There may be fewer
martinis, but the business lunch hasn't lost favor with executives
anxious to cut a deal.
At least that's the report from a survey commissioned by Robert
Half International, the employment agency. About 1,400 chief financial
officers from small, medium and large companies were queried.
The question was: “Other
than the office, what was the location of your most successful
business meeting ever?”
Forty-nine percent
said a restaurant, 9 percent said a golf course, and 7 percent
said a trade show or conference.
Quizzed about their
favored locales for cutting a business deal, some executives said
a meal goes far toward building relationships -- but the office
is where work gets done.
“I find typically that
things go much less productively in a restaurant setting,” said
Jeffrey Saunders, president of the family company that owns the
Lenox Hotel in Boston.
His preferred locale
for crunching numbers and doing deals: “Behind a closed door in
a meeting room with coffee and soft drinks, and maybe cookies
if it's during the afternoon.”
George Naddaff, the
entrepreneur who first spotted Boston Chicken as a franchising
candidate, says office settings provide the time for both sides
to explore details.
Lunches, he said, “are
too hit-and-run.”
While dinners aren't
Naddaff's choice for doing business, either, he favors them over
lunches for developing personal rapport. “I like to go to a place
where you can have a drink,” he said, “and most guys don't like
to drink at lunch.”
PERKS LURE WORKERS
What does it take to
make Fortune Magazine's list of “America's 100 Best Companies
to Work For?”
In a word? “Perks”
to entice “the best and brightest” to come to work for a company
-- and to stay.
Just to mention a few:
on-site day care (offered by 26 companies), concierge services
(29), domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples (47), and
fully paid sabbaticals (31).
IN THE CARDS
What do you do when
someone hands you a business card?
“The biggest mistake
you can make when you receive someone's business card is to glance
at it and slide it into a pocket,” says Sue Fox in the just-published
book, Business Etiquette for Dummies (Dummies Press, $19.95).
They recommend spending
a few seconds reading the card thoroughly -- perhaps repeating
the person's name aloud if you are not sure about the pronunciation.
Saying aloud the job title that is printed on the card can be
a useful conversational tool because you might then follow up
by asking about the duties associated with that job.
“Finally,”
Fox says, “express your gratitude for being given this information.”
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