Business Networking

Last week hubby has a meeting appointment at 6pm about a future project. His meeting is short. By 7pm he's making his way home so we can have dinner together. He later showed me all the name cards of his new business contact and said it would be good if I could make similar contact for my future training. I have no doubt about that but let me tell you what I noticed from the name cards and the meeting.

- They are all men.

Good! I don't fancy hubby seeing any women after business hour even in the name of future project. But wait a minute.... hubby's not going to be very happy if I meet all those men after business hour in the name of networking either. Office visit during working hours is tolerable.

- They are in a position that would be a good contact for me.

Nevertheless, I don't like using hubby's name for my projects. People may do it all the time but I'd like it to be due to my professional capacity and if later they found out they knew hubby, that would be a different matter. Sometimes I wonder whether that's ego or professionalism. Most Asian conglomerates do that i.e. through known contacts. By Asian conglomerates, I didn't include political cronies of course.

Just look at how the Chinese do business. They help each other and depend on each other. "You got no supply, borrow mine first... I'll replace them later.... My brother is providing that kind of service... My relatives can do that.... I know someone who can do that too...." That way all their businesses grow.

We Malaysian are either too blatantly unashamed of being called a crony or too ashamed of being called one.

Hey! back to the issue of position, where's all the women in that position that would be a good contact for me? I thought we have more women in the university, in the work place and in high position!

- They meet after work.

How nice. That way the atmosphere is more relaxed and the meeting could be attendend by more people at a neutral place like at the Mamak's, Kopitiam or cafe. Errr... I think most female colleagues I know will be rushing home after work to fetch their children at the day care no matter what their position.

Probably there are women out there who networked the way the men networked, but I haven't met them. I know there are many women who work way beyond office hours and leaving the household tasks to maids, but working is not the same as networking. If this is the way men and women do their business, how can we women create a good network? Should we follow the men's way or should we create a unique networking way to adapt to the women's way? If so, how? I think this a big question that can become a business PhD topic :)

Having said that, it will be a loooonnnggg way before I can write my PhD papers so I still have to find business contacts either the men's way or women's way. As I'm writing this entry, it occur to me probably I'm making the wrong contact all these while. They are the right contacts actually, but not right for me. Things are not happening the way I want them to be. So if what we do didn't give us the outcome we want, it's time to do things differently. I'm off to digest this information and figure out how to get the outcome I want. It's not like I have not been doing it already but now with a different approach :)

Site to explore:
1. Business Network International Malaysia
2. National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia (NAWEM)