Will Gen Y Be The Stimulus We Need?

Just as in past recessions, small business will lead large enterprises in the recovery and stimulation of the economy.  Typically small businesses shed fewer jobs as a percentage of their workforce during a recession and start hiring earlier as recessions abate than their large enterprise counterparts.  Many of these new businesses will feed off the cheaper labor costs and the structure adverse Gen Y population.  New innovations and start-ups will come from tech savvy Gen Y’s who grew up on mobile phones, the Internet, and social networking.   

Generation Y, born between 1978 and 1994, may well be on its way to becoming the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation’s history — and for very good reasons.  They took their baby steps during our first true entrepreneurial decade, the 1980s; watched their parents “restructured” out of what were once lifetime corporate jobs; witnessed barriers to entry collapse as technology democratized the business start-up process.

Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job.  Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine.  Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35- to 44-year-olds.

Gen Y brimming with confidence ingrained into their psyche by their Boomer parents live on social media, are more networked, and more tech savvy than any other generation.  They have little regard for experience, they grew up in a world where what they learned in school two years ago is already outdated.  The answers to their problems have always been on the Internet.  They are natural collaborators and innovators. 

What should marketers do about it?  Begin adopting and implementing a new model.  Gen Y innovations will be driving new trends that the rest of us will be adopting and conforming too for years to come.  You won’t be able to lead them (they don’t want to be led).  You have to keep up with them.  You engage them.  You converse with them.  Don’t follow every fad, but rather the principles that are driving the fads:  a desire to be more connected, democratization of everything, instantaneous feedback, and full transparency (including your brand and products) will be areas this generation will be pioneering.