Personal relationships remain crucial for businesses

© jojje11 – za.fotolia.com

This is according to David Dawson, CEO of the recently relaunched British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa.

Dawson says opportunities for businesspeople to connect face-to-face are increasingly rare - but increasingly important - in today's technologically driven world.

He says it was also clear that there was a real appetite from the business fraternity for downtime from being on-call 24/7. "Businesspeople want a respite from work and we've intentionally scheduled the timing as well as the structure of our member events to facilitate that. Interestingly however, many members have also reported significant new trade and business development opportunities arising from what are primarily business briefing events organised by the Chamber which reinforces the value of personal contact."

Conduit for dialogue

"Membership of a bilateral chamber such as ours is also a conduit for dialogue among a like-minded peer group and with key influencers," he added. "In an age where information is so readily available, personal access to policy makers and opinion leaders at the highest level of government and industry is a key differential and our members get those opportunities through the Chamber's monthly evening events.

"For example, our members have recently met with Gwede Mantashe, ANC Secretary General, Tony Leon, Dr Frans Cronje, CEO of the Institute of Race Relations, Judith Macgregor, British High Commissioner to South Africa, Rob Davies, the SA Minister of Trade & Industry and the UK Minister for Africa, James Duddridge. The fact that our members enjoy direct personal access to the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Southern Africa, Baroness Scotland, shows just how important bilateral trade is to the South African and British governments and how valuable membership of the chamber is for businesses operating in that sphere.

"Membership of an international chamber such as ours also provides individuals with a collective voice which is a very powerful asset when there are challenging issues that need to be addressed," Dawson said.