How important to reaching your goals is having a good network in our world today? When this question is asked to directors and other people in leading positions, most of them answer that high-quality relationships and the ability to maintain them are a key factor to their success. Relationships within your network can support you to reach your goals and be a sounding board for your innovative ideas. They can provide inside information, point out the blind spots in your policy, give recommendations, and support you in difficult times. The merits of your cause and strategy are important but access and a strong network are key, especially in these disruptive times of change in which you can't rely on sole planning and control anymore. Who would have thought that many renowned banks would close most of their local branches? That the whole taxi world would be changed by Uber, that an enormous stream of refugees would have spread through Europe in 2016, and so on? In order to face these kinds of context-changing challenges, organizations need others and they need you.

Networks are a means of horizontal cooperation in order to create shared value while the different partners continue to have a high amount of independence. Via email, LinkedIn, Twitter we connect with each other, share information, and reach out for support. At networking events and face-to-face meetings we work on strengthening and broadening our connections. By investing in these relationships, we are building connectivity, friendship, trust, and loyalty, necessary ingredients to sustain our networks.

It may be some time before the benefits of authentic relationship management become apparent. This is why, despite its high potential for long-term advantage to an organization, it often has to be done in the slipstream of other core activities. But proper relationship management is an art of its own that needs attention and professionalization to bear fruit. This chapter will show how this has been the case in the past and also how important personal relationships are in our complex and digitalized era. Proper relationship management will be one of the key assets that make the difference in a world that's changing faster than ever and in which relationships gradually have a tendency to become more flexible and distant. It is right now that a solid base of meaningful relationships is needed to make the organization more effective and resilient.