Let’s do lunch! Why?
The business relationship! 50, 20, or even 10 years ago it would seem ludicrous to do business without establishing a solid foundation of this somewhat touchy and indefinable understanding between two parties that both of them are there to suck every ounce of possible profit from the other. In the normal world, relationships are built upon caring, giving, and understanding. Why have we tried to force these same principles into a forum where they are not necessarily needed? You don’t need to be funny, kind or enjoyable; I don’t even have to like you. As long as you demonstrate to me that you provide me with some kind of value that I cannot find elsewhere, the relationship will be just fine.
And with this feeling comes the true value of these social business networking sites like LinkedIn, Ryze, and Tribe. They strip away all the unnecessary chit chat and tiptoeing that goes along with the normal ice breakers that arise during your first blind meeting with someone. Soon I will be able to walk into a meeting, already knowing all the necessary background information about this person. Through discussion with other networkers, I will already know if he is honest, shady, caring, giving, thieving, or backstabbing. And with that, is lunch even needed.
With the rise of Skype and other video messengers, the personal meetings that used to take up time and effort are now being streamlined into a forum where I don’t even need to leave my house. Just last night I had a 3 way skype meeting where I was in my dorm room, one person was in Cranberry, and the third party was in China. Yes China. Without these geographical limitations, the efficiency, simplicity, and quantity of my business meetings are endless. The networking sites of the future will be the ones that can best link all these together.
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Tags: business, business meetings, LinkedIn, Networking, Skype, Social Networking, video chat
February 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I think there is something to be said for traditional face to face meetings. I would be careful about replacing them with internet communications. One thing that the internet does really well is giving people a facade to hide behind. On the internet, yo uca be whoever you want to be. Or at the very least, you can hide your flaws and exagerate your qualifications. It is hard to do this in person. It is hard to look someone in the eye, talk to them face to face, and convince them that you are something that you’re not.
Most importantly, i think it is very hard to judge someone’s character via the internet. This is a very important aspect to business relationships. You need to be able to trust your business partners/clients. I think this is where it pays to sit down to lunch with a business partner, look them in the eye, and really see what they’re all about. In short, I believe that face to face meetings are a vital step to building trust in a business relationship.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I agree with the comment above. I think that we need to be careful about removing an important element from every relationship, whether it be business or personal - in person interaction.
As dumb as this sounds, Brad Paisley’s song “Online” clearly outlines why we should be so wary of the internet… because it is too easy to put up a fake persona via the internet. How many people come to mind when you think about who you know that puts weight in the “right” facebook or myspace picture? And does their profile really do them justice…say who they are? I would argue that it does not.
Face to face interaction makes misinterpretations like that a lot harder. You are working and communicating “in the moment” - that makes it a lot harder for someone to plan how to impress someone - it requires them to prove that they can think on their feet, and they can be held much more accountable if your business relationship extends beyond cyberspace meetings.
Think about it, how much gets lost in the web? And how much junk is out there? Do you REALLY want to be relying solely on that?
Communication hits a lot harder when it is face to face, especially in the face of adversity. It is a reality in the business world that there are going to be problems that need to be addressed. Sometimes that will require calling people out on not doing their job, or breaking the terms of their contract. And what is more effective in that situation? Confronting someone in person, or sending them an email?
So basically… I concur.