Adrie's Blog

A Different kind of Underground in London

Networking and connecting is something I have throughout my life as an entrepreneur. Since 5 years, I do it very consciously - as author of a book on the topic and co-founder of E.Factor. Prior to that time I was always networking too - but it was more a subconscious effort since it wasn't really called networking then and people weren't actively doing it so much. Your "networks" were those cliques you found of people that had studied at the same university, or were member of the same golf club, or had the same "class" as the rest in there group...


Nowadays networking has globally been raised to a serious profession and is available to all. People realise that you have to know people, or at least have met them, in order to do business, find a job or get something (un)done. A mere 10 years ago, it was regarded as being "cheap" if you were working hard to make the right connections, these days it is the norm. And with it comes the awareness that you have to start young - because it is so much simpler to get to know people at an early stage in their careers then it will be later on.

I spent most of this past week in London, meeting people that can play a significant role in the further development of E.Factor. The London Underground is a famous system, but this week I have seen another kind of underground network in action - the network of entrepreneurs in London is quite phenomenal. There is a finely honed network of events all over London aimed at Entrepreneurs that everyone seems to enthusiastically participate in - e.f. Opensoho, Glasshouse and many more.

I also spoke again to our strategic partner in London, Simeon, who - whilst still a student at one of the prestigious universities - has managed to build an amazing network throughout the world at large universities in the UK, US and China, at the UN and the Government of China, and who has access to all these contacts in order to realise his ambitions and passion with regards to Sustainability. Simeon is definitely a shining example on how you can use contacts to achieve your goals.

I have always been an advocate of staring networking young, and building your contacts as early on as possible as at that time everyone is still equal and no hidden agendas exist. I have also noticed though that if you do network widely - you have to be organised exceedingly well to maintain all those contacts, or else you will have done all the hard work for nothing. So start broad, organise it well but retain a level of selectiveness in order to ensure quality.

As an example, I have now created a Group on E.Factor for readers of my restaurant blog so that we can easily exchange information, I can invite them to events (and v.v.!) and we can share ideas and pictures etc. A great way of communicating with a like minded group of people.

For business, it is absolutely essential that you meet at some point. Social Networks are great for gathering info, background on people you want to get in touch with and set up a first connection. And equally to keep in touch once you have actually met - but they are not social if you never meet your other party in real life.

Stay critical about those you connect with - networking should always be about quality and not quantity!