I believe that friendship and business go together. Is this strange? Does the real “businessman or manager” have to be tough and emotionless? Never to mix business and friendship?
If yes, than I’m not the typical manager. I promote friendship throughout our company: with colleagues, with customers, with suppliers….Why? Because it is all” people business” and partnerships. And you have to want to go an extra step for somebody. This is important, because there will always be problems, always be little misunderstandings, things to be talked about and to be solved.
Last year I read the book “From good to great” by Jim Collins (www.jimcollins.com). A great book, I really loved it and it inspired me to make some changes in our company. But it also talks about how important people in general are in an organization and how they make a difference. About teamwork and yes, literally about friendship between management team members.
So call me romantic or emotional, I don’t care. Because I know that some of the best deals and things in my professional career came out of feeling, not out of figures. Take for example Jim Stelter. Jim owns and manages Stelterpartners (www.stelterpartners.com) and represents our brand in the US. He became a friend, and although sometimes we don’t talk for weeks, and we have our share of problems, we always manage to get the good things out of our relationship. And that makes it all worthwhile…..
