When over 80 companies from different industries meet regularly throughout the year, something happens that is difficult to capture in a participant list or an activity program. Relationships begin to move beyond the meetings themselves, introductions lead to new contacts and people open doors to networks that would otherwise have been difficult to reach. That is perhaps the biggest lesson we have taken with us from Vasatorp Business Club.

Briefly summarized

After hundreds of meetings between companies at Vasatorp, we have become increasingly convinced that the value of a business network does not only lie in the people you meet. At least as important is what happens when the relationships begin to live on outside the organized meetings. A contact can lead to an introduction, which leads to another relationship and perhaps eventually to a business that would never have arisen if the first two people had not happened to meet. This also makes the value of the network significantly greater than the number of companies on the membership list.

When we talk about business networks, the focus easily falls on which companies are involved. Are there potential customers in the room? Is there anyone from the industry we want to reach? How many of the participants could buy what we are selling? These are understandable questions, especially for those who have to decide whether a network is worth both the time and investment, but after gathering over 80 companies in Vasatorp Business Club, we believe that they only capture a small part of what actually happens when people get to know each other over time.

Because a person you meet in the network rarely represents just their own company. Behind that person are former colleagues, customers, suppliers, friends, industry contacts and other relationships that have been built up over many years. When the trust between two people becomes strong enough, those networks sometimes start to connect, often without anyone planning it from the start.

That's where something interesting happens. A network of over 80 companies suddenly doesn't just consist of over 80 companies.

The real network is bigger than the room

One of the clearest things we’ve seen is that a valuable contact doesn’t have to be a potential customer. It could just as easily be the person who, a few months later, says, “You should talk to someone I know,” and makes an introduction to someone you would never have reached on your own.

It also changes the way we think about who is “relevant” at a networking event. If we only look for people who can buy what we are selling here and now, we risk missing out on a lot of value. The person who will never need your service may well know five people who do, and perhaps most importantly, have the trust that makes a recommendation actually mean something once it is given.

We have seen how connections continue long after a meeting at Vasatorp is over. Someone sends an email and connects two people who should know each other. A conversation over breakfast leads to a meeting in town a few weeks later. A company needs help with something that is not even related to the business of the person they first met, but that person happens to know just the right person and opens the door.

This is something that is rarely seen when you count participants or try to sum up how many direct deals an individual networking event generated. Yet it is often precisely where the long-term value of the network lies.

Much of the value arises when we are no longer involved

It may sound contradictory, but one of the things we are most proud of is when relationships no longer need Vasatorp to continue.

The organized meetings create the conditions. They allow people to meet several times, have time to get to know each other and gradually build an understanding of what skills, experiences and contact areas are available in the network. But when it works really well, things start to happen even between meetings. Members book their own meetings, recommend each other further, bring someone into a new context or call to ask a question that came up long after the coffee cups have been put away.

Then the network began to take on a life of its own.

It also means that value becomes difficult to control in detail. We can create meeting places, think carefully about which people should have the chance to talk to each other, and try to build a context where it feels natural to make contact. However, we can never plan exactly which relationship will be most important to a company or when it will show its value.

Some partnerships emerge quickly. Other relationships develop over several years before there is any concrete deal to talk about. In some cases, a deal never happens between the two people who first met, but the meeting leads to something completely different that turns out to be at least as valuable.

This is a pretty important distinction, as a business network is otherwise easily judged by the same logic as a marketing campaign. You invest a sum, participate in an activity, and then want to know what it gave in return. The problem is that relationships don't always follow such a straight path.

A strong network is built on more than direct business

Of course, this does not mean that business is unimportant. Vasatorp Business Club is a business network and there should be a clear business value in being part of it. But we believe that it would be far too narrow if the value was only measured by how many members buy from each other.

A strong network should also be able to provide better contacts, new perspectives, recommendations, knowledge and paths into contexts that the company would not otherwise have had access to. Sometimes it leads to a new customer. Sometimes to a supplier, a partner or someone who can solve a problem. Sometimes the value is simply having people around you who understand business and who you can call when you need a different perspective.

After bringing together over 80 companies, we therefore believe less and less in the idea of ​​networks as a place where companies should sell to each other, and more in networks as a place where people should be able to help each other further.

It's a small difference in wording, but a pretty big difference in practice. If everyone walks into a room looking for their next client, the opportunities are limited to the people who happen to be there that day. If people instead get to know each other well enough to understand who they can help, recommend, or introduce, suddenly a lot more doors open.

And perhaps that's the most important lesson of all. When you bring together over 80 companies in the same network, it's not the number of companies per se that creates value. It's all the relationships that can arise between them, and all the relationships that exist on the other side of them.

About Vasatorp Business Club

Vasatorp Business Club brings together over 80 companies from different industries that meet regularly throughout the year, both with and without golf. Our ambition is to create a context where people have the opportunity to really get to know each other and where the value does not stop at the contacts in the room, but can continue through recommendations, introductions and new relationships far beyond Vasatorp.