Alex’s Blog

Has networking really gone so far downhill? When I first got into it, Networking, or more importantly Business Networking, was all about people. When I’m asked to define Business Networking to those unfamiliar with the concept, I always say ‘it is about fostering a personal relationship with others in business, and continuing to build each relationship individually until a point where a business function is found’. Now that function can be anything from a referral to a partnership, it doesn’t matter, as long as that function is found.

So why has Networking become so generic these days, or more importantly, de-personalized. Can we be possibly missing the point even more?

Let me explain what I mean here. Over the past several years there has been a huge rise in a phenomena known as Online Networking. Many companies have established platforms for this, some successful, some not, some who like to think they are. Initially, this was fantastic, people posted an honest and detailed profile, linked to their company, got involved in business-based discussions and began getting to know each other. Then, unfortunately, Power Networking Began.

I’m not saying Power Networking itself as bad, but many seem to mis-apply it. Many sites tried to regulate this by governing how uses connected and how many connections one could have, wheras most didn’t give a rats arse. The bottom line is people began not to focus on connection with people and building manageable personal relationships but instead connected with everybody they could find then attempted to label themselves as ‘Professional Networkers’ or ‘America’s most Connected X’ . The problem here is no real relationship has been build, and this the connections themselves hold little value. I can tell you one thing right now, I’m happier to work with people who have a smaller network who they have relationships with than those with a huge networking with whom they know little. Social Networking sites themselves have become the new Yellow Pages. It is nothing but pages of Advertisements of people with no real value behind them.

The problem is, things did not stop here. The ‘How can I help you Era’ has begun, where it is not really about how I can help you, but how I can look nice enough that you use my products / services. I can guarantee you right now that half of these people would not respond to your e-mails or answer your telephone calls. This lead to where we are now, Bulk Mailing. Let’s face it, 9 out of 10 of these bulk mails are nothing more than a ‘Here’s what I do. You probably don’t know this because I have never bothered to and / or am too lazy to contact you’ mails. It is at the stage now where our connections with eachother is an automated process, all of our communication is automated and in bulk. Nothing real is being forged. There are no personal relationships.

I am the first to admit you can’t communicate with everybody you meet online, but you should damned well try! Nobody will have a 100% communication rate, but when this is dipping below 10% something is wrong. I see people advertising 4,000+ connections. Some of these people are entirely legit, wheras most are collecting for the sake of a numbers game, or as one person put it, ‘card collectors’. There is absolutely no point here, with no point to create a relationship or convert the connection. I’m sorry, but a few bulk mails with my name dynamically placed do not cut it at all.

There used to be a courtesy in place. If I asked to connect with you I should open a dialogue with you. I should not just be connecting with you ’so that we can become connected’. I’ll admit to being a LION, and when I joined I tried to send an e-mail and call each person who connected with me, until the 500^th person. The fact is, less than 50 responded to a personalized mail. Around half of these were generic e-mails sent back telling me what they do. No real attempts at dialogue, which is the first steps to finding where the synergies lie. Tell me, what is the advantage to these people being connected with me? Some will even request you to not mail them, this is of course after they have requested to become a connection of yours. To me that is a huge waste of time.

A smaller networking site I previously frequented has recently added the ability for users to bulk mail (spam) any contact they have made. This site is full of Power Networkers who push hard with a numbers game (the more contacts you have, the seemingly better you are, not taking into account the time you wasted bulk clicking the ‘add to contact’ list). The thing I used to like about this site previously was that eventually, if people wanted to communicate, they HAD to write something to you – they never had your e-mail. Now this does not even exist and I am constantly barraged with ‘Hi %name, Just keeping you in touch!’.

Please, spare me. Who is talking to who? Short of the ability to brag I doubt these people get any real value out of the process (bar one or two contacts along the way). They lose more than they gain. As far as I’m concerned, without that personal relationship built to the point of the business function being found, the relationship will be weak.

Well,

This blog is now up and running. The first post is below On a personal level, if we have not connected yet please use the contact page to get in touch. For those who already know me, be sure to keep the lines of communication running. I have added RSS to all feeds so if that is easier for you feel free to subscribe.
I’ll be using this blog for three main purposes:

1) Provide a commentary on philosophies and concepts / observations relating to business that I believe in

2) Extend my networking visibility and contacts

3) A simple way to keep those who know me in touch with my current going-ons.

I have just set up a Blogroll, so if you do blog be sure to contact me about a link exchange

‘If it is my mandate to come up with an idea that is out of the box, why would I bother listening to the opinions of those in the box?’ - Gene Simmons

Okay, I admit it. I used to watch ‘The Apprentice’. In fact, I was a huge fan of the first two seasons, that is until it departed from its core and became a flashy magazine advertising failing Trump Ventures (Don’t believe me? What ever happened to ‘Trump Ice’ (bottled water), Trump Ice Cream and a myriad of other companies). The other day I was browsing online and was surprised to learn that the show was still running, albeit with a new Celebrity Version. I was about to dismiss it as a last ditch effort for a struggling reality show but one name encouraged me to give the show another watch. Gene Simmons.

For those who don’t know the name, Gene Simmons is considered legendary in many, many circles. As a founding member of the best-selling American Rock Band KISS, Gene has gone on to sell over 100 million albums globally and, decades after the bands conception, continues to rank in the top 10 grossing tours worldwide. KISS has developed one of the most successful merchandising brands ever with these revenues easily being the peak of their business. They have managed to create a die-hard fan base who buy anything with the logo on it, from cups and figurines to coffins. Gene of course is credited with creating and operating this phenomena and has thus been dubbed my many a ‘Marketing Genius’. By lore alone I can not disagree here.

I would certainly suggest anybody watch the first three episodes of this season just to hear some of the Sensei-like words coming from this mans mouth. That is 10 blogs alone. One of his comments, although a concept that has been discussed in moderation before, struck me.

The task at hand was to create a ‘Marketing Center’ for Kodak (aka a bus they can park on the side of the street and try to flog some cheap imports before they go completely bust). Having dominated the previous few tasks, Gene was once again the teams leader. Kodak, the ‘client’, wanted an out of the box idea to help re-create the companies market positioning. Ironically, they wanted this out of the box idea to promote a product line and concept solidly in the box (printers with cheap ink). Beats me. And we all know what happens when you begin to compete on price!

Genes take on this was that Kodak’s ideas were hardly out of the box, and that if they wanted something out of the box he would not meet with the company executives and hear what is in the box. I have to agree here. Could the reason that we see so little original thought these days is because we look at and learn about everybody else’s ideas first? By the time we get up to thinking up our own ideas our minds have been solidly polluted with the norms, dos and don’ts. It’s a hard cycle to escape.

From elementary school we are taught fundamental ethics. By High School, depending on where we begin to specialize, we learn about concepts that succeed and concepts that do not. By University we have become accustomed to this conveyer belt and accept knowledge and these teaching as the gospel. Especially in business, we are taught about theories which we are to follow in our field of practice, what is correct, what is improper and what could never work. The basic programming is burned into our brain. By graduation, a majority of students accept a job in a modern factory (a small, over-worked office with long hours) and put in their 15 years, earn a good salary, save well and work towards their pension. It’s often not until the mid-life crisis that many begin to toy with the idea of starting their own business with their money, and moreso, ‘experience’.

Of course, with 15+ years of further programming dos, don’t and concepts we are rarely seeing any unique thought by this time. Quite often the big changes in a new business are barely original (ie, changed method of distribution, different corporate structure). While they act to increase revenues, decrease expenses and thus increase profits, we are not seeing many try anything radical, new, or retrying something that has previously failed. It’s not safe!

What happened to the previous revolutions, where above all else executives trusted their guts? If I told you 20 years ago that in China alone consumers would spend an odd 355 billion* dollars on sending small communications to each other, which can be achieved totally free via face to face meetings or even e-mail, would you have believed me? Today, text messaging (SMS) is quite common and still increasing in popularity. While not the best example, before telecom companies existed, few would have come up with such a idea, and no contextually contemporary theories or concepts could have achieved this pattern of thought. The academics are not busy coming up with new theories, they are too busy catching up. Hundreds of people more than likely over-looked this idea before somebody tried something out of the norm.

While harbouring much higher risk, it is often these scarce original ideas that can be the most successful, until the status quo executive replicates the idea but makes it purple instead of pink. Within a year, academics have written many papers on the subject, boards have been briefed countless times and we have all adjusted to the idea. Instead of trying to take the lead by coming up with more ideas most will sit back and replicate (though this thought more than likely stems from my opinion that most people these days are afraid to lead).

I am positive we are not at the stage in our evolution where there are no more unique ideas. I think for those who understand its fear, but for most, it is something that they can’t comprehend at no fault of their own. As people, we do become conditioned and adjusted to certain parameters, and it becomes very hard to not only break these, but realize that we can extend ourselves past these parameters. This of course does not apply to just business, but science, medicine, politics, psychology and nearly anything else you can name. Most of our best scientific discoveries were not made by tests and applying concepts, but by accident. I think this traces back to the quote at the top of this entry, how are we possibly going to come up with ideas out of the box when we are so conditioned to the comfortable box we are used to? Your guess is as good as mine,

Those who know me know I have not only run several business’s of my own previously but have worked with many more. I’ll be honest, the first few ventures I ran I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I doubt I even knew that tax was. The Web Hosting venture (my very first) would have been seen as a complete disaster in the eyes of just about every executive. When I started it I had $200 to my name (enough for a months rent), was 13 years of age, barely knew how to browse the web, let alone how to run a server and had limited business knowledge. I took limited guidance and only sought information when I got really stuck. Yet, by doing what came naturally and more importantly building relationships, the company quickly grew to the point where I could put techs on the payroll and ensure stability while continuing to brainstorm up ideas. It wasn’t until 8 months into this business that I even looked at the competition to see what they were doing, how big they were and how they marketed themselves. I actually found several of them discussing my company on message boards, and quickly discovered that it was an incredibly saturated industry (where I had never had a problem with signups). I also discovered that I was out-performing most of my competitors. By now I was already expanding this company diagonally (not traditional horizontal or vertical expansion, as at the time there was no logical link between the different aspects). By the time I sold the company I earned quite a nice profit and had many people replicating the tactics I initially pulled out of my arse (for lack of better phrasing). I also credit this venture for teaching my instinct and me most of what I know and practice today.

By the time I ran my second venture I had become much more schooled in business practice. I spent a lot of time brushing up, learning basic terminologies, the basic laws, basic paperwork and the works. I also ensured that I had thorougly researched common tactics and the competition before I moved in. I was suddenly in the box. The venture was still profitable, but had nowhere near the spark, barely left a mark and did not provide such returns.

Now when I conduct business I do my best to de-educate myself on the industry. Bar basic business principles and my own opinions / experiences, I learn only the basic framework. I will typically have no idea what the competitors do. Those that know me often quickly recognize my confidence, and when presented with a problem, I sit down, think, and come up with my own, unique solution. At times I will run this by industry consultants to see how it compares to the norm (moreso in technical fields ie Manufacturing), but often find these ideas to be more suited. I often find great pleasure in toying with new partners, explaining how little I know about our new venture and watching the look of horror cross their faces. However, they quickly realizing I am just having a bit of fun and we get down to it, I work off my instinct, and it would be nice if more people gave it a go! If you have common sense, a semi sharp mind, basic sales ability and a small understanding of human nature you would be shocked at what you can think up.

The next time you want an out of the box idea, just remember, don’t draw on existing concepts, excluding the bare bones,don’t listen to industry consultants and other people of note and most importantly don’t follow the competition, do your best to come up with something unique and let them chase you. To come up with something out of the box, you really need to escape the box, and it seems so many people fail to understand what the box is. Next time you come up with a new, whacky idea, don’t dismiss it, pull out a piece of paper and spend 5 minutes thinking about it.

And in the words of Gene Simmons himself, the Client is wrong, they don’t want change, they want the appearance of change.

*China sent an estimated 592 billion text messages during 2007. Calculated at a standard rate of 50c per text message.