172 • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS
By giving greater priority to the quality of relationships internally
with colleagues and externally with customers and others,
businesses will prosper.
The idea
Leaders often claim that “people are our greatest asset”—without
any real understanding of what this means in practice. Optima
is a business based in London that helps individuals to improve
leadership skills, and organizations to improve the way they do
business. Optima’s focus (and main source of differentiation) is
helping to build “amazing business relationships.” Optima’s success
highlights the value and appeal of its approach. More than that, it is
widely regarded as a great place to work and do business.
Building business relationships is an obvious yet diffi cult task
to achieve, requiring productive, open, supportive, and assertive
relationships, both inside and outside the organization. If people
are an organization’s greatest asset, it is sensible to focus on getting
the most from that asset through productive, positive relationships.
In practice
How can you develop trusted business relationships? Most of us
are taught the answer when we are children; we just seem to forget
the essentials as we grow older. Several simple rules can help you
get started: