A VC in Vacationland

Many start ups, concerned about their investors and product delivery dates to customers, often neglect the social aspects of business culture.  Socialization is an important part of any business, and those that do it well are often the most successful in the market. Socialization also has two different, but interrelated aspects: externally with vendors, investors and customers and inside the company with your team.

The old adage about deals being consummated on the golf course, or in the case of my son’s "new age" consulting company, the paintball battlefield, is still very true.  People want and expect the intermingling of social and business activities in order to better know their business partners.  I am not speaking about the glad-handing sales guy who constantly calls you to take you out to lunch, blathers incessantly about how great his products are, and puts the hard sell on you before the check arrives. Rather, I am referring to participation in carefully arranged events where you can spend time learning about the lives of others in social settings. These are valuable ways to form a stronger bond between you, your customers, your Board and your investors. 

Similarly, developing and then respecting the right social culture inside your own company is also a key factor behind successful growth.  Most of the CEO’s in my investment portfolio used to work for me at Accenture.  Accenture was on a very fast growth track in the 1990’s and we were often hiring one or two new employees into supply chain consulting per week.  Integrating these people into the team was a major task of my managers.  We all spent many lunches and dinners together discussing how to integrate new consultants, better serve our clients, run the practice or just talking about families, sports or the world in general.  We held team dinners, did team days off site to build skills and just get to know everyone better.  We met after work at local watering holes to recap the day’s events.  Socialization as a mentoring tool was a big deal at Accenture and helped account for much of our successful growth over time.

Here are a few things to consider about being social in business settings:

1. Neglecting the socialization factor in developing your company’s culture can be a big mistake, leading to higher attrition, less dedicated employees and perhaps even fewer customers, if they think that you do not care about them as people. 
2. Having a unique culture people can relate to is also important.  My son’s company, Control Group, like many others I suspect, has a Blackberry culture.  A significant amount of business is conducted via the thumb club, but the Blackberry is also used to get staff to come down to whatever bar the partners may be hanging around in after work.
3. Customers and investors also want to be part of the company’s culture, albeit for different reasons.  Invite your Board and investors to company events, including annual customer meetings. Ask them to participate in client dinners so that potential customers can see the experts you have chosen to work with you.  Most importantly, go to lunch or dinner with members of your board or your investors often, so that you better know and trust each other.