New ideas in business development.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: MANAGEMENT

By Tasha Anderson

Every business exists in a changing environment, and it is necessary for all businesses to periodically take stock of policies, procedures, personnel, partners, vendors, and all the other vital parts and pieces that can lead to success or decline. In many cases, it's beneficial for businesses to acquire an unbiased or fresh perspective. Business development is necessarily a different process for each business dependent on industry, infrastructure, assets, and economics.

Bradison Management Group

Bradison Management Group (BMG) Founder and Senior Consultant Paula Bradison says, "The biggest thing is defining what business development is for your company--really look at what problems you're trying to solve."

Bradison established BMG (bmgak.com) in 2012, after she had already been in the consulting industry for a few years. "I got into management primarily because I really just like business. I like how it works, and I'm just really interested in what makes a successful business." To that end, BMG is a team of consultants with the sole goal of helping develop a growing business, whether that's through traditional avenues of advertising or personnel changes or other more technical or out-of-the-box approaches.

In Alaska, BMG has provided services to architecture and engineering firms, construction companies, and medical offices and operations, among others. BMG primarily works with small-to mid-size companies, Bradison says.

One trend that Bradison has noticed in recent years is what companies request when they take advantage of BMG's consulting services. "Three years ago, if I asked them if there's one problem I can fix, 99 percent of the time it was HR. Right now I would say 80 or 90 percent of the time it's, 'Help me find more work.'"

While each client is nuanced, within many Alaska industries companies are facing the same issue. "In all industries right now, they're worried about a backlog of work and really looking not so much at what they're doing right this minute but what's coming next."

Bradison says that there's been a shift from the 1980s where "if you did a good job and you built relationships, and you were committed to the community, people would bring you work and they'd seek you out" to today, where it's mostly an environment of RFPs (Request for Proposal). BMG's group of technical and consulting professionals can provide assistance with improving the bidding process, whether it's adjusting a bid template or...