#9 Will ‘independent’ Generation C be as entrepreneurial when they have ‘grown up’?
April 27, 2009 by Jake Pearce
True or False?
Will ‘independent’ Generation C be as entrepreneurial when they have ‘grown up’?
The key question that generational researchers get wrong is extrapolation. For example – if you took the Woodstock generation in the 1960’s, then the world would have been a music loving, sharing, free spirited paradise long ago.
So what happened? Did the Woodstock generation, better known as the ‘Boomers’ sell out completely? Did their values change or did their values remain the same?
This is a key issues for generational predictions.
Ben Young is what we would call ‘born Gen C’. In his video, Ben makes these key points:
• On average IQ increases each generation
• As a result Generations are genuinely different – it’s not a case of the young are the young or the old are the old
• It is more ‘normative’ or usual for Generation C to be expected to self help in relation to life in general
• In relation to business – Generation C like solving their own problems
• As a result Ben says to corporate – make what GenC want or they will do it for themselves.
This great talk heated up a lot of discussion.
Here are some comments made by people attending the conference – Ben’s talk was thought provoking and polarising for the audience:
• All young people go through a phase of being entrepreneurial – it’s a right of passage – Gen C are no different
• All ‘young’ generations see themselves as special as they get older they see they are more alike than different
• DIY is what Gen C is all about – Ben has hit it on the head when he says Gen C will sort things out themselves
• Every generation has stand out stars – to generalise from a few is not realistic
• It’s not Gen C that are into DIY – it’s just the tools are there (the internet to make it easy) to allow people to do things themselves.
For next week:
In my view the issue is about being normative. Not everyone in the 60’s was musical and into drugs – yet the stand out icons for Boomers – like Bob Dylan reflected those iconic values. In the same way – stand out icons for Generation C are born Generation C doing things for themselves.
Much of marketing is all about the person you’d like to be – the person you aspire to be. With this in mind, we need to explore further how Generation C’s aspirations will evolve.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!