A picture of the new global business model...
I listen to more podcasts in a week then I would ever care to admit. I’m a bit of a nerd in that way. Last week, I was listening to one of my favorite Podcasts on leadership; the interviewee was a well-known leadership trainer and consultant, specifically amongst the younger generation of leaders. About halfway through the interview, he said something that intrigued me…
“It seems like every single twenty-something I know, they feel like they can change the world…”
The emerging generation, otherwise known as Millennials, are often described by researchers as lazy and entitled. We were given everything we wanted as kids, therefore we expect the world to give us everything we want now that we’re all grown up. Among these negative descriptions, there are also a few positive trends that define this rising generation of recent college graduates, one of which, and perhaps the most important, is this desire to make in impact on a global scale. Now more than ever young leaders today feel that they not only can change the world, but that they have a responsibility to. In light of globalization through things like the internet, especially Facebook and Twitter, the problems of the world are no longer far off, distant issues, they are a personal, pressing crisis that we witness everyday with a simple touch of the screen.
These struggles of the world capture the hearts of young people so intensely that there is a new business model emerging, and this new model is revolutionizing the way we create and innovate. It is no longer enough to just simply make money, now a business must seek to support some sort of greater cause, it has to stand for something bigger than simply the welfare of it’s own employees.
This I think would best be described as “The New American Dream”. It is no longer just about upward social and economic mobility through hard work. This generation is adding service of our fellow man into the formula. Businesses such as TOM’S Shoes and Krochet Kids are proving that this is the hot new trend, and in fact, it’s what consumers are looking for. It’s not that making a bunch of money isn’t the goal anymore, it’s just that keeping it all for yourself is a bit out of style.
Perhaps we may be a bit entitled, but I would challenge this description of laziness. If Millennials were truly lazy, then we would be killing the American Dream founded on hard work. I do not believe we’re killing it, however, I just don’t think we’re satisfied with this dream being confined only to American’s anymore.
“It seems like every single twenty-something I know, they feel like they can change the world…”
The emerging generation, otherwise known as Millennials, are often described by researchers as lazy and entitled. We were given everything we wanted as kids, therefore we expect the world to give us everything we want now that we’re all grown up. Among these negative descriptions, there are also a few positive trends that define this rising generation of recent college graduates, one of which, and perhaps the most important, is this desire to make in impact on a global scale. Now more than ever young leaders today feel that they not only can change the world, but that they have a responsibility to. In light of globalization through things like the internet, especially Facebook and Twitter, the problems of the world are no longer far off, distant issues, they are a personal, pressing crisis that we witness everyday with a simple touch of the screen.
These struggles of the world capture the hearts of young people so intensely that there is a new business model emerging, and this new model is revolutionizing the way we create and innovate. It is no longer enough to just simply make money, now a business must seek to support some sort of greater cause, it has to stand for something bigger than simply the welfare of it’s own employees.
This I think would best be described as “The New American Dream”. It is no longer just about upward social and economic mobility through hard work. This generation is adding service of our fellow man into the formula. Businesses such as TOM’S Shoes and Krochet Kids are proving that this is the hot new trend, and in fact, it’s what consumers are looking for. It’s not that making a bunch of money isn’t the goal anymore, it’s just that keeping it all for yourself is a bit out of style.
Perhaps we may be a bit entitled, but I would challenge this description of laziness. If Millennials were truly lazy, then we would be killing the American Dream founded on hard work. I do not believe we’re killing it, however, I just don’t think we’re satisfied with this dream being confined only to American’s anymore.
