The Heart of Your Business Is at Your Front Door

Ready or not, the world is opening back up:

• Restaurants in Germany have started to re-open;
• Mail can once more be sent to (and received from) India and the US; and
• International flights (e.g., Dubai) are slowly beginning to resume.

One week ago today was my first “outside” business meeting since working from home for the past two months, and it came with a surprise.

While we're selling touch-free / contactless solutions at UIB and are a driving force behind increasingly automated processes powering a more digital society, I realized that I missed these "in-person" interactions, being able to converse in the same room, sitting around the same table, formally (and fully!) dressed.

What stunned me though, is something that I paid attention to before the pandemic, but hadn't thought much about during the lockdown: the critical role that any type of concierge services - from receptionists, assistants, and secretaries play in our business lives.

In every company we visit, there is that one person who is the "good soul" of the business. The heart that makes the company a person, not a thing, or, a "process machine." They carry different titles but always know everything and everyone. Years later, I find that some remember the names of the people who they have welcomed into their premises even a decade ago.

If I were running an investment firm and wanted to know about someone’s character, or, whether I should invest in that person's venture, I would ask my receptionist:

• Did you like them? Were they friendly?
• Would you want to work with them?
• Would you trust them? And why?

As principals, we only get to know the people we meet, but the people working the front doors of our organizations meet everyone who walks in. They are mentalists, often don’t know it, and are far too often underpaid. If you’re re-thinking your real estate after the crisis, don’t spend the money on the office space, invest it instead in the pure gold sitting right at your entrance.

While there have been too many to mention - including the incredible staff in UIB's office at The Great Room - three people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting over the past decade were at the top of my mind as I wrote this:

• Jennifer, from PwC Auckland in New Zealand;
• The receptionists at NWS Holdings in Hong Kong; and
• Aly, from Sequoia in Singapore

Your humble, authentic, and warm professionalism created lasting memories for me and taught me at least one important lesson every time I visited. 

There are millions of others out there who do the same for people like me who are rushing from meeting to meeting. You're the calmness in our daily storms, even if we don't know each other. And when some semblance of normal returns, we should all pay more attention to what it is that you see.