The First Rule of Networking

About 20 years ago, business guru Ram Charan coauthored the book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done with former Honeywell CEO and longtime General Electric senior executive Larry Bossidy. The result was a great business book by two high-profile (dare I say famous), highly respected experts in their fields.

While the book itself is not the main topic of this column, it’s a great book, especially for its time. The key idea is that execution, i.e. getting things done in business and organizations, comes down to much more than tactics.  Rather, it comes down to discipline and having a system. The book goes on to espouse that oftentimes when business strategies fail, the failure is the result not of the strategy itself, but rather of the leader’s failure to execute on the strategy. Optimal execution relies on discipline and having a system to ensure it and organizations can only succeed if their leaders take responsibility for setting the strategy, picking the team and conducting operations. The authors then go deep on how to go about doing these. While not this column’s main topic, the book is a solid business read and sharing a bit about it is a necessary step in setting up the following.

Around that time the book was published co-author Charan accepted an invitation to speak to a business group of which I was a member. Having read his book and being amazed that he had accepted the invitation to speak to our group, I eagerly anticipated the event and showed up early. Here was my opportunity to hear first-hand from a leading business expert, one I respected and one whose book I had recently completed reading.

Preceding the luncheon and speech, to be attended by hundreds of people, a small exhibit area had been set up where insurance companies, M&A lawyers, private equity investment firms and the like were busy recruiting potential clients. 

As I entered the exhibit space I saw a man whose face looked familiar standing inside the front door. Who is that? I thought hard, as I tried to put a name with his face.  Had I met him at a prior group meeting? If so, I couldn’t place it.

I pondered for a few more minutes and then it hit me. That’s Ram Charan!  That’s the co-author of the book and the keynote speaker for today’s event.  Thoughts darted around my brain. It can’t be Ram Charan; he’s one of the most famous business experts in the country, he wouldn’t be standing there by himself. But it actually is him, what an opportunity to introduce myself to him! But if it’s not, I’m going to look really dumb introducing myself to a guy who I mistook for Charan. It’s not him, you idiot. If it was, then the hosts of the meeting would be walking him around the exhibit. If it was him, someone else would surely have recognized him by now and chatted him up. It doesn’t really even look like him. No, it’s definitely not him. I’m so stupid.

I walked about the exhibit, said hello to a few fellow organization members and passed time until the big event. I then found my way to my table, sat down and enjoyed lunch. Following the meal, the honored guest and speaker was introduced by the organization’s president. As the room erupted in applause the man who was standing inside the door when I arrived — the same man I had mentally talked myself out of introducing myself to — strode to the stage and began his speech. Of course, following the lunch he was swarmed by people who now knew who he was, hoping for a brief handshake so they could later brag that they had met someone of his stature; someone I could have walked right up to and talked with for 15 minutes had I not been afraid of embarrassing myself by misrecognizing the man for the renowned business author and counselor. 

What a missed opportunity! I could have met Charan, introduced myself and conducted a fascinating conversation with him. Perhaps I could have gotten lucky, hit it off with him, found some common interest and added a world-renowned business expert to my network. Instead, I’ve had to settle for this story on the importance of my first rule of networking.   

It was on that day that I made myself a promise. Never, ever miss an opportunity to build your network.

I have kept the promise from that day to this one, the lesson learned, and the promise made that day has paid its dividends. My professional network now includes the chairmen and CEOs of no less than a dozen Fortune 500 companies, high-ranking state and federal government officials, well-known college and university presidents and chancellors and other high-profile influencers in education, industry and public policy, all of whom will literally return my texts and emails inside of a day. I ascribe this success in network building to the lesson above and for two decades I have gone out of my way to connect with interesting people — high profile and otherwise — with every opportunity. 

In the world of finishing, our networks are our gold. Referrals to potential customers, employees, suppliers, acquisition opportunities, governmental leaders and educators all come through our networks. Connections off whom we can bounce ideas, problems and solutions all live inside our professional networks and we in theirs for the same reasons. The broader our network and more influential its members, the better the results. Never, ever, miss an opportunity to build your network.