in preparing a variety of documents and reports including memos/presentations in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.
- Financial Analysis: Assist peers in financial analysis and company valuation, developing financial models using in-depth analytical techniques.
- Ad-hoc Analysis: Lead and support various ad-hoc analysis of operational and financial results, as needed, in support of GDG’s strategy.
- Leadership Support: Work with senior leadership in the delivery of key pivotal initiatives and associated outputs, supporting the team in day-to-day stakeholder management, project management, and the development of high-quality project results.
- Project Contribution: Proactively contribute to large and sophisticated projects, such as the Just Eat Takeaway integration and the GrubHub integration.
- Project Management: Define the scope and activities of sophisticated projects ensuring they are well-executed and leading any issues.
- Strategic Communication: Communicate and agree with partners on a strategic level and manage differing interests.
- Team Management: Handle corporate development specialists and review analysis, reports, and other work done by junior colleagues.
- Market Expansion: Help extend the reach and success of current platforms and technology to multiple markets.
9. Corporate Development Manager Roles
- Business Development Leadership: As an integral part of ICE Clear Europe’s Corporate Development Department, play a leading role in developing all aspects of ICEU’s Listed derivatives and OTC CDS clearing businesses.
- Relationship Management: Act as a CDS member/product relationship manager for existing membership and maintain close relationships with key industry players.
- Clearing Member Relations: Take a key role in relationship management with existing Clearing Members.
- Product Coordination: Work closely with ICE Clear Credit in managing the release of new CDS products and business initiatives for ICE Clear Europe, liaising as appropriate with traders, risk management, regulators, legal, and compliance departments in developing the credit product offering.
- Revenue Analysis: Perform revenue and impact analysis on new products and report progress/updates internally.
- Client Clearing Development: Contribute to the ongoing development of CDS Client Clearing in Europe, including working with Clearing Members and clients on the current progress made.
- Solution Development: Establish business-critical items, and work closely with legal, business, and risk to develop an ICE solution.
- Market Coordination: Contribute to the management and coordination of interaction with the market participants and other users on all service developments and enhancements including the production of presentation/marketing materials.
- Service Prioritization: Coordinate service development priorities within ICE ensuring that ICE Clear Europe’s needs are appropriately prioritized within the overall service development schedule.
- Consistent Service Development: Ensure that the credit clearing services are developed in a consistent manner with other ICE clearing offerings.
- Regulatory Liaison: Work with colleagues and professional advisers to ensure constructive dialogue, timely approval, and submission of relevant material to internal Governance Committees and all relevant regulators, including the Bank of England, CFTC, and SEC.
10. Corporate Development Manager Additional Details
- Strategic Partnership: Partner with the Strategy, Finance, Human Resources, and Legal functions, as well as each of the Business units (Kitchens, Healthcare, Proximity, etc.) to scale businesses in a hypergrowth environment.
- Analytical Support: Perform both quantitative and qualitative analysis to support conclusions and influence decisions.
- Problem Solving: Conduct analyses that simplify complex problems and develop business cases to inform strategic trade-offs and decision-making.
- Presentation Synthesis: Effectively synthesize analyses into compelling presentations that identify key trends, insights, and implications.
- Strategy Implementation: Translate strategy into practical business initiatives and align stakeholders to an action plan.
- Opportunity Analysis: Conduct comprehensive analysis of target opportunities, including developing operating and merger models, building DCF, and compiling deal comparables.
- Expert Collaboration: Work closely with subject matter experts in business, finance, tax, HR, and legal to incorporate diligence findings in their analysis.
- Acquisition Management: Help to identify acquisition candidates and manage a deal sourcing pipeline.
- Leadership Collaboration: Work alongside business unit leaders and the executive team in a fast-paced growth environment.