Connections Worth KeepingNXT Chapter International
A practice of NXT Chapter International

Connections Worth Keeping

Contacts expire. Trust compounds.

A method for senior leaders who depend on alliances they cannot command. It shows you which relationships deserve your effort, how to reopen the ones that have gone quiet, and how to build the ones your next chapter needs.

01 The premise

Most networking advice teaches you how to meet people. Connections Worth Keeping is about judgment: which relationships deserve your effort, and the discipline that keeps them strong for years, across companies and continents.

Across

Chapters

Every network is built for the chapter you are in, and it goes out of date for the chapter you are entering. The method starts from where you are going, not from who you happen to know.

Across

Borders

Trust earned in one market does not expire when you leave it. The leaders who stay effective across borders treat those relationships as an asset, not a memory.

Across

Cultures

The method is calibrated for markets where relationships come before transactions. What signals trust in Shanghai is not what signals it in Riyadh or Paris, and the method is built for that difference.

02 The approach

A discipline, not a networking habit

Trust across difference is scarcer, so mutual value is worth more. Connections Worth Keeping turns that into a practice that is structured, repeatable, and teachable to a leadership team, built from three decades of alliance work rather than theory.

I

Clarity

Know which relationships matter for what comes next, and which ones are missing.

II

Action

A concrete plan to engage the right people, in the right order, in the right way for each market.

III

Durability

Trust that holds across roles, companies, and borders, long after the deal that started it.

03 The corridors

Proven across four regions, not one

The method comes from three decades of alliances across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, including one that failed and what it taught. These are the time zones it was tested in.

ATLANTAPARISTEL AVIVRIYADHSINGAPORESHANGHAI
Atlanta
 
 
Paris
 
 
Tel Aviv
 
 
Riyadh
 
 
Singapore
 
 
Shanghai
 
 
04 Before you reach out

It reads differently everywhere

Three markets where this work was done. The method does not change. The cues do.

Asia Pacific
Europe
United States
First contact
First contactAn introduction, from someone senior to you both. Cold starts at a deficit.
First contactA precise reason and a precise ask. Warmth follows competence.
First contactDirect is fine. Specific is what earns the reply.
What reads as authentic
What reads as authenticConsistency over years, and showing up when nothing is at stake.
What reads as authenticSaying the inconvenient thing. Enthusiasm can read as selling.
What reads as authenticNaming your own interest early. A hidden agenda reads as evasion.
Proving it
Proving itRelationship first, transaction second. Small proofs over months.
Proving itPilot, then data, then contract, in that order.
Proving itShip something small, fast. Proof beats process.
A ten-year silence
A ten-year silenceUnremarkable if the parting was good. Name the history, not the gap.
A ten-year silenceA brief, honest acknowledgment, then stop explaining.
A ten-year silenceBarely needs explaining. Get to why you are calling.

Hypotheses about a market, never rules about a person. The individual in front of you may be the exception, and the exception is usually the one worth knowing. Ask. Do not assume.

05 Work with us

Two ways to put the method to work

Educational services

Workshops and seminars

Your leaders apply the method to their own relationship portfolios in the room. Each participant leaves with specific next moves and dates. Course materials are included.

  • Executive workshops
  • Keynotes
  • Class sessions for MBA, MIB, and executive education
View workshops

Business consulting

Advisory

Consulting on the partnerships your growth plan depends on: who to approach, in what order, through which path, and how to keep the alliance producing once it is signed.

  • Alliance strategy
  • Cross-border market entry
  • Executive chapter transitions
View advisory services

Which of your connections are worth keeping?

Bring the method to your leadership team, or put it to work on the alliances your next chapter depends on.