Talking ’bout (m)Y generation…
Given that it is probably my favorite newspaper, I was pleased to see that the Economist had woken up to my Digital Generation and financial services meme with a short article in a recent edition:
Now the younger baby-boomer’s children are moving into adulthood. This group labelled Generation Y, is smaller still. They may look like distant prospects, but much of the financial sectors future success will ride on how soon (and how profitably) it grabs them when they reach their 20s.
What characterizes Generation Y? Comfortable with technology, individualistic and fond of networking, the young should be open to attractive offers in personal finance. But so far few financial firms have bothered with them.
(I must say the language “how soon…it grabs them” betrays a lack of understanding of how businesses will need to engage with these new digital natives if they are to build successful and profitable relationships with them.)
Indeed, I gave a presentation in June to a group of senior executives of a large global financial services firm focusing on how generational change was likely to affect their business over the coming decade or two, and how the cultural and behavioral norms of the (mostly) baby-boomer senior management were increasingly likely to lead to missed opportunities and ultimately vulnerability to disruptive newcomers if they failed to adapt to the emerging digital culture of their customers and employees.
I obviously think there is enormous potential in building new business models adapted to these new cultural norms and taking advantage of a new techno-economic paradigm and it is something I intend to focus on in the next few years. Watch this space.
