If you're a regular reader of this column, you've
learned a lot about networking, word-of-mouth marketing and social
capital. However, it might surprise you to learn that as a college
professor, I'd tell you that you've actually received a
better education on these subjects than what you would have
received at most universities or colleges around the world. As hard
as that is to believe, it's true.
How do I know this? Well, besides knowing many college
professors and having taught in two business schools myself,
I've confirmed it by asking thousands of entrepreneurs about
the subject.
I recently surveyed more than 1,400 businesspeople, and 88
percent of the respondents said they never had any college course
that even covered the topic of networking! I'm not talking
about an entire course on the subject (they are almost
nonexistent); I'm talking about any course that simply
covered the topic in school. Yet, based on another survey of more
than 2,500 businesspeople worldwide, 75 percent said they got most
of their business through networking!
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Networking, which can help you build word-of-mouth marketing, is
one of the most important ways for entrepreneurs to grow their
businesses, yet we don't teach it in colleges or universities
around the world. Despite that fact, according to a third survey of
business professionals that I've conducted, 82 percent of all
businesspeople belong to some type of networking group!
OK, so let's recap: The overwhelming majority of
entrepreneurs from these surveys belong to some type of networking
group and get a major portion of their business through networking,
yet only a fraction have ever had any course that even mentioned
the subject of networking (forget about a full-blown class on the
subject). What's wrong with this picture?
We give people bachelor's degrees in marketing, business and
even entrepreneurship, but we teach them hardly anything about the
one subject that virtually every entrepreneur says is critically
important to their business-networking and social capital.
I currently teach at a university in Southern California. For
more than 15 years, I've been unable to get the business school
to even consider a course on this subject. (Ironically, the school
of psychology is willing to have me teach it, but not the school of
business.)
Why don't business schools teach this subject? I think
it's because most business schools are made up of professors
who've never owned a business in their life. Almost everything
they've learned about running a business they've learned
from books and consulting. Well, I've read a fair number of
books, I was a consultant for many years, and I've run my own
business for more than two decades. I can tell you firsthand that
if you haven't actually owned a business, you have a handicap
in teaching a course involving entrepreneurship.
Can you imagine a law course taught by someone who's not an
attorney, or an accounting course taught by anyone without direct
accounting experience? Yet we put business professors in colleges
to teach courses related to marketing and entrepreneurship with
little or no firsthand experience in the field. Is it any wonder
then that a subject that's so critically important to
businesspeople would be so completely missed by business schools?
Of course not. Networking and social capital courses aren't
taught in business schools because most business professors
aren't practitioners. They don't really understand the
importance of this subject for entrepreneurs.
Granted, there was little written in the field of networking and
social capital 20 years ago (do a literature search-you'll
see), but that's not the case today. There are hundreds of
articles and many books on various facets of the area. A thorough
bibliography of many of these articles and books can be found in
the back of the revised edition of The World's Best Known Marketing
Secret (Bard Press). Networking is a field that's
finally being codified and structured.
Business schools worldwide need to wake up and start teaching
this curriculum. Schools, like any large institution, are
bureaucracies, so it's unlikely to happen quickly; however, for
those schools with vision, foresight and the ability to act swiftly
(sort of the way business professors claim that
"businesses" should act), they'll be positioning
themselves as leaders in education by truly understanding and
responding to the needs of today's businesses. These schools
will be on the cutting edge of business education so as to better
serve their students while positioning themselves as a leading
institution for entrepreneurs.
Word-of-mouth marketing works. Social capital is critically
important. And networking is the mechanism to develop both. As more
universities and colleges open their doors to professors who want
to include this strategy with their marketing instruction,
we're going to see a major shift in the business landscape.
We'll see emerging entrepreneurs who will be equipped with
another strategy for success in business. We'll see networking
utilized at its fullest capacity, and we'll see business
schools actually teaching a subject that the business practitioner
says is important.
What a thought. Oh well, it's good to have goals.
By the way, there is at least one school that has a regular,
core-curriculum, college course on the subject of networking and
social capital: the University of Michigan. Wayne Baker, co-owner
of Humax Corp. in Ann Arbor, Michigan, teaches the course. Well
done, Wayne.
On a final note, if you think a course on this subject is a good
idea, e-mail this article to the department chair of any business
school you may know. If I'm lucky, the school where I teach may
finally be interested-or if I'm not, I may need to find another
teaching position.
Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author and
the founder and CEO of BNI, the world's largest referral organization
with over 3,300 chapters in 18 countries around the world. His new
book, Masters of Success can be viewed at www.MastersofSuccess.biz. Dr. Misner teaches business
at a Southern California University (at least until this article is
published) and can be reached at misner@bni.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are
those of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are
intended to be general in nature, without regard to specific
geographical areas or circumstances, and should only be relied upon
after consulting an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.