Why Networks are Important

Networks are important. You remember that Ron Burt says that personal capital is one of the three weapons entrepreneurs bring to the competitive arena. The other two being human capital and financial capital.

Networks contain the roadways over which information and opportunities get from person to person. Say there's a contract to be let at corporation A and your best buddy works there and gets you on the bidders' list for that company. You're going to get a request for proposal while your competitor who is not on the list isn't going to get one. They can't get here from there.

You know of a job at XYZ corporation and you have a connection that can get you the name of the hiring manager or, better yet, the president whereas the 10-11 people who might be qualified won't get in there.

Networks are important because markets are bumpy. There are roadblocks, crevasses, mountains, etc. that keeps information and opportunity from getting from point "A" to Point "B" easily. Networks are the bridges across the crevasses and around the mountains.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. And go read my mysteries, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders and No Stop on Red, both available at Amazon.com. You can read the first one for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.