I don’t really like networking in the traditional sense. Usually, it is based on events where you can supposedly meet useful people. Often these are evening meetings, where at the beginning someone tells something, and then the organizer provides an hour and a half for people to get acquainted and communicate.
The quality of information that you get from such presentations is usually low – very generalized, often advertising in nature, shallow (self) presentations, without a deep expert component. Deep analytics is usually not shown, since the speaker wants to leave it for a paid consultation, or believes that the audience as a whole is not ready to perceive it. Often, both motives take place.
Of course, there are exceptions – high-quality expert presentations without a pronounced commercial component from well-known industry specialists, people with proven experience and a list of successful (or not very successful, but well-known) projects.
After the speech, networking is expressed in people moving from group to group, introducing themselves, sometimes exchanging information about the business, a short “elevator pitch” (a short story about yourself and/or the project), but more often an exchange of general phrases, after which, at best, a name and some features are remembered, but often even just an image of a person.
In fact, such runs around groups of people with acquaintance with a dozen or more people in an hour and a half give very little, but require a significant expenditure of effort and energy – in my case, at least. As far as I know, many successful, established people, and therefore valuing their resources, avoid such group events precisely because of their uselessness.
A good alternative to such networking is selective acquaintance with people you are interested in through social networks, like LinkedIn, or acquaintances who can introduce you. Meeting for an hour to tell about yourself and listen about your interlocutor is the optimal expenditure of energy and a very valuable and irreplaceable resource – time, which you can sometimes allow yourself.
In the case of networking, I try to approach such things as capital investments – responsibly. You need to define your goals and imagine the tasks of the interlocutor, spend your and other people’s time in a targeted manner, responsibly work out the promises made at the meeting. If you promised to give someone’s contact or send information – be sure to return to your interlocutor.
By the way, some consider what they promise at networking meetings to be unnecessary, not realizing that in this way they have harmed themselves doubly – having lost the time invested in the meeting, and also having damaged their own reputation. The latter is also a practically non-renewable resource.
I lived and worked for a long time in several countries – the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates. Absolutely right, you have to take into account national and cultural characteristics. In Arab countries, they try to respond positively to everything, but this is rather because the culture does not welcome a straightforward refusal. In the Netherlands, it is just the opposite – Dutch culture implies a clear, even sometimes harsh answer, quick and honest feedback. In this regard, Russians and Dutch are very similar.
Accordingly, when communicating with different nationalities in business, I take into account the peculiarities of culture and business etiquette, I do not expect quick and straightforward feedback from Arabs, and even less action. In the case of Europeans, like the Dutch, immigrants from the countries of the former USSR, I tend to expect their characteristic relatively quick and open reaction, and, as a result, adherence to agreements.
To summarize, I will say that networking, if properly presented and in the right environment, is a healthy and even tasty dish. In this regard, I am definitely a supporter of signature cuisine, rather than a buffet based on the principle of “eat as much as you can and what they give you.” Meanwhile, this does not in any way diminish the merits and usefulness of individual, usually chamber, events with a high-quality composition of participants and speakers from organizers who know their business.
***
My book “The role of a CFO: Motivating people, managing assets and hedging risks”