Achieving Success Through Social Capital: Tapping the Hidden Resources in Your Personal and Business Networks

November 27, 2012

By: Wayne Baker

The ability to achieve our goals, fulfill our missions, and make our contributions to the world depends as much on our social capital (the resources available in and through personal and business networks) as it does on our human capital (knowledge, expertise, and experience). People who build the right networks get the resources they need when they need them — entrepreneurs secure venture capital, investors find new business opportunities, job seekers locate good jobs, salespeople find new customers, managers boost their influence and effectiveness, business leaders tap the competitive advantage of human resources by building social capital as an organizational competence.

Research also shows a direct link between social capital and the quality, purpose, and meaning of life. Good networks improve happiness, health, and even longevity. Building networks improves our personal lives as it contributes to the world by making it a more connected place.

This book guides you through the process of evaluating, building, and using social capital. After introducing the subject of social capital (Chapter One), it shows you how to use sociometric Executive Summary techniques to analyze the state and quality of your personal and business networks (Chapter Two), boost your access to resources by making your networks more entrepreneurial through more than twenty proven practices used by free agents and members
of organizations (Chapter Three), and use social capital ethically and invoke the power of reciprocity by deploying your social capital in service to others (Chapter Four). Finally, it turns to the level of the organization, focusing on ten practices that entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, executives, and business leaders can use to build social capital as an organizational competence (Chapter Five).