There is a growing trend away from the business card as we know it, and probably for good reason. Before the pandemic, about 27 million business cards were printed worldwide every day, which is more than 7 billion every year. However, according to data from Adobe, 88% of business cards issued are discarded in less than a week.
As an alternative, business people are turning to technology. Nowadays, instead of asking the person you meet to hold your physical card and manually enter the information, you can provide a QR code that instantly links to your contact details. You may also encounter something off the beaten path, such as chips embedded in people’s jewelry or acrylic nails, or perhaps a colleague or client has a body implant that transmits their information.
Wall Street Journal reporter Emily Glaser joins “Marketplace” host Kai Rysdal to talk about the future of the business card. The following is an edited transcript of their speech.
Kai Rysdal: Tell me how you stumbled upon this story, will you?
Emily Glazer: This was one of those stories I just couldn’t put down. You know, I’m trying to give out my business card to people at events. And things like, “Hey, you can scan this on my cell phone,” or “Who uses business cards anymore?” I was getting kind of responses. Or “I’ll put my number on your business cards” – things like that. And it actually got to the point where I felt so overwhelmed that I felt like we needed to write a story.
Ryssdal Well, let’s go through some of these. One of them is QR code. Contact me about QR codes and how that works – well, not how QR codes work, but how that whole, you know, business card replacement theory goes.
Glazer: Absolutely. So I was at a dinner party in New York. And at the end of the event, the participants exchanged contact information. And I met Rob Krugman, Chief Digital Officer of Broadridge Financial Solutions. And he offered his LinkedIn QR code to people. And that’s basically what you tap on LinkedIn, a personalized QR code comes up, and people like me can scan that, and it automatically puts their information into your phone and you can connect with them on LinkedIn. And Rob used this QR code on PowerPoints when he was giving talks, so people wouldn’t have to, you know, just come up to him to ask for contact information. You can just scan it.
Ryssdal OK, let’s move up the tech ladder to chips and proximity readers; which can be read as a ring or any other part. Tell me that story.
Glazer: Yes, so QR codes have been around for a while, but implanting chips into your body is new. And so my colleague Alex [Harring] He spoke to Derek Peterson, who had a chip planted perfectly on his hand between his left thumb and index finger. And that chip has his contact information, so when he meets a new person, people can use their phone to download the details from him.
Ryssdal What we have to say here is that your story is full of examples of the phone not being able to read, having to adjust the position, trying again and again. I mean, it’s not like you just go boop! And you are ready. right?
Glazer: yes. And again, this was something I noticed. I was at a business roundtable in Washington, DC, and Robert Smith, the private equity billionaire, had this kind of plastic hotel room key card with a big QR code on it to share contact information with the attendee. And I watched them struggle for a minute. You know, he was making sure his thumb didn’t cover the code. The attendee was placing her phone in different directions. And finally, it literally turned into a separate card with a dark colored QR code. And voila. And, you know, after I talked to him about it, he said it’s still better than manually entering information into the statement, so he’s going to replace that, even if it takes a little time and it’s not perfect. The traditional paper business card.
Ryssdal Like, I guess, in one of your drawers in your desk is a stack of old business cards that have been collected and, you know, tied up with rubber bands and stuff.
Glazer: You have no idea, Kai, you have no idea.
Ryssdal I’m sure. Now, do they still work for you? Are you going to join the 21st century? what are you going to do
Glazer: Well, have I joined the 21st century? It’s a bigger question than I thought I’d answer today. So, it’s funny, Kai, after this article came out, you know, we have our new desks in our office and I actually brought all my business cards that I put in a box from moving from LA to New York. The rubber bands actually broke, and I’ve since pushed them into the bottom of a cabinet drawer. My to-do list has this item almost never, for example, “Import contact information from business cards into an Excel sheet. But, I really like the process of meeting someone, exchanging the card, and it sparks a conversation. So that’s there too, and you can’t replace that with technology yet.
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