Meetings. I’ll bet you have a lot of them. I do. Some days are packed from start to finish with nothing but meetings. And they’re important, for obvious reasons. But meetings can get us stuck in a loop. We’re talking to the same group of people and we can come to rely on them a little too much to generate ideas for how to move the business forward.
Now I’m sure your team is made up of capable, intelligent people who have helped your business overcome major market hurdles. But I bring this up because sometimes we can come to rely too much on our immediate circle. It means we don’t get out of the office and into the market to see things for ourselves and discover new ideas. It becomes a habitual loop, and I hope by recognizing it, we can step outside of it.
Now, I certainly understand the challenge. There’s a lot to do each day; fires to put out, meetings (obviously), etc. It can be tough to make time to leave the office and make new connections. But, if Harvard Business Review’s study reflects reality, not getting out and diversifying your network can create a sizable gap between you and those who are.
Looking at a sample of 1,212 S&P 1500 firm CEOs between 2000 and 2010, the study found that CEOs who were more diversely connected — gender, nationality, academic degrees, majors, professional expertise and global work experience — had an increased firm value equivalent to an $81 million increase in market capitalization for median-size firms in the sample. In dissecting why this might be the case, Harvard Business Review hypothesized that a diverse network gave CEOs access to diverse sets of knowledge, leading to novel ideas and a willingness to tackle innovative projects. Further, “Our findings suggest that the more diverse the social networks of the CEO are, the greater the growth opportunities are for the firm through exposure to different types of information and knowledge.”
Certainly one study shouldn’t inform your entire strategy. But, undoubtedly, the importance of getting out of the office and connecting with new people, talking with customers — potential and existing — and getting exposure to the state of the art through trade shows and talks will have a net positive effect on you and your business. For many of us, it’s just a matter of making the time. To borrow a quote from Tony Robbins, “If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. If you schedule it, it’s real.”
Fred Koury is President and CEO of Smart Business Network Inc.
