Guest blog by Dennis Bridges, MBA
This week’s blog is about relationships, how important they are to business success, and how you can make them stronger. Take our latest X5 Maven event as an example. The X5 Mavens are a collection of trusted advisors and business leaders from the city of Edmonton that have and continue to support X5, and each other, with their experience and expertise. The event was held on October 10th and it was built entirely on relationships.
Jeff Polovick and the DRIVING FORCE hosted the event, and they were kind enough to provide us with the use of their showroom. Moreover, a number of their employees stayed after hours to lend a hand and offer guided tours of their operation to those who were interested. Jeff has been a long time friend of Mike Mack of X5 for some time, having met Mike through Rotary over 14 years ago, and we wanted to acknowledge them for being one of the 50 Best-Managed companies in Canada for the 6th year in a row. Without this relationship the event wouldn’t have taken place.
Celebrate diverse relationships.
There were 25 plus X5 Mavens in attendance from a wide range of industries, all of whom are connected to X5 through community involvement and/or a professional relationship. The diversity and character of these X5 Mavens are what made the room a great place to be, but it was a relationship that brought them together.
Doing business with people that you trust.
X5 Mavens, old and new, mingled for over two hours and as the evening progressed it came to our attention that new connections were being made. It is a lot easier to trust someone you don’t know, when you know that someone you already trust, trusts that someone…(That was a mouthful.) The day after the event we received a note from several X5 Mavens that a number of prospective meetings were set up with more than one person.
Help others first.
Although this evening was presented by X5 and it likely made people more aware of what we do, it wasn’t about X5. It was about relationships and connecting people. We truly believe that “Relationships are key to business success”, and to build strong relationships you must be willing to help others first, without expecting something in return.
What role do relationships play in your business? Are those relationships as strong as they can be?
