Creditdonkey says “27 million business cards are printed daily”. That is an extremely large number when you consider the number of trees being killed to print business cards.
Business cards are multi-purpose. In ancient times (business cards have been around since the 15th century), Chinese used “calling cards” to notify others of an impending visit. European merchants used miniature trade cards as advertisements. These days, a business card does all of that and more.
But we are now in a digital economy – when people use their smartphones to communicate via voice, messaging and video. There are also tools out there to create digital business cards that resemble QR codes.
Edward Senju, regional CEO, Sansan
FutureCIO spoke to Edward Senju, regional CEO, Sansan – a contact management solutions provider, on the relevancy of business cards in the digital economy. Sansan commissioned a survey of 400 executives and business managers in Singapore to better understand their business behaviour.
The survey confirmed that in the new world of work, business cards are still used to forge the first personal connection, but these encounters are then getting lost or left unattended.
Are business cards still relevant in the new world of work in Asia? Why?
Edward Senju: It’s true, that it’s 2020 and we can’t let go of our business cards. The business card culture is alive and in fact continues to grow. Despite this being a digital era, in which technology is bridging connections across borders, the exchange of business cards remains a norm since it represents a connection made through a face to face meeting.
According to our survey in Singapore, 62% of respondents considered business cards as an important networking tool in the new world of work.
However, what happens next to the physical business cards is uncertain. Each is a potential business opportunity for the wider organisation, but many are hidden in folders, desks, or simply lost.
What are the key insights and findings from the survey in Singapore?
Edward Senju: Even in this digitised era, 90% of respondents are not digitising all their cards. Each of these is an untapped opportunity.
The survey identifies the productivity and collaboration gaps that businesses in Singapore must not overlook. More than half (52%) of respondents are still manually keying data into spreadsheets which is a massive productivity loss. In the new world of work, where automation and artificial intelligence are the buzz words and expected to be widely adopted by businesses in Singapore, this comes as a surprise.
Another gap is the lack of internal collaboration for sales. Of those surveyed, only 18% are talking to their colleagues and exchanging business contacts. Interestingly, respondents who shared contacts within the company did more than twice the referral business than those who did not.
What is the secret sauce for enhancing employee productivity amidst a tepid economic outlook?
Edward Senju: Factors like the U.S. and China trade war and now the Coronavirus outbreak have posed unprecedented challenges to the businesses. As businesses look to enhance revenue, they must first look inwards. Driving higher employee productivity and internal collaboration is a must.
There are existing connections or hidden opportunities within an organisation, that it must look to tap. These can help the organisation keep the sales pipeline running in the face of economic adversities. Before we think outside the box, we must first think inside it.
Why is internal collaboration so significant for business?
Edward Senju: It’s very important for organisations to understand what kind of connections they have, and only by working that network in a smarter way, can productivity increase. In organisations often the teams and employees tend to work in their silos and have their own business connections and network.
Imagine a situation where all these connections meet each other, which is possible through the power of the cloud. From an organisational standpoint, this widens their business ecosystem and as an employee, you can reach out to the people from your colleague’s network quickly and effectively for business purposes.
This saves the business managers time and effort and supports productivity as well as sales.
Tell us about one of your customers and how a business card management solution impacted their business.
Edward Senju: SuperSteam, a Singapore-based company that makes professional cleaning products and cleaning robots, started off with one product and soon expanded its product lines and operations across the region.
To keep up with the rapid growth and ensure that they do not lose any potential business deals, they used a cloud-based business card management solution to organise prospective and existing client contacts into a convenient digital database.
Beyond just digitising a contact’s business card, they made use of value-added features such as adding tags, notes, and reports for the history of engagement with the individual contacts. Their employees were able to share information in real-time, saving them time and effort.
SuperSteam experienced a rise in productivity and collaboration within the company.
