Networking

"Networking". It’s a term used more and more in business today and frequently confuses those who come across it. What does it mean?

When I tell people that I run a business networking organisation, they seem to think that I know everything about computers and IT. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth – I wouldn’t know a megabyte from a dog bite…if it bit me!

But maybe there is a reason that the same term is used so commonly in two seemingly disparate fields. Perhaps computers and people have more in common than we think.

When a computer works alone, utilizing the software installed on it and the information that is entered into its memory, there are limits to what it can achieve. To increase the potential of our computers, we network them. Initially we link them to other devices, such as printers, scanners and CD-Writers and then to other computers.

As computers are networked they start to share information and share resources. By doing this they become more powerful and can achieve a great deal more for us. Now we can even share information across the World Wide Web, allowing our computer to do more for us than they’ve ever been able to do before.

Are people really any different? Working on our own, in isolation, we are restricted by our own skills, our own abilities and our own knowledge. By networking, by sharing our resources with others, we can add to our capabilities and deliver so much more.

Many people view networking meetings as an opportunity to sell their products or services, yet there is so much more to be gained by learning from others’ experiences, sharing our knowledge and building the relationships that lead to productive business relationships and referrals in the long-term.

Networking is about sharing information and sharing resources to the benefit of all around us. And, for a computer or for a human being, networking helps us to achieve so much more.