Upstarts! Donna Fenn: The Lessons of Gen Y Entrepreneurs
Many gallons of ink and billions of pixels have been spent trying to tease out the exact nature of Gen Y and to predict their impact on the world of work. But perhaps the best way to get at just what (if anything) makes this group special, how to manage them, and for Gen Yers themselves, how to adapt to an alien-seeming corporate world, is to look at companies founded by Gen Y entrepreneurs. What do these Gen Y enterprises reveal about how this generation does business and how they'll change work in future?
Author Donna Fenn sets out to do just this in her new book Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success, speaking with more than 150 young entrepreneurs. Today she reveals how her research can help Gen Y employees sell their unique skill set and outlook (and how their managers can avoid tearing out their hair), the myths surrounding the conflict between Gen Y and their "kiddie-whipped" parents, and the truth about their social commitment.
Upstarts! paints a compelling picture of a new and different way of working among Gen Y founded companies. Are these innovations paying dividends for these companies? And if a Gen Y employee were trying to sell a Gen Y friendly way of working to her organization, what might she say?
What I hear from the companies in Upstarts! is that the payoff is huge in terms of retention and productivity. I really do believe that Gen Y entrepreneurs and Gen Y employees are redefining the world of work for all of us. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Randstad, a global staffing company, did a "World of Work" survey last year and in it declared that "Generation Y is changing the face of global business, possibly the most dramatic upheaval in business culture since women entered the workplace during World War II."
Frankly, I think most traditional business cultures could stand a little dramatic upheaval, and the comparison to women entering the workforce is pretty apt. Women led the charge for humane workplaces, for flextime, work/life balance, and virtual work. Gen Y employees value all those things as well, plus they crave non-hierarchical work environments. They want work to be fun and meaningful. They generally like to work in teams, and they insist on being trained â€"- either for their next job with you, or with someone else!
So what might a Gen Y employee say to a traditional employer? "You can hire any number of people who will go through the motions and do a perfectly adequate job for you. But I will do an outstanding job if you give me the right tools to do my work. That means I'd like access to the latest technology so that I can leverage it on your behalf (I probably know how to use it better than anyone on your staff). I'll work until midnight if you need me to, but let me come in later the next morning, or maybe even work from home. If I'm slacking off, it'll be obvious and then I'll happily let you chain me to my desk. I'm eager to learn, so give me training and a mentor and make me accountable for my performance. And if I do perform well, please don't tell me I need to 'put in more time' before I get promoted because nothing is more sure to put a damper on my enthusiasm. I have a lot of good ideas and if you think they're good, too, let's implement them and not spend weeks just talking about them." Footnote: this stuff is good for everyone, not just Gen Y!
In the book, Gen Y and older generations were portrayed as collaborators. You read so much in the media about Boomer/Gen Y conflict but, in my experience, the relationship between the generations just isn't that adversarial. Where do you think that impression of conflict comes from, and how can the generations avoid miscommunication?
I'm so glad to hear you say that! I honestly don't think there's inherent conflict between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers. When I was teenager, we found a lot to argue about with our parents: Vietnam, music, fashion, the sexual revolution, civil rights, the women's movement. Then we grew up to be the most child-centric generation ever. I've heard us described as "kiddie-whipped," so perhaps we need to shoulder some of the blame when people describe our kids (Gen Y) as "entitled."
I think Gen Y employees can definitely come off as entitled and perhaps that's where the perception of conflict comes from. But I do think it's largely a communication issue. Gen Y likes the rules to be very clean from the outset: they want to know what they need to do to succeed, what they can change and what's written in stone, how they'll be evaluated and by whom. If you don't make the rules clear, they'll make up their own. And just as an aside, I think it's interesting to note that the most obvious generational conflict I've observed is between Gen Y and Gen X (people in their mid 30s and 40s). I don't know why that is; you'll need to ask someone in Gen X!
Judging from the Boomers, the character of a generation and how its members are perceived can shift over time. Do you think this entrepreneurial, optimistic, collaborative, fly-by-seat of the pants attitude of Gen Y is here to stay? Will they just mellow out, get mortgages and slowly become more like the generations that preceded them?
Oh, if I only had a crystal ball. We all grow up, don't we? But no matter how old we get, our frame of reference is shaped by the times in which we grew up. Gen Y is the first generation to grow up with entrepreneurial role models â€" not just Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, Kevin Rose at Digg, and many, many others. In the wide spectrum of what's cool, entrepreneurship is the new rock band.
They're always going to be the first generation that grew up digital, to use Don Tapscott's term. They'll always remember Columbine, the fall of the Twin Towers, the Iraq War, corporate scandals too numerous to count and, of course, the recession. So, sure, they'll mellow out and get mortgages and worry about how they're going to pay college tuition, but I think they'll always carry with them the knowledge that the world is a pretty unstable place, that corporations are not going to take care of them, but that they do indeed have the tools, the motivation, and the networks of support to take care of themselves.
The strong social mission at many of the companies you profiled was a pleasant surprise. Where do you think Gen Y's social commitment comes from?
It's a good question and a lot of people have a cynical answer for it. We often hear that this generation volunteers and gives back to the community because it's a nice resume-builder and it helps them get into good colleges. That's part of the story, but not all of it.
Technology has made our world a lot smaller and Gen Y has grown up with vivid and painful images of suffering here in the US and around the world. And so I do believe that there is an honest desire to ease that suffering and make a positive impact in the world. I also think that environmental issues are to them like civil rights was to us and they see activism in that area as having a direct impact on their future. Hats off to Al Gore for that.
But whatever the reason, it's important to note that this spirit of service continues long after it ceases to be a resume builder. 70 percent of the Gen Y entrepreneurs I interviewed said their companies had a social mission -â€" an incredible statistic, I think. Their social missions are as different as their companies: they may do pro bono work for a non-profit; send employees to volunteer at a local school; dedicate a percentage of sales to a worthy cause; or create cause-branded products.
(Image of stereotypical Gen Y dream office by tnarik, CC 2.0)