Relationships As Currency

There is an old saying that relationships are the currency to do deals.  It's amazing to see the number of professionals in the technology industry who do not have well developed professional networks, nor do they spend any time maintaining them.  In fact some consultants in tech purport to be experts in building alliances and relationships, and have very poor networks themselves.

I just read a fascinating article in the December 2005  Harvard Business Review  entitled How To Build Your Network, by Brian Uzzi and Shannon Dunlap  Some great points are made about the business benefits of a strong professional network; namely, access to skills, access to private information, and power.

For any deal maker wanting to get ahead in the tech sector, seems there is a very straightforward recipe for success with regards to building a network:

• Recognize the importance of your network - You've got to recognize the opportunity before you can do anything about it, right?
• Actively, and carefully, build your network - Quality trumps quantity.  A very small, but high quality network, is infinitely more powerful than thousands of casual relationships.  Building strong professional networks is not an exercise in email harvesting like minded charlatans.
• Work a reciprocal model - 'You get when you give'.  Building, and utilizing, relationships are about exchanges of value.  You can't ask a lot of those in your network if you don't provide as well.