Even in business school, business development is less a career goal for MBAs and more an entry-level position, says Harrigan. “BD people save companies a lot of time and money,” as they do the legwork of an investment bank. But of the hundred or so companies a business development team will run the numbers on, maybe only one will be attractive. Then for the biz dev, she says, the real work begins: selling the idea to the team.

“We call them cruise directors,” laughs Harrigan. “You find an interesting little company and you take it on a cruise through your company till somebody sinks your boat, then you start again.”

It’s what you do with a smart guy “with good ‘quant chops,’” says the entrepreneur. “(But) a lot of them are arrogant little shits. It’s all balance sheets and income statements. It’s great on paper."

“We’re going to get synergies!” But how do you integrate the cultures? They’re smart, but they don’t have the operating experience to understand the day-to-day business of running a company.”

That's not uncommon, says Liersch. Before entering academia, Liersch worked in business development for two startups: the online store Buy.com and Broadband Office, an infrastructure service provider for real estate developers.

Liersch’s biz dev roles in both companies were very different. At Buy.com, he had an M&A and strategic-partnership position, where he attempted to get manufacturers to sell their products through the Web portal. At Broadband Office his job was to sell the company’s concept to potential vendors.

But Liersch understood he couldn’t do either job well without really understanding how his business worked on a day-to-day basis, especially when it was his job to identify another company for a merger or a strategic long-term partnership. “There is a strength in being able to crunch numbers,” he says. “But only when you understand integration issues will you be able to create true shareholder value.”

Despite reservations he has, the serial entrepreneur I spoke with admits that during these times, biz dev is a necessary evil: “You need people who like making money; like in an army, where you need people who like being warriors. But you need people who can channel these energies to do good things.”

Besides, he says, “you don’t want to go back to the Middle Ages where venture capital was raping and pillaging the village next door.”