This was an interesting piece of news recently where the trade minister here in Canada was caught granting a company a contract which happens to be operated by one of her friends. I would imagine you would normally have to exclude these deals for reasons like this where everyone would assume that one is giving money and opportunities to people they know in a bias way.
While there was indeed a lot of backlash over this, I was just thinking how from a business point of view whether or not knowing people in high places can actually be bad as well. Normally it should sway in your favor as you are at least on the radar of the decision maker, but in this case would this mean you would never be able to land a potentially big opportunity because of your relationship with the person in charge?
It’s almost like how employees and immediate family members are automatically excluded from participating in contests operated by the companies they work for because one would automatically assume foul play if they ever won.
I would imagine though the business in question would probably still get a lot of insider access to powerful and influential figures which in itself can generate continuous opportunities one way or another.