Building the Case for the Relationship Networking Industry

By Adam J. Kovitz, CEO, Editor-in-Chief & King of Business NetWorking
Adam's Bio

It always amazes me when I hear folks saying that networking is only for small businesses or that “networking isn’t for everybody”. I’ve also talked with several consultants and trainers to Fortune 500 companies that specialize in networking – only their clients don’t like to use the word “networking” (it’s a four letter word to them) and prefer terms like “horizontal integration”. In the rapidly-changing business environment of social or business networking (personally, I prefer the term “relationship networking” as it’s all-encompassing) and Web 2.0, however, these attitudes are just “so 2006”. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

The Compelling Evidence

Consider the following:

1. From a recent article in Fortune Magazine, “The Trouble with MBAs”: “When Jack Welch gave a guest lecture at MIT's Sloan School of Management in 2005, someone in the crowd asked, ‘What should we be learning in business school?’ Welch's reply: ‘Just concentrate on networking. Everything else you need to know, you can learn on the job.’” Like him or hate him: when Jack talks, big business listens.
2. Time Magazine’s “2006 Person of the Year: You” is an acknowledgement to the internet as a populist movement and the power that we, as individuals, now wield over the worlds of politics, entertainment, etc.
3. Educational Institutions are developing curriculums for networking education like the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)’s Social Computing Lab which has recently received a $124,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a new course offering to 90 students for the upcoming Fall, 2007 semester.
4. High gas prices are causing more individuals and small businesses (which, according to the Small Business Administration accounts for 50% of U.S. private nonfarm gross domestic product) to rely upon the internet for online networking to do business, conduct meetings, etc.
5. Web 2.0, “new media” and mobile networking are gaining in popularity due to several factors:
   • TeleComms are investing more money into technology infrastructure this year (Sprint: $7 Billion, Verizon: $5 Billion) as well as being acquired (Alltel’s recent $24.8 billion acquisition by private investment firms)
   • On the wave of the infrastructure boom, larger social networks like MySpace and FaceBook continue to amass their followings while a flood of new start-up networks are vying for market share.
   • Generation Yers (or Millennials) embrace this new technology more readily than their counterparts from other generations and the oldest of them are now entering the workforce (see my article from last month: Networking with the Millenials: The End of the World as We Know It?)
6. Media giant Yahoo.com just recently hired two economics and sociology professors: Preston McAfee and Duncan Watts to head their research department and find opportunities in the areas of social networking and online markets.
7. According to an article in Canada’s The Chronicle Herald, social networking sites are beginning to overtake pornographic-related sites as the most popular web destinations.
8. The increasingly-accepted paradigm of “Markets are Conversations” (from The Cluetrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger is being supported by the fact that large corporations like U.S. Television Network NBC is planning a launch of their own social networking site.

The Challenges Ahead

This overwhelming data clearly demonstrates that relationship networking is indeed, an industry. According to Dictionary.com, industry is defined as “the aggregate of work, scholarship, and ancillary activity in a particular field, often named after its principal subject”. And while this information is quite exciting for a network-o-phile such as myself, who’s been following these trends for the past 3+ years, the reality of the current “snapshot” indicates that there is still a long way to go for universal acceptance and efficiency.

Some of the many obstacles that face the industry are:

1. There is not enough clear identification as to whom the stakeholders are
2. While the industry does exist, it is not yet formalized
3. There is no consensus amongst stakeholders as to what the definition of networking really means
4. Many of the stakeholders continue to plan in a “silo”-type world, ignorant of the rich opportunities offered by convergent technologies, strategic alliances and other collaborations
5. All business is valued upon financial capital. As Donald Trump’s rapid return from bankruptcy shows, he was able to leverage his own “relationship capital” to turn his situation around. What if relationship capital could be measured and related to financial capital? What are our economies missing without this key component? How might business change? Sadly again, there is no consensus or standards other than on a very small scale.
6. There is no consensus on the best ways to evaluate people for jobs when core competencies depend upon “people (relationship networking) skills”.
7. While a few enterprising networking gurus are offering certifications for relationship networking, they do not have the backing of all industry stakeholders or a neutral third-party governing body.
8. There are no consistent or standardized methodologies of insuring privacy, security and due diligence on a global scale. How do we know if the people with whom we network online are who they say they are?
9. There is no consistent or standardized curriculum for relationship networking education
10. As end-user networkers, the question we always have to ask is, “with so many networking opportunities out there, which are the ones that are the most worthwhile for me and/or my business?”
11. We do not yet know at what point can we tell whether or not our time spent networking is being invested or wasted.
12. The idea of convergence, while it appeals to many networkers, others fear the “Tower of Babel” syndrome. As humans, our own egos and pride can prevent such “true networking” to take place for any extended period of time. We would be forced to develop more collaborative systems on a scale that has never been seen to date that would be mindful of multi-cultural, cross gender and multi-generational issues.

The Solution

Despite the uphill battle of progress, we are seeing overwhelming evidence that there is a movement, albeit, a scattered one. Fortunately, there is a newly-forming, neutral third-party, non-profit organization that is looking to change this. I am happy to be associated with the Relationship Networking Industry Association (RNIA), which aims to make networking convergence a reality. This will be done by gathering consensus of seven major communities of stakeholders: corporations, entrepreneurs & investors, consultants & trainers, recruiting firms, member-based organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies. Through consensus, a common body of knowledge (CBOK) will be developed, from which the first standards will be introduced. From those standards, the RNIA will establish a certification process for acquiring minimum basic skills, ongoing education, technologists and educators. Expect to hear more about this new organization as companies like SoSsoon, eFirm and BNI are among the initial supporters. Every uphill battle can be fought one step at a time.

For more information about how you can support the RNIA, visit their website at www.RNIA.org.

Happy Networking!

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Building the Case for the Relationship Networking Industry