We were at THINC Indonesia last week. No, that isn’t a typo. THINC is an acronym for Tourism and Hotel Industry Networking Conference, which was held last week in Nusa Dua, Bali. This year was the 4th such event hosted by HVS, The Ministry of Tourism and BKPM (the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board) and it looks like there will be many more to come.
Seven Stones Indonesia was both a Platinum Sponsor and a participant on some very interesting panels and discussions related to tourism and the hotel industry, which makes sense considering that’s what the two-day conference was all about. But we’re a real estate company, we broker land deals, we’re not a hotel business. So what gives?
It’s all about synergy; both personal and business. Let me explain.
Events such as this don’t necessarily have to be directly related to our specific line of business, which is real estate and property. Sure there were international investors there, who we could have pitched on some fantastic opportunities in Bali (we’ve got some); sure the world’s leading hotel brands and some of the major players and shining lights in the Indonesian hotel scene were also there, we could have pitched them as well. We could have run around bugging people with cool concepts and floor plans and spreadsheets (we’ve got those too.) And you know what? We would have ended up just bugging people.
Don’t get me wrong, if we were asked or if the conversation led to a particular topic and we were able to talk about how we could help with real estate and land investments we did. We’re very good at it and we’d be crazy not to, that’s our business, but that’s way different to walking around handing out boxes of name cards and expecting results just because the name on the reciprocal card was followed by the magic letters of C. and E and O.
I mean, they’ve got money right? Imagine how much. Actually, they’ve got so much money they don’t know they want to buy, right? Wrong! So very, very wrong, on so many levels. This approach dictates that it doesn’t matter if people want to buy a villa (or whatever it is you’re selling) or not. The most important thing is money. Not the person or their needs. Not their wants and not their desires. The ethos here is sell, sell and then sell some more. People be damned!
We could have taken a bunch of brochures and gracefully delivered them into the hands of people who would have politely flicked through and made nice comments about the images and the layout and even more politely put them in their goodie bags and conveniently left the whole lot in the bathroom of their hotel rooms as they checked out. Probably smiling that they wouldn’t have excess baggage.
But we didn’t.
We didn’t go to pitch or to sell for that matter; we went to learn. Learn how successful business became successful and stay successful. We went to see connections. We went to make new relationships and to connect.
And I’m glad to say that’s exactly we did.
We learned a lot. We met people with similar approaches to doing business, visionaries on the latest trends in technology, training and marketing. We met innovators, entrepreneurs, M&A experts and heads of multi-billion dollar organisations, who were all singing off the same song sheet.
That, I think, is synergy.
The song they were all singing was about experience, perceptions and value. All about how people feel about you, as a person, as an individual, because how you are reflects on how you do business. Makes sense.
It’s about how we treat people. About doing what it is we say we’re going to do; all about being honest, having integrity, innovating, being creative, adapting, and growing. And in that regard we are in the same business.
We’re in the people business.
People have goals, aspirations and expectations. They also have energy. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not, but it’s energy nevertheless and by simply being aware this energy exists between us makes the interaction different. It makes it more personal, more meaningful, relevant and more real. If we open our minds to how things connect the connections themselves begin to happen.
That, I think, is synergy.
By being who we are and being what we believe we will attract like-minded souls and business will naturally follow.
This, I know, is synergy.
If you’d like to get in touch and discuss how Seven Stones Indonesia can be your partner in growth, send us an email through hello@sevenstonesindonesia.com
