The Business Bulletin
Giving is good for business…sometimes Here’s a surprising fact. The most successful people in business are those who give and expect nothing in return. So who are the least successful type of people? Well, the least successful people in business are also those who give and expect nothing in return…
How can that be? What’s the difference between givers who have succeeded and those that haven’t? First, we need to look at why givers are at the top and the bottom of the league. According to Adam Grant, in his book Give and Take, people vary in their attitudes towards reciprocity along a continuum of
Most takers are not bad or
Extreme Takers are willing to
dishonest, they are just cautious and
sacrifice others and even operate
self-protective. “If I don’t look out for
outside accepted legal and moral
myself no-one will” is a common way of
boundaries in order to win; these are
thinking for them. However, they may
the thieves and confidence tricksters.
win in the short term, but by using up
They will often masquerade as givers
the good will of their contacts they’ll
in order to persuade others to give to
find they have to move on and build
them. If they are good at it they can
new relationships frequently.
appear very successful – until they are
giving or taking and he identifies three strategies they adopt based on those attitudes.
On one side are ‘Takers’ who always put their own needs first They thrive on competition and believe that to succeed, they need to be better than others. Their strategy towards helping is always that the benefits to them outweigh the costs.
Issue 10 – Sales and Marketing | 25
