Bureau 7: Business Development
The Business Development Bureau is the seventh bureau in the community. The bureau forms part of the Process and Property Department, alongside Regulatory, Data, and Land & Utilities bureaus. Business Development, Marketing, and Underwriting & Risk Management agencies make up the bureau. The bureau’s agencies endeavor to assist participants in planning their businesses, communicating effectively with their target market, and taking effective steps to limit their exposure to risk as they do so.
Duties of Business Development Bureau Agencies
The duties of the three agencies in the Business Development Bureau can be summarized as follows:
| Business Development (agency 19) | Marketing (agency 20) | Underwriting & Risk Management (agency 21) |
| Collection and data analytics of economic data | Facilitate marketing research | Provide underwriting and risk appraisal services to various agencies |
| Aligning business planning with current conditions and the community’s agenda | Marketing strategy formulation | Facilitate formulation of risk management strategies |
| Facilitate strategic planning | Training | Monitoring risk management activities |
| Training in business planning | Training |
Shared responsibilities of agencies in the bureau
The Business Development Bureau leverages information to help businesses plan and execute their business and marketing strategies. Using the extensive information that these agencies have on the market, economy, and other factors that determine whether businesses fail or succeed, the bureau can help businesses chart a clear path to success.
The bureau also trains businesses so that they can succeed. Various agencies collect information that the bureau has access to as per its needs. It trains businesses on how to use this information efficiently. Additionally, businesses are trained on how to operate efficiently by using the community’s infrastructure optimally.
Public servants and organization
Executive presidencies and boards
Each agency in the Business Development Bureau is served by a four-member executive presidency. Each president represents a specific demographic: married men (A), married women (B), single women (C), and single men (D). However, each president serves the whole community, rather than their demographic alone. The presidencies serving the three agencies come together to form the Business Development Bureau Board, a 12-member body that advises individual presidents and presidencies and acts as an additional check and balance beyond the presidencies.
Additionally, each president belongs to a demographic presidency. Three presidents who serve the same demographic on a board form a demographic presidency, which helps in articulating issues that cut across the board and are specific to the demographic.
Executive presidencies set strategy and draw up operating policies. They also set up and monitor their respective agencies’ automated systems.
| Demographic presidency A | Demographic presidency B | Demographic presidency C | Demographic presidency D | |
| Executive presidency, Business Planning (19) | 19A | 19B | 19C | 19D |
| Executive presidency, Marketing (20) | 20A | 20B | 20C | 20D |
| Executive presidency, Underwriting & Risk Management (21) | 21A | 21B | 21C | 21D |
Business development operational presidencies
There are 48 business development operational presidencies. Two operational presidencies serve a district building and the agency that has offices in that district building. For instance, operational presidencies 1 and 2 serve District 1 and the executive presidency for Human Relations (which has offices in District Building 1).
As is the case with every other presidency, the operational presidencies are composed of four presidents representing the four major demographics. As such, there are 192 (48*4) operational presidents. Three sequential presidencies, such as 1, 2, 3/, 4, 5, and 6/, form a 12-member board. There are 16 boards.
Operational presidents also belong to demographic presidencies. Each board has four demographic presidencies. For instance, the presidents belonging to presidencies 1, 2, and 3, and who serve one demographic group form a demographic presidency. This means that there are 64 demographic presidencies for the operational presidents.
Selection of operational presidencies
Operational presidents are identified by the two presidencies they belong to, and the agency they serve. While the services they provide are not restricted to any one of the three agencies, operational presidencies’ final selection is conducted by a demographic presidency in the bureau board. For instance, the final selection for all operational presidencies representing married men (A) is done by the demographic presidency representing married men in the bureau board.
The initial stages of a president’s recruitment process are similar to others. On joining, a participant indicates their willingness to serve in the community public service. Once a vacancy arises, the bureau’s automated system identifies potential candidates and vets them to establish their readiness and willingness to serve. In this process, the system returns 10 names. From this list, the presidency that seeks a replacement selects three names (the outgoing president does not choose a candidate at this point).
The three names are submitted to the demographic presidency in the bureau board, which selects two names from the three. The two names are then submitted to the outgoing president, who flips a coin to determine the next president. The limited partners in the district that the incoming president intends to serve then submit an online vote to confirm the selection. A president needs the support of at least 60% of the voters.
Qualifications
Operational presidencies perform a wide range of specialized roles, for which they need to have expert skills. They need to have deep knowledge of the functions of the three agencies they serve. These skills are usually gained during a professional’s career, rather than taught once a person is called to be a president.
Ultimately, operational presidents aim to ensure that participants harness the full potential of the system, especially to the extent of services provided by the three presidencies. They also help other community public servants and agencies in running their operations regarding the three agencies in the Business Development Bureau. This is because agencies are expected to run at a profit, and therefore, need solid business planning, marketing, and risk management strategies to succeed.