Business development is easy to endorse in strategy documents, but it often stalls in everyday reality. New ideas are listened to, nodded at, and described as exactly what customers ( internal) are asking for. Yet they rarely turn into action. The idea is accepted –Sometimes the person behind it is not.
The most important quality in business development is curiosity and openness to discuss possibilities. Without curiosity, organizations keep applying old answers to new problems. Without open dialogue, ideas remain tied to individuals or disappear before they are ever tested.
The problem is usually not a lack of competence, but leadership, structures, and a short planning horizon. Development is often evaluated against immediate results, rather than near- and long-term business objectives. When new capabilities are squeezed into existing unit or product structures, they lose relevance before they have the chance to create impact.
It is also possible that the idea itself rises onto the active agenda, while the person behind it is ahead of the organization’s maturity. This creates a boat-rocking effect. Abstract ideas are still safe, but concrete implications reveal the real limits of change readiness. The idea survives and circulates, while the person becomes the problem – not because they are wrong, but because they are too “ready” with topics.
When curiosity is replaced by control, micromanagement suppresses development. The outcome is predictable: capable people become frustrated and leave, while the organization is left with the impression that development was attempted.
The lesson is simple
- For organisations:
- Do not put development on the agenda if you are not prepared to implement and deploy it.
- For individuals:
- if the issue is not the content but the perceived threat it creates, the environment is not receptive. In that case, leaving is not giving up – it is situational awareness.
- For Management:
- Stay open to ideas. Don’t shoot the messenger. Even when you don’t like the person or the way an idea is delivered, resist the urge to dismiss it. Develop the idea further, refine it, and bring the team together to explore it.
- It is not the role of management or directors to be the deepest experts or to define all constraints upfront. Their role is not to understand and decide everything alone. Instead, they should ask for alternatives, business opportunities, and different ways forward—and then give the team the space to work on them.
- Don’t predefine the thinking. Don’t decide what people should conclude. Create the visio & frame, invite options, and let the organization do the thinking.
0 Comments