In a fast changing world, a few months of isolation can lead to costly mistakes in product design and customer service. Isolated decision-makers can cause both the qualities of their product and the process decision making to go down as well as weaken the quality of their people decisions. Candidate lists need to become potential client lists and vice versa. Sales people need to become recruiters and recruiters need to also think like sales people. New product ideas might come up during the course of recruiting discussions as well.
Great people mingling with other professionals is a great way to help further enhance our brand.
Recruiters are often not credible or are too busy to worry about building our brand. Community involvement and visibility - Larger firms need to worry about how they contribute to their communities. Managers and employees can better represent us in the community just because the sheer number of them increases the number of community contacts that can be made. This cross-fertilization is beneficial for product development as well as a great way to get faculty to refer their very best students. Conference presentations by managers also send the message that we are on the leading edge of knowledge.