The gist was that most businesses get to a size when the MD can no longer do all the biz dev work alone.  What do you do next?

Options include:

1. train up a graduate
2. hire an experienced person with 3/4 years in the industry

My views were nicely aligned with his.  I said Oxbridge-type grads are good hires because they are bright, keen and want to rule the world quickly.  If you train them up for marketing jobs – but
for sales get a seasoned professional from another industry.  I don't think you have a cat's chance of training a grad to being a good salesperson quickly.

 There is another option that I neglected to add:

1. Train your whole client facing team in biz dev so they all go out looking for opportunities [plug - I can help with this] 

I recommended prosperconsulting.com Simon Ibson if you want to hire a sales person – key to his offer is that he doesn't charge % fees based on salary, its a flat fee PLUS he'll advise on how to use the person properly to support your business aims.

If you want to hire grads from top universities – go direct to their careers office. Usually they'll advertise your position free of charge.  That was how I found Frank Krikhaar for Pembridge.  Wonderful guy. 

 He grilled me quite solidly about my own biz dev methods… not sure whether I was teaching him to suck eggs or if there was a gem or two among the verbal downpour!