It's Who You Know

Networking has been around since that first enterprising club-maker scratched his name on a piece of bark, stuck it on his freshly pressed wooly mammoth shirt and showed up at the Cave-Dwellers-After-Five cocktail hour. Whatever the time or culture, the principle has been the same: It's not what you know, but whom you know, and the right connection can benefit you both.

Must one be born to a scion of industry or have a letter of introduction from the governor to meet the right people? To find out, Gulfshore Business picked the brains of five successful area businesspeople.

Make Sure They Remember You

Keith Trowbridge, 65, is president and CEO of Executive Quest Inc., a top-tier executive search firm based in Fort Myers for the resort, hospitality and timeshare industry. As founder and CEO of Captran Resorts International, he is recognized as a pioneer of the timeshare concept.

"Aristotle Onassis said he gave only one piece of advice to his son, and that wisdom has stuck with me throughout my career," says Trowbridge. "He said, 'Get yourself a black book and record the name of everyone you meet. Find a reason to reach out and touch them at least once a year.' The Internet makes that so easy, and I continue to follow his advice."

Trowbridge has built "a virtual black book" of 15,000 key industry leaders. Every month, he e-mails a newsletter from his Fort Myers office to everyone on his list. "The newsletter I sent out a few days ago already has generated eight new job orders," he says.

He advises rising young stars to get involved with community and professional organizations. "I encourage you not just to attend lectures and seminars led by the movers and shakers and gurus in your industry, but to serve on their committees. Then you can legitimately drop those names in circles where they mean something.

"And, as Onassis said, make sure that they remember who you are. You never know which one is going to put you front and center at exactly the right time for the perfect career move."

Personal and Professional Payoff

Suzanne Willis, 40, formerly director of public relations for the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, is founder and president of Willis Consulting & Communications in Naples. Before launching her business, she had worked 15 years in public relations for prestigious hotels. That trained her well in networking, she says.

"My career in hotel management has been like a game of Connect the Dots," she says. "I've never needed to make a cold call. Rather, at a convention, a colleague might say, 'I know someone you need to meet.'"

One such connection led to an offer from a woman in the Ritz-Carlton company to help open a Ritz-Carlton in Vail, Colo. "It was winter and I wasn't interested in the cold," Willis says, "but we kept in touch. The next time she called it was for a much warmer spot: a key position with the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel [in Southern California]. This time I accepted."

For Willis, the rewards of networking aren't simply in business. "I never realized until a recent birthday gathering that a full 50 percent of my dearest, longest-term friendships started as business relationships," she says.

She has grown her network by volunteering for organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, so she was the one people thought of when an opportunity came up at the Naples chamber.

"When Mike Reagan, president of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, was looking for someone to work on the leadership programs and coordinate some fundraising events, he sent out an e-mail to his contacts in the community. Quite a few of them responded, 'Call Suzanne Willis,'" she explains. "I was able to help Mike revise the Leadership Institute and streamline chamber operations while getting ready to open my new company, Willis Consulting & Communications. My first clients, I'm honored to say, are my old contacts at the Ritz-Carlton. It pays to make and maintain solid relationships in the community."

Don't Let Retirement

Stop You

Jack Eikenberg, 69, worked his way up through the ranks at Revereware and eventually became president of the company. He later was tapped as CEO of Cuisinart, then president and chairman of Mr. Coffee. After retiring in 1991, he established Eikenberg Management Services in Bonita Springs, providing strategic and tactical planning to the housewares industry.

The best thing he did for his career, he says, was to get involved early on with the major trade organizations in his industry, the Cookware Manufacturers Association and the International Housewares Manufacturers Organization. He went to every convention, served on committees, and eventually became chairman of CMA and president of IHMA.

"This is how you can meet thousands of people in your industry," Eikenberg explains. "It's not the resume that does it, it's the people who know you and the recommendations of friends."

That's exactly how he met Carl Sontheimer, the inventor of the food processor-trade name "Cuisinart."

Eikenberg is now well into what he calls his "third, unpaid, and most rewarding career"-volunteerism. He is a volunteer board member of Lee Memorial Hospital and serves on advisory committees to the Lee County School District board.

"Southwest Florida is fortunate to have a wealth of former business leaders who have so much to offer and want to use their leadership skills," Eikenberg says. "The problem is that newly retired senior-level managers often find it difficult to reach out because they're accustomed to having people come to them.

"Consider the problem the Lee County school system faces," he adds. "The people who are expected to manage a $1.5 billion budget are primarily experienced in running a high school. Lee Memorial Hospital has a $500 million portfolio with very few senior management resources. Taking on these roles was a good fit for my operations management background."

Still, says Eikenberg, neither organization sought him out. He had to present himself, just as he had as a young college graduate, and he had to apply those same principles of networking all over again.

To other retired executives who want to be involved, his advice is straightforward: "We have to shut up, go to meetings, offer to help."

Focus on Others' Needs

Jeanne L. Seewald, 49, is managing shareholder of the Naples office of Fowler White Boggs Banker law firm.

She's a leader in the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, the Florida and Collier County Bar Associations, the Collier County Women's Bar Association and the Florida Association of Women Lawyers.

When Seewald moved to Naples with her husband in 1998, "I came here without a job, not knowing a single person," she says. "The first thing I did was call the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce. I got a call back right away from C.J. Hueston, president and CEO of Corporate Dimensions Inc. By the end of that phone conversation I was on a committee, and I had a new friend."

Although not yet a member of the Collier County Bar, Seewald showed up at its next meeting. "It's not easy walking into a room full of people who already know each other," she recalls. "But if you introduce yourself to just one person, and they introduce you to someone else, then you know two people."

After that meeting, Jean Rawson, a prominent local attorney, approached her and said, "Let me take you to lunch and give you the lay of the land."

That has inspired her to do the same now that she is established. "I always go out of my way to welcome new people and put them together with others," she says. "That's real networking: going in thinking that I may be able to help someone. It always comes back around."

It has come back around. The Collier County Women's Bar Association named her 2006 Woman Lawyer of the Year.

Don't Expect Immediate Payoff

Scott Cameron, 55, is founder and president of Cameron Real Estate Services Inc., a residential and commercial real estate company in Naples. He has been chairman of the Economic Development Council of Collier County, president of the Southwest Florida Land Preservation Trust, chairman of the Florida Commercial Brokers Network and on the Board of Regents of Leadership Florida. He's also active with the Naples Chamber of Commerce and the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

"Despite the value of the Internet, we've become far too electronic," Cameron warns. "We're in danger of losing that face-to-face, human element of business. No matter what business you're in, you're still in the people business. More than once I've grabbed an associate and said, 'Let's go meet this person you're dialoging with.'"

He also advises getting to know what's going on in city and county government, including meeting the staff. "When something comes up," he explains, "you've got a contact who knows you and can open some doors."

Leadership programs have been especially helpful for Cameron, who was in the Collier leadership program in 1996 and in Leadership Florida in 2001.

"The leadership programs create a group of friends and business contacts you can count on," he says. "It enables you to get on the phone with people you never would have been put through to.