In the ongoing work to develop, establish and implement the eXpression Future Retail Lab accelerator programme, great importance is attached to the educational approach. A starting point for this work is that learning takes place to a large extent through action. In this case, when participating companies try out new and acquired knowledge by putting it into practice. This is partly made possible by an independent and driven self-leadership where the company representative takes great responsibility for his/her own and the company's development. It is also made possible by the structured forms developed within the accelerator programme, which support the process of translating theory into practice and moving from thought to action. Such structured forms can be found today in various support structures and may include:
- to provide participants with data to a workshop, lecture or coaching session in a specific area such as export maturity, internationalisation, financing models for growth or the role of different communicative activities in conversion,
- to follow up and implement this preparatory work in a workshop, a lecture or a coaching session, thus ensuring that participating enterprises are familiar with the subject matter of the activity and that they are given the means to accelerate their development.
- to by a workshop, lecture or coaching session, ensure that the company continues to develop and be challenged by following up with new tasks that form the basis for further and concrete action,
- to still and, on an ongoing basis, follow up and further develop this work in continuous dialogue between business developers and companies.
This form supports companies in translating new knowledge into concrete action. It also helps to maintain a continuous business development process while maintaining a focus on commitment, progression, priorities, boundaries and self-leadership. This approach thus not only places higher demands on the business developer, their role and methods, it also places higher demands on the enterprises that are given the opportunity to develop within business support structures.
Reflection questions: on developing your business development processes
Corona pandemic's requirement for rapid transformation has highlighted both areas of strength and development in existing business development processes. The purpose of the reflection questions that now follow is to critically review and learn from the period of the Corona pandemic, and as a result and where possible, evolve our business development practices towards becoming even more sustainable.
- Above were examples of business development processes, what other forms can you as business developers see contributing to action, self-leadership and continued development of companies?
- Do you agree that the coronpandem has accelerated and refined business development processes? Why/why not?
Concluding reflection: on prioritising and allocating support
During the corona pandemic, great demands have been made on companies' commitment, rapid development and transformation. As a result, the need for support has increased, for example in the form of financial support, time with business developers and access to new knowledge through, for example, dialogue with industry experts or technical expertise. At the same time, the financial scope of many support structures has been reduced. An important question is how support to enterprises can or should be allocated given the current situation.
