It's day three of my internship at Cannings Purple and
my first 'field trip'. By 'field trip' I mean it's my first time going out to a
client meeting. My expectations are that of a typical movie scene with a large
boardroom filled with twenty odd businessmen, all in suits, critically debating
issues with a stern and straight to the point tone.
What I find however is rather different. Yes, there is
a giant boardroom, and yes it's on the 38th floor overlooking the Swan River,
but there are only my two supervisors, two people representing the client, and
myself present. The atmosphere is relaxed and the first twenty minutes is
spent making small talk. It's only after this that conversation concerning the
actual job at hand is spoken about.
Finding this rather different I commented to my
supervisor that I expected it to have a ‘strictly business’ vibe. She explained
to me how just like in a retail setting, it's important to establish a
relationship with the client that's more then 'just' business, in order to
create strong rapport and long-term positive bonds. She went on to say that the
clients you share a more personal bond with are the ones who go the extra mile
for you when it’s needed.
This got me thinking. It's such a simple and
straightforward concept, why hadn't this occurred to me before? Why did I have
such a stern view of a business meeting? Was my view old-fashioned and outdated?
After pondering on this for a while I decided that
business is in fact becoming more relaxed and personalised due to stakeholder
theory. Note I don't mean that the professionalism is taken out, just the way
in which the business is conducted. Focus is now on building personal
bonds as well as business bonds to enhance value for the client on personal and
business platforms. At the end of the day the more value you give your
stakeholders the more they'll return to you.
I started
to then explore this idea on other big companies like Virgin and Apple, both,
which have these relaxed corporate cultures, that emphasis personal expression.
Apple goes as far as having their corporate teams wear casual clothing to work,
to maintain individuality and creativity amoung their workers. Imagine a
business meeting were the managers are wearing t-shirts.
The way
of business is changing, adapting to a more individualistic and casual
approach. It’s no longer ‘just’ business. To prove Milton Friedman wrong
business is no longer just the business of business.
1 comment:
I've found this with my internship too- as a lot of communicating is done through email, it's great to see positive relationships built in person. I really enjoy meeting new clients through my internship, as they all value my colleagues and their PR skills. After meeting a journalist I also realised that general conversation in the first ten minutes made the job run smoothly and easily. I'm really enjoying working in an environment where it's so easy to communicate!
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