Brindle Media

Posts Tagged ‘Gen Y’

Paul Greenberg, author of the customer relationship management book, CRM At The Speed of Light, cites a recent blog post about an observation from the IBM Institute of Business Value’s 2012 CEO Study which states, “ The view that technology is a driver of efficiency is outdated; CEO’s now see technology as an enabler of collaboration and relationships-those essential connections that fuel innovation and creativity.” Greenberg notes, “This leads CEO’s to see that the three most important areas for creating sustained economic value are (in order) human capital, customer relationships and products/ services innovation. We are seeing the beginnings of more distributed organizations to handle these transformations.”

So, what does this mean for us Alpha Boomers? We keep hearing that the business community has been reconsidering its attitude towards that part of the work force which is seasoned in our favor although the evidence remains slim. We certainly bring a lot of expertise to the table when it comes to establishing and maintaining positive relationships with customers. And, although Alpha Boomers may not be in the top quintile of Early Adopters when it comes to technology, we are certainly more open to embracing innovative new technologies that have been previous generations.

But, as a story in the New York Times noted this past weekend, the latest economic recession hurt we Boomers more than it did Millennials or members of Gen Y. A woman quoted in the article observed that employers are afraid to hire Baby Boomers because they’re concerned that they might have a negative impact on the company’s health insurance premiums and that it might not be worth investing in training Boomers due to the possibility that they’d leave the company in five years. Personally, I find the concern about leaving the company to be a bit disingenuous since a three years is considered long-term commitment nowadays.

However, in a recent editorial, the journalist Thomas Friedman observed that “everyone who wants a job now must demonstrate how they can add value” better than the above-average software, automation, robotics, cheap labor and cheap genius that’s available to companies these days. It’s going to require individual initiative on each of our parts to develop 21st century skills which compliment new technology and, as Friedman notes, will require us to combine our PQ (passion quotient) and CQ (curiosity quotient) with our IQ (intelligence quotient) to find or invent jobs along with a commitment to consistent learning and re-learning.

So, it seems to me that a challenge to Alpha Boomers will be to make a psychological commitment to stay fit in body, mind and spirit and to do the math so that we’re able to create a cost/ benefit analysis for potential employers which honestly compares the cost of hiring us over a three year period to the cost of hiring a younger worker.

Your thoughts?

A few months ago, I posted a blog piece about cheating on taxes. That prompted a response from Allison Morris who sent me the infographic below created by Online Colleges in a blog piece about how cynical members of the Gen X and Gen Y generations feel about cheating and lying. They appear to think of these behaviors as necessary for basic survival. How much these attitudes are created by media exposure from television police procedurals, movies and music would be an interesting topic to pursue.

Check out the infographic below and let me know what you think.

At a recent Catholic wedding I attended, the priest spoke to the bride and groom about the difference between a contract and a covenant. He talked about how the union they were undertaking was not a contractual arrangement like a business deal but a sacred promise to each other and, by extension, to God.

This was the first time I can recall hearing this issue addressed during a wedding ceremony. It seemed apt and it got me thinking.

My generation, the Baby Boomers, grew up in the aftermath of World War II. It was the age of nuclear proliferation, a time of major scientific discoveries which helped provide answers to many of our questions about the universe and which (like the birth control pill) provided us with more control over our destinies. We witnessed the coming of age of the feminist movement and experienced the “Summer of Love” along with the era of disillusion and anti-heroism following the Vietnam War which led to the Gordon Gecko “Greed Is Good” 80s.

We went from a generation of idealists to a generation of cynics to a generation of pragmatists. No wonder we started thinking of marriage more like a business agreement and a matter of mutual convenience. Of course, the inevitable result was the burgeoning divorce rate among Boomers which must have created psychological concerns about commitments for our children.

When Googled the question “What is the difference between a contract and a covenant?”, one of the results was this: “The difference is in the attitude of contract versus the attitude of covenant. In contract both parties are hoping to limit liability or maximize profit or otherwise make things better for the self. The contract is then a way of ensuring that things go just as planned and, if necessary, to force the other party to promised action….A covenant relationship is one in which certain terms are set, yes, but the parties make the cause of the other their own cause. In other words, when I make a covenant, the goals and desires of the person with whom I am covenanting become my own.” Sounds about right.

So, have the children of Baby Boomers learned a valuable lesson about marriage and long-term relationships from our mistakes? Or is this just wishful thinking?

Your thoughts?