Business Dating
It’s funny what you remember and what you don’t about dating. Most people seem to dwell on, or at least remember best, the awkward moments and the disasters. I’m not sure why that is, but my guess is that it makes for a far more interesting story. Personally I have tried to shut out the memories of dating (chills just went down my spine).
I recently came back from a business conference where I discussed with my peers the practices of “collaboration” and “teaming” which I now think of as “business dating.” It has all the potential awkwardness and disasters related to dating written all over it. The similarities are that you have to date a bunch of potential partners until you find one that works. And often it works for a while until issues of possessiveness, petty jealousy, bad manners, poor communication and other ills tilt the relationship in the wrong direction (sound familiar?).
As we discussed collaboration at this conference, the negatives flew out at twice the rate of the positives. This conversation forced me to think about the past and finally allowed me to realize that we have had one very good collaborative partnership for a long time. Like all dating (or marriages) we have had our bumps but it has endured. We have helped each other develop our unique and successful place in specific markets. It’s never perfect but it has always been beneficial. We respect each other’s capabilities and freely recommend one another in the efforts for capturing business opportunities.
It suddenly dawned on me, that we actually are celebrating our 11th anniversary. We have been doing business together for 11 years. Other than our manufacturers, I cannot think of another collaborative relationship that has lasted this long. And while there have been peaks and valleys, we are more engaged and looking for joint opportunities than ever before.
We met B-Line Medical at George Washington University in 2002. Together, we created the crème de la crème of medical education and clinical skills labs that year and parlayed that into a long list of successful projects in both Clinical Skills and Simulation Labs.
While I know we have thanked each other of the years, I want to more formally thank Lucas Huang and Chafic Kazoun and say happy anniversary! These guys are great at what they do. Their staff is incredible and we are lucky to be able to work with them. Our relationship has endured a market of ups and downs. I know we will continue to work together and prosper…here’s to another 11!