What Makes Business Go? People before Technology
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend the day (and night) watching four Pac-10 men’s basketball games at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. With March Madness now in full swing, sports talk is all about Bubble teams, selection Sunday and who will wind up in the NIT.
I usually spend Friday’s talking about technology, so here is the connection. My time watching college basketball was connected with meetings tied to leaders from both Yahoo and Google.
I was able to share ideas, brainstorm and learn from some very smart people in the last 24 hours. There are many theories out there on how to improve business — optimize, test, how to best use search marketing — all of it very important the important.
I had met nearly a dozen new business people and by the time the basketball stopped bouncing and one thing was still very clear to me. Business is still about people and relationships. When you build good solid business relationships and friendships, the barriers to advancing business vanish quicker than a fast new iphone app.
People matter. Relationships are important. Remember to invest in them as much as we all are investing in the technology that continues to change our lives.
A couple of brief observations regarding the basketball games yesterday
- It did not look like the University of Arizona wanted to win the game as much as Arizona State. It is all about the passion. Ast had it. U of A did not.
- The University of Washington and Stanford could not buy a basket in the first half. I think the score was tied in the 20’s with less than four minutes to play in the first half. The Huskies were lucky to escape with a win.
- CAL coach Mike Montgomery must have said something that worked as the Bears almost came back to beat USC in what was the best game of the night.
- UCLA looked sharp and hungry in the first half vs. Washington State.
- Was a bit puzzled that the Pac-10 did not do more promotions during the four games. I only saw one halftime event during the entire presentation.
