Monday, January 30, 2012

In-Person Meetings a Great Tool for Building Strong Relationships

It is true that companies and enterprises need to implement stricter rules and tougher policies to cut down superfluous spending by any means. But it should never be at the cost of company’ profit margins. What looks like superfluous spending may turn to be the most significant means of expanding business. Therefore, it is highly necessary to crosscheck sufficiently the pros and cons before taking any decision of budget cuts.

In the corporate world, business travels are considered as unnecessary and needless expenditure. Many people in the corporate sector share this perspective, as they believe that with the technological advancements made in the communication field, face-to-face meetings are sheer waste of time, money and effort. Therefore, when the global economy crumpled almost all companies and organizations went forward with the decision of cutting budgets for business travel management in order to tide over financial crisis. Though such a move helped them to reduce business travel expenses it meant letting go of opportunities of business expansion.

Today everything from meetings, conferences to conventions is done virtually. It is definitely a great time and money saver but is it effective enough to erase face-to-face meetings completely? The answer is no.

The foundation of any successful business is the ability to create and sustain strong relationships. Without good business relationships, no business can hope to survive, let alone grow and expand. That is where face-to-face meetings come helpful. Its greatest advantage is the human elements ingrained in it. This makes it a great tool for building strong and robust relationships.

The essential ingredient for developing strong relationships is trust. And trust can be generated only through personal interaction. The eye contact, different postures, body language go a long way in assessing the trustworthiness. According to a study co-authored by Kevin Rockmann of George Mason University and Gregory Northcraft, a professor of executive leadership at the University of Illinois “High-tech communications like e-mail and videoconferencing have fewer cues like eye contact and posture for people to rely on — strip away the personal interaction needed to breed trust.

Technology has made us much more efficient but much less effective. Something is being gained, but something is being lost. The something gained is time, and the something lost is the quality of relationships. And quality of relationships matters."

Hence, instead of cutting down budgets, companies should implement effective travel expense management software to control expenses.

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