20A- Growing Your Social Capital

1) Who they are and what their background is.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events? Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

• The first person I will be describing is a man by the name of Joel. Joel is an old friend of my fathers who was a lobbyist for many years, Joel would participate in backing political agendas in order to improve the idea which he was lobbying for. Joel would qualify as a supplier, since I would need the financial and political support from popular political candidates to make my proposed government subsidy a reality. I found Joel by contacting my father. I spoke to Joel briefly about the subject and the ways to properly go about lobbying, though that doesn’t sound up my alley. This person will improve my networking ability by

• The second person I spoke to is an older man was a former politician. Though he would rather be “unanimous,” Mr. Mayor is the former mayor of a city in North Miami, Florida. This is another friend of my fathers. I believe Mr. Mayor would qualify as a domain expert. This gave me the opportunity to discuss how government spending really happens. Mr. Mayor assured that this proposed idea would be great for the overwhelming majority of young people but would have a tough time being passed through congress and higher government. Though, he explained that the proposed idea would catapult the careers of many young professionals and could improve the overall success of college students.

• The third person I spoke to is a man who has worked as an accountant for 40 years. Bert has been a CPA for over 35+ years and has managed and accounted for the money of dozens of businesses for many years. Bert, the market expert, explained that in order to create this opportunity, there would need to be drastic budget cuts in order to subsidy college tuition under the current government spending budget. Bert explained that if a new government budget was proposed, this idea could become a reality. The government spending budget does account for many areas that help everyday life but creating this opportunity will allow the opportunity for many students to hit the ground running as young professionals but will take away from other areas. Finding the areas where spending should be cut would be essential for us, allowing us to exploit where money is going to waste and use it for the proposed subsidy.

My father and his friends have granted me the ability opportunity to talk to his friends about their business endeavors, which has expanded my network. The valuable experience I have learned while talking to these industry professionals has given me the knowledge and experience needed to help me succeed in the business world. This networking opportunity was different from many being that it was over the phone and geared towards a theoretical idea for this course. This has been a different experience from many networking experiences in the past, though I was able to gain real life valuable experience from speaking to these business world veterans.