Chapter 38 Economies of Scale in Networks

Sometimes private enterprises tend to make the scale of the relationship very large, using the relationship for everything, and the result is tired and trapped by the relationship.For an enterprise, how big is the relationship network?This is a question that must be answered.As I said earlier, why do people have relationships?Chinese people pay attention to favor, face, and relationship. This is a historical and cultural tradition, and it is also the interpersonal relationship model of Chinese people. For a person, the role of guanxi in the process of starting a business, doing business, and developing has three functions: first, it is necessary for career development, and it is impossible to develop a career without guanxi.Second, the need for security.In case of emergency, you have a loyal friend to help you, speak for you, find someone to take care of something at home.Third, for emotional needs, there must be some emotional communication other than making money.

A friend of mine said: "Now I treat guests at home, not outside. Now I don't participate in business entertainment, and all I invite at home are friends who chat and eat whatever I want. I invite a chef to cook at home every day. 500 yuan a time, if you want to eat Yangzhou food today, you can hire a Yangzhou cook, and if you want to eat Beijing food tomorrow, you can invite a Beijing cook, cook four or five dishes, it’s very simple, and then we chat.” Obviously, there is no business relationship between them, but It is an emotional need, a need to confide, solve doubts, seek evidence, and develop wisdom.The more entrepreneurial a person is, the greater the pressure is, and the uncertain environment makes him have greater security needs and emotional needs than ordinary people. From this perspective, his desire for friends is also greater.

From the perspective of these three functions, private enterprises have different requirements for the strength and scope of the economic scale of interpersonal relationships.Such a pyramid phenomenon often occurs. If you need a higher level of relationship objects and greater power to develop your career, you will actually need fewer relationships; It must be supplemented by quantity.For example, recently we often see the relationship between corrupt officials and women disclosed in the anti-corruption materials of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. This is the most typical. The relationship between a high-ranking official and a woman is rarely known to ordinary people.For example, Song Pingshun, chairman of the Tianjin CPPCC, committed suicide. His mistress Xu Min was a casual acquaintance with other people in the officialdom; Song Pingshun was in charge of the entire political and legal affairs department and helped her become a billionaire.For Xu Min, the more important the relationship, the deeper the relationship. She only needs one Song Pingshun.

There is also a special story recently.A 40-year-old woman has successively corrupted seven particularly senior leading cadres, and she has earned hundreds of millions of yuan from a single piece of land.This woman is only active in a small area, with six or seven people helping her with errands.This kind of relationship is a bad relationship, but it can also be a good relationship; it is a good thing to help you and guide you according to the law, but it is a huge bad thing to seek personal gain.Generally speaking, the more important your relationship partner and the person who helps you is, the greater the power, and in fact you don’t need a lot of relationships; why do ordinary people have so many relationships?Because ordinary people are looking for people with limited power, and each person is in charge of something, so they need quantity, and they have to ask for everything, and they are asking for people.Relationship scale is inversely proportional to relationship strength and resource control ability, which is an important phenomenon in the development of private enterprises.When a person is fooling around outside every day, you should know that this person is actually not strong enough in every place.When the person doesn't flick, but mysteriously gets things done, you need to know that he must have a relationship somewhere, and that the relationship is strong enough.

Besides, it is better to dig one well than to dig ten holes.This has been discussed before, that is, in a unit, the more relationships there are, the weaker the effect.For example, there are ten directors in a unit, and you and the ten directors are very good, and no one will help you.Because there may be conflicts between them, if you go to one director, the other director may be upset, so they will pinch each other internally, and no one will help you in the end.But if you only have a good relationship with one or two of the ten directors, and the other eight or nine directors don’t know about it, the director will help you coordinate internally, and many things can be done, and Still calm.This approach is most effective in local units.It is an interesting law that the number, size and effect of relationships are inversely proportional.

Finally, when you meet your emotional and security needs, and combine some of your career development needs, the human relationship network probably follows the "10-30-60" rule.We have also discussed this point before. Therefore, in terms of the scale of your interpersonal network, you must carefully study the three numbers of 10, 30, and 60, maintain these three layers of relationships, and grasp the distribution of energy every day in your life to make your work more meaningful.Having a good interpersonal relationship can not only rely on the relationship, give others face, establish friendship, and obtain emotional comfort, but also can develop a career, not break the law and discipline, and make one's life normal and healthy. This is a very high state that requires good self-cultivation and self-management.Keep cleaning up your address book and understand the people who belong to the "10-30-60". Everyone will grow more and more naturally and healthily, so that work and life will become normal without falling into infinite weaving. In the trap of the relationship network, you will not fall into the trap of acquaintances, the trap of loyalty, the trap of corrupting cadres, the trap of favor and face, and finally become a slave to favor and face, and then destroy your career.Therefore, I think a smart person should have an objective understanding of guanxi, face, and human relations in Chinese culture, so as to ensure a healthier development of his business in the relational society.