Facebook or Face to Face? Or Both?
In the new age of social media as a means of communications is there still a need for face-to-face communications? Will Facebook replace face to face contact? I don’t believe it will in the world of business.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard professor and author of the new business book SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good recently posted a blog about travel and the need to do business face-to-face. She has coined a new term: MBFA – Management By Flying Around – a takeoff on the catch phrase “ Management By Walking Around” coined by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman business best seller of the 1980’s “In Search of Excellence”.
In her blog, Kanter says, “ Showing up is still the number one key to success. In a world where anyone can have superficial contact with anyone anytime, face-time is the new status symbol. You can watch it on YouTube, but being there gets the juices flowing.” Her blog defends the need to get in front of people. Interestingly, though, in defending the need to travel she states, “ So why undergo the torture of domestic flights where legs must fit under the seat in front or you or in the overhead bin? Why go at all? Because showing up in person still matters.”
When it comes to airline travel it seems to be an accepted truth that the trip will be torture. Most of us seem to agree that travel is needed to build business and commerce but dread the not so positive part of it – getting there.
Travel does not have to be torture. The journey itself can actually be fun, relaxing and productive. I am glad to be in the segment of the air travel industry that provides a friendlier solution. Are we more expensive than the airline solution? In some cases, yes, but not in all cases. Are we torture? Never.
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