This was our second year at Breckenridge. The weather, snow, food, accommodations, and camaraderie were all “the best so far”. When we started doing this trip 5 years ago it was definitely as a reward for hard work and a chance to reflect and unwind from the day-to-day of being entrepreneurs. I think the reasoning has changed since then, at least for me. Now I think it is more about trust and social capital.
The week before our ski trip I was at the ISBM conference where Larry Prusak spoke. Larry is an amazing person, among many things he started the IBM Knowledge Institute, and has written a book with Don Cohen called “In Good Company”. During Larry’s presentation he talked about how knowledge in the world has become universally available…everyone has it. So much so, that just having knowledge is not a competitive advantage in business. The competitive weapons, the most valuable ones, of today come from insight and execution. A big part of achieving insight and execution is to have a team of people who trust one another and get stuff done. He calls it social capital. His explanations are far more eloquent.
As I have reflected, I think the real purpose of our trip is to invest in the ideas Larry talks about…trust and social capital. There is something about having all of us in one house, cooking, drinking and skiing together that builds trust in ways that is never accomplished in the office. I don’t think our team would be the same had we not started this trip 5 years ago. I don’t think we would be the same company and accomplished everything we have so far…which is plenty!
So for all of our customers, and our significant others who accuse us of Boom Daggle, I say not so fast!
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