Professional networks might save you - ask svb

Why you should prioritise getting to know your peers

Business schools will be teaching the lessons to be learned from the  Silicon Valley Bank debacle for decades to come.  Professors will reflect on the effectiveness of a sector specific bank , the dangers of not protecting against rising interest rates or the contagion of anxiety that spreads so fast in our new media landscape.

I, however, have been reflecting a lot on the power of business networks and how they are created and deployed. There is no better example of how important in a time of crisis they can be than examining the case of SVB UK.

 When the government announced last monday that HSBC was buying the SVB UK arm for £1 it became clear that the pace of its reaction to an impending crisis was due, in part, to brilliantly organized tech sector networks.

 As soon as the scale of what was happening in the US and its horrifying potential impact emerged, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, journalists, angel investors and tech bosses joined forces.  They immediately worked with the established tech facing groups such as COADEC, TechNation, London Tech Week and Founders Forum to help officials gather data to map the effect on companies, work through solutions and keep pressure on ministers.

A powerful digital-only group was quickly set up by Dan Murray Selter, an entrepreneur,  called “Save UK Tech”. About 100 concerned individuals and organizations worked together to share information and strategise on how to ensure stability for the businesses affected. Their big worry was that  the UK’s ability to innovate and compete globally would be curtailed if a cohort of companies were left stranded without cash. Industry coordination was essential. It was this rapid utilizing of the formal and informal networks in the sector that meant within the space of a weekend a deal could be done. No taxpayers’ money was used but the future of a huge swathe of start ups and scale ups was ensured.

These coalitions and their ability to organize are relatively new. It would have been unthinkable even fifteen years ago that the technology industry had as much structure or as many people fighting  for its corner.

When I started working on the periphery of technology in the early 1990s, there were hardly any organized networks. When we founded lastminute.com a few years later, there was one monthly shindig for would-be digital entrepreneurs - First Tuesday.  No prizes for guessing when it took place. It  was the only event you could go to meet like-minded lunatics and for the first few meetings there were only a handful attending. Now not only London, but the whole country is teeming with formal and informal networks. This step change has been remarkable. It has taken a great deal of careful work from dedicated people to build this muscle strength, and it has contributed immeasurably to the increasing success of the whole country’s digital growth.

It’s not only the out of nowhere, intense crises such as we have just seen, that are happening in the sector, there  are also the slow burning crises too. One of the biggest is the appalling lack of  diversity within the industry. And yet, here too networks are gaining momentum. I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with one recently at their annual conference. ‘Women in data’ was founded by Roisin McCarthy and was born out of her frustration a decade ago that there were not more specific networks for people like her. I was taken aback at the unbelievable energy and scale of what she has created. As I headed towards the O2 on a rainy Thursday morning, I did not expect to find nearly 3000 women and a wider network of nearly 30,000 more connected online. Never again will I be at a loss when asked for recommendations of female candidates to fill vacancies in data related roles. The change Roisin wants to see will not happen overnight but the power of what she is forging will have an impact - imagine if every one in her community encourages one other woman into the same career?

There are multiple demands on your time as a business leader, especially if you are running your own business. Making time for building relationships with your peers, industry groups and your wider sector can often slip down the priority list.

Yet,there are so many ways of engaging with business networks now that I defy you not to find one that works for you and more than that, gives you some more clout than you might feel on your own.

Given the intensity of last weekend’s events - particularly for young entrepreneurs and definitely for some Treasury staff, it is probably too soon for jokes. So instead I will spend the time I would have needed to think of one for this piece, to make sure I have answered yes to some LinkedIn invitations, signed up for some business events and scouted out some conferences.