Ignoring 'Generation Techs' at your own peril. Strategy+Business explains the impact of the most tech-literate generation to ever enter the work force and how it matters. [CNET News.com]
Here's another "two types of people" article that purports to be research although no research was actually cited. The basic premise of the piece--to listen to people who have had different experiences and use that information to improve your business--would be trite were it not for the vast majority of managers who still do not follow that advice. The part about the "most tech-literate generation...ever" needs a little definition. There have been lots of generations, perhaps going back 5,000 years where young people grew up with new technologies and used them. The definition lacking here is what kind of tech.
I tinkered with electronics in high school and made a natural move into computers in the mid-70s. I've helped bring the benefits of computer technology to all sorts of businesses and organizations. For 16 years I've been assigning soccer referees to high school games. Starting 16 years ago, I developed ways to organize the process on a PC. I never could have done the work manually. Today, instead of making hundreds of dollars worth of phone calls to fill gaps, I send broadcast e-mails to the group and use Web technologies. As the level of the entire group rises, we could use things like IM (takes a critical mass there). But I'm a "digital immigrant." Oh, well. I also touch type rather than "thumbing."
There have been predictions of how all the information technology and communication technology changes over the past 40 years would change things. As is typical of change, some things changed and others stayed the same. We still have anal organizations amidst all this change toward agile organizations.
I'm an early Boomer so don't fit the stereotype of my later cohorts. We radicals were supposed to change the world. It proved difficult to do. We still have wars and evil. Much of the next generation, which Boomers raised as pampered and spoiled kids, entered the workforce expecting to be coddled and be appointed president in the second year of work just because mummy and daddy always made sure they succeeded. They discovered it takes some work and reflective experience to really progress. The 19-year-old who can start, build and run a company is as rare as a Michael Jordan.
So yes, this generation coming up plays games on line rather than pinball (like we did) and they have a lot to share as they enter the business world. I hope that those of us who have been around a while can learn from them. And I hope that as they enter the work force that they develop the maturity to learn from us.
And I hope that some of them get into manufacturing and apply that creativity there. IT is glamorous, but manufacturing is the base of prosperity.
By the way, Happy Broderick Crawford Day. For those of you as old as I, you may remember the 1950s TV show "Highway Patrol." Crawford was the head highway patrol guy who was always dashing around in his patrol car (didn't know the boss was always out there like that) half of whose lines in the show consisted of "10-4, 10-4."
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