How is Generation Y changing traditional leadership and business models?

UK: London, 27 January 2010

A new generation of tech-savvy employees, with expectations for constant and open connectivity and a radically different professional life, is entering the workforce - and enlightened management will provide this "Generation Y" with the right collaborative environment if it is to fulfil its business potential.

That was the message from Kevin Eyres, European managing director of business social networking service, LinkedIn, to IT and business leaders at Fujitsu's latest Executive Discussion Evening (EDE) in London.

"Trust your employees," he urged. "You know you're hiring the best people, so give them the right tools and let them flourish, because collaboration is really going to be the way forward. Generation Y is starting to show us that."

The "born digital" generation expect freedom of access to information and the knowledge-sharing and collaboration that goes with that - both inside and outside the organisation - he continued. "It's what they grew up with; if we try to take that away from them, then we create a very awkward situation."

But, because social media is all about two-way communication where everybody has a voice, leaders need to get to grips with the open nature of such platforms. "We need to think about what social norms we're creating," Eyres said. "A lot of your employees will be on Facebook and LinkedIn. That creates a kind of transparency where, from outside, people can see into your company. That can be a little bit scary."

How leaders harness that transparency to the benefit of the business is the key, he argued. "If people see that [your employees] are adding value, then [your employees] can become great advocates for the company. So think about how they can start helping you."

He recommended that CIOs collaborate with their marketing and PR departments to write social media guidelines for the organisation. "And this is a time when you can actually give your employees a voice," he said. "Instead of writing [the guidelines] purely from a technical standpoint, suggest: 'Here's the style that we want you to use the networks in. Here's how we want you to talk about the company.' This is where you start to bring in your company values and your culture, and [employees] start to talk about that externally to your own benefit."

He also highlighted the efficiencies that can be created when businesses create external collaborative platforms to engage with their customers. Citing the example of Procter & Gamble and its social networking site for mothers, he said that P&G has dramatically reduced call centre volumes as a result of customers answering each others' queries online. "It's a great thing," he said. "Companies are really using that to their advantage."

An unstoppable force

Echoing Eyres's main theme, David Smith, CIO and CTO of Fujitsu UK & Ireland, argued that Generation Y's desire to access anything they wish while at work is unstoppable.

Even if an organisation is blocking certain sites through its fixed line connection, they'll find a way to connect to what they want by using their mobile phones, he claimed. His message was clear: "Evolve or die. You can't deny this. It's happening anyway and if we block their mobile phones they'll find another way of doing it."

At the same time, and partly because of mobile technology, boundaries between work and private life are blurring, said Smith. "There's a whole conversation you can have about whether you are at work or whether you're not," he said. "Most young people today say, 'I'm awake. I might to do some work, I might do some personal stuff, and so on.' That's what's causing some of the tension."

But, if employees can get access to the tools they need, he continued, "the business gets huge benefit out of it, and payback from the equation."

Smith also pointed out how Generation Y is driving the consumerisation of IT, in terms of a desire for more sophisticated hardware, software and services in the workplace. "There's a huge gulf between what people can do at home and on their mobile phone, and what they can do in the office," he said. "It's about people asking: 'Why don't we have collaboration tools of the sort that I use at home?' And so on."

However, this is more of a cultural than technological issue, he argued. "You can put the technology out there but if you don't do the business and cultural enablement around it, it's going to fail. So if I roll out a lot of social media tools and don't give people the permission to use them, if we don't give people permission to spend time innovating, thinking, collaborating, then how can we expect it to work?."

At the same time, he warned against IT chiefs reacting to hype. "You've got to work out where the value is for your company, and/or work out where it's worth experimenting," he said. And, inevitably, businesses will get some things wrong, he warned. "But we have to give people permission to try things and to make mistakes," he urged. "That's a very Generation Y kind of response: 'I'm going to go and do this - it may not work, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.'"

It's not just technology

Also speaking at the Fujitsu EDE, Sir Michael Bichard, chairman of the UK's Design Council and executive director of the Institute for Government, warned against blinkered thinking about Generation Y. "I worry about the way in which we begin to define [them] in terms of technology and communications," he said. "I think we ought to be a little more profound in the way we analyse a particular generation."

He highlighted a particular Generation Y trait: the desire for rewarding jobs, where flexibility and the overall package are more important than pay and rewards. "As far as public services are concerned, this is potentially good news," he said. "After all, [public services] aren't in a position to compete with the best salaries in the private sector, but they are certainly able to offer fulfilling work and very flexible packages." However, he claimed that the public sector often lacks the imagination to take advantage of this.

He also pointed towards Generation Y's confidence with technology and the ability to use it to enhance performance. "The public sector's track record in harnessing IT has not been impressive," he claimed. "It's tended to lack the confidence to use IT to drive the business." This, he warned, often leaves its Generation Y employees frustrated.

And this is also the case with regard to Generation Y as public sector clients, he suggested. "[They] aren't interested in buildings and institutions. They're interested in getting ready and quick access to services - and often we don't give them that." The reason, he claimed, was poor design of public services with a lack of focus on the client, combined with too little time spent attempting to understand the generation.

"But," he urged, "we need innovation, we need radical thinking, we need to liberate the potential of Generation Y more than ever before."

For more on the consumerisation of IT, see this viewpoint by David Smith.

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