Are power lunches still powerful?

The era of the three martini lunch is long past but doing lunch with clients, customers or prospects is still a thing, or is it? I was curious if power lunches, and expense accounts for such, are embraced by Gen X and Millennials in the business world. According to a poll of friends, yes and no.

Joe Malloy said it’s a relic of a bygone age in corporate America, although early in his career with Idaho Veneer, he was encouraged to take customers, prospects and key suppliers out for a meal to build the relationship. Now in his employment with larger global companies, it’s not practical.

Jessica Bonar said she’s still doing business lunches but meeting for coffee is the preference for the flexibility of timing through the day. Christina Petit agrees, “Everyone has to eat. Coffee appointments are more common, though, better on the budget.”

Miranda Hamilton said she’d rather meet before she sits down at her desk to start the day or after she’s wrapped things up. It’s difficult to do an hour-long lunch with drive time, etc. Coffee or a responsible happy hour is more her style.

 Anne Mitchell says her dad’s generation did daily power lunches but his work responsibilities were far less than what hers are today. Outside of summits and conferences most of her corporate clients did not meet in person.

Boomer Kent Brooten said that toward the end of his career in the space industry, it was more and more difficult to have lunch or dinner with clients. He said industry events with distributed tables of heavy hors d'oeuvres allowed them the same opportunity to spend quality time together talking business.

Pam Houser chooses coffee meetings over lunch, feeling strongly that in-person relationship-building rules over texts, Zoom, Teams or social media. Power lunches are replaced by power naps.

Nick Smoot observes that the next generation is more decentralized but “install for sprints, in-person sprints like summits or conferences (irl)” He says technology in place of face-to-face is significantly impacting mentorship.

Robert Lantz responded that lunches, coffee and dinners are very popular in Big Corp today.

Jimmy McAndrew is a huge proponent of face-to-face interaction to build deep relationships in commerce. He added hashtags of community, #nevereatalone and #zoomdoom.

Erin Peterson’s company does lunch with accounts that they feel are an effective utilization of their dollars.

Jennifer Jenkins and Keith Boe said breaking bread with clients is important in the real estate business. “Huge rapport builder,” said Keith.

Kandi Johnson’s business is virtual, so Zoom is how it gets done for meeting new clients. She networks on Zoom, over coffee and via the Chamber of Commerce.

Julie Holt’s experience is gathering over a cup of coffee or a meal is a great way to build relationships, which is important to doing business of almost any kind.

Technology is efficient and practical but you can’t shake someone’s hand on a computer screen. It looks like power business lunches aren’t obsolete, but Gen Z will likely determine what business relationship building looks like in the future.  

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Garrison Keillor: “March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.”

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Happy Birthday today to Billie Dust, Rich Winter and Adam Johnson (40!). Tomorrow my much younger sister, Janna Scharf, shares a birthday with Heidi Rogers, Jaime Jaworski, Todd Gilkey, Wayne Larson, James Barfoot and Julie Sandstrom. On Friday, Cyndie Hammond, Lisa Ferguson, Robert Page, Linda Koehler, Joni Morrow, Chelsea MacEntee, Kylie MacEntee and Veronicka Peacock take another trip around the sun. Karen Roetter, Bob Frazey, Giuliana Palmas-Rogers, Keith Van Slate, Debbie Myles Shawver, Joyce Connolly and Megan Round blow out the candles Saturday. On Sunday, wish a happy birthday to Nancy Frazey, Mary Akers and Jon Dingman. Jim Booth, Heather Callahan, Mindy Newby, Jim Faucher, Travis Jank and Rachel Burkhardt put on their party hats Monday. DeAnn Johnson, Will Henderson, Sylvia McCormick, Josh Vesser, Faith Hazard Wiley, Ali Hanson, Kim Maksen, Jan Daugharty, John Neirinckx, Christel Fredericks and David Wegner will have their cake and eat it, too, Tuesday, March 12.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.