Boomers and Gen Y: Tradition vs. Innovation

Published in Grand Valley Magazine – February 2010 (www.grandvalleymagazine.com)
By Chris Reddin

Some local business owners say their younger workers “spend too much time texting” or “aren’t really looking for a career.” And some younger professionals feel underpaid and uninspired. This situation is by no means universal, but it’s also undeniable.

In the professional world, we expect new employees to follow a tried-and-true routine: Respect authority and follow instructions in order to get ahead. This method worked effectively for many of experienced organizational leaders. But a lot of our younger professionals have new priorities and different expectations. Naturally, some tensions have arisen.

Who’s correct? They both are. The collision of tradition and innovation occurs in every generation. But here I think we have a good match of strong shared values, with some differences in delivery and timing. Let’s look and listen.

For the Baby Boomers

Gen Y are the twentysomethings working today. They are a well-educated, pro-learning group (higher graduation rates than any previous generation) who are at ease with ubiquitous technology. (Yes, they’re on their cell phones a lot.) They’re eager and willing to take on big jobs and make a difference and not particularly interested in “paying their dues” to get there. This attitude isn’t a good fit with a routine, menial job with little chance to make a difference for the company. But who does prefer menial work?

Our Grand Valley business community might be well advised to adapt, to be flexible, to meet new priorities — as difficult as that might sound. Worst-case scenario: We risk losing some of our best and brightest young talent to other communities that are willing to improve to meet their needs.

I asked some of the members of Grand Valley Young Professionals and a few well-regarded twentysomethings, “What does our local business community have to do to make this an attractive place for you to work?”

The answers were both daunting and inspiring. They clearly spelled out that it’s tough to attract and retain young talent when comparable jobs pay significantly more on the Front Range. The Valley is great for recreational opportunities and has a decent social scene, but it has a tough time competing with urban communities that have more to offer both inside and outside of work (particularly for singles).

They want to be successful; they are ambitious. Angela Harness from the City of Grand Junction comments that her generation is not interested in learning to do things because “that is the way we do it.” They want to contribute to the discussion of “what changes will make a positive difference?”

The bar has been raised; this generation says, “Encourage us to be excellent at something.”

Specifically, they recommend that companies offer flexibility in the day’s schedule. Outdoor activities are one of the main attractions here. If your company lets younger workers get their bike rides in during the day and catch up on their deliverables at night, you’ll be offering something different and attractive.

Communicate. Use technology. Try texting. Let younger workers in on your strategic direction, hopes, and plans for the future of the company.

Help them to make a difference. Candice Walton of Ameriprise Financial comments that she would like to see “something along the lines of what REI and Alpine Bank do with giving employees time to give back to the community as part of their work schedule — I love that.”

For Gen Y

The Baby Boom generation are in their mid-forties to mid-sixties (and likely to be your boss or executive leadership). They are the children of the 1960s, similar to their younger staff/co-workers in their idealism. The difference is that this group has been trying to make the world a better place for 40 years now. Their core values are still strong, but their actions are tempered by experience and wisdom.

I asked some Boomer-leader types, “How can younger workers convince you to give them meaningful work — and quickly?”

Is there is a disconnect between young professionals having to “pay their dues” and their desire for important, gratifying work? Jerome Gonzales of JG Management Systems doesn’t see it that way. Jerome challenges his Gen Y staff to “be excellent” and take on bigger projects, but he also warns that with these opportunities come equal amounts of accountability and responsibility. He counsels them to “accept both the opportunity and the hard work that accompanies it.” Paying their dues means taking responsibility and delivering results.

Young professionals are advised to listen. Do not assume. Ask questions. What will it take to make a change? What will improvement cost in terms of dollars, time, and energy? You may be surprised to find that the Boomer generation shares your passion for meaningful work, but you won’t know this unless you listen first.

Ask for a mentor. Maybe one of your company’s leadership team would have coffee with you once a month to help you with your career. (And show them some respect by buying the coffee!)

Find out if your company will help you get connected in the community. Ask to apply for the Grand Junction Chamber’s Leadership Program. Ask if you can participate in the GVYP Conversation with a CEO series. This is still a small community, and our business leadership is readily accessible.

It will take some simple steps and a little progress from both sides, but the benefits are clear.

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To learn more about Grand Valley Young Professionals, visit www.gvyp.org.

The Good Ol’ Boy Network: Fresh Views

Because I’m not a boy and don’t like to think of myself as ol’, I’m not one the most likely candidate to set forth the value of a network of old boys. However, I am here to say that the “good ol’ boy network” is alive and well in the Grand Valley (although it is not completely composed of old boys). In our community, it is all about who you know (male or female, young or old). From job interviews to finding the best caterer to expanding your customer base, it is all about connecting with the right people.

We hear complaints about this aspect of our community. It can be hard for newcomers to break into the network. Someone with a fresh face and a shiny new idea to sell may not get a welcome reception. When I moved here, I felt put off by how some people were known and recognized, while others were not. As a newbie, the line at Main Street Bagels in the morning drove me nuts. I would steam with frustration at the glacier-moving pace at which coffee was delivered because many customers were greeted personally and frequently by name. How’s your day going? How was Ryan’s baseball game? Have your grandchildren arrived? All these nice questions take time — time in which I was hoping to get coffee.

But over the years I’ve acclimated and embraced our networked nature. We are a community that likes to know the names of our neighbors, business associates, and customers. I get it now: Go to the drive-thru at Starbucks if you don’t want to be engaged. At Main Street Bagels, they know the names of all the regulars, and most people prefer it that way. Businesses in this Valley pride themselves on their customer service — they know their loyal customers’ names and have a personal connection with them. Many local businesses rely on their network connections for their success.

Let’s apply some analytics to this. A social network consists of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," connected by specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, financial exchange, knowledge, prestige, etc. Social networks can be either egalitarian or aristocratic. In an egalitarian network, all the nodes have an equal level of connection. In an aristocratic network, some nodes are more connected than others and become hubs of connectivity. This hub structure tends to grow more exaggerated as new nodes join with existing hubs in order to get connected to as many other nodes as possible. This sounds like our “good ol’ boy network” to me.

This can be good. In the various centers of activity in our community, there are hub people who can get you connected quickly. No need to try to reach everyone: Just connect (in a genuine way) to the hub people in your area of interest, and — presto! — you’re plugged in.

So what should you do to get connected? Get out and get active. Most of the hub people in our community play a leadership role of some sort in their fields. How do you do this? Volunteer. Participate. Organize something. If you want to start a mountain biking business, work on building local trails. If you love music, volunteer at KAFM. If you run a machine shop, join the Mesa County Manufacturer’s Council. There are always ways to help, and in doing so you’ll meet the people you need to connect with. That’s where they are, too — out making a difference.

Survey of 1,100 Small Businesses and How They Use Social Media

from Recca Larson,
Economic Intelligence Specialist with the CITY OF LITTLETON, Business/Industry Affairs

A 2010 report published by Ad-ology titled “Small Business Marketing Forecast” finds 58% of the 1,100 small businesses (under 100 employees) surveyed in November 2009 agree that “social media is a good way to both increase business and to know what people are saying about a business.”

Social networks described as “Very or Somewhat Beneficial” were Facebook (33%), LinkedIn (21%), Twitter (19%), MySpace (17%) and YouTube (15%). Listed as the top business benefits of social networks were generating leads (50%), keeping up with the industry (45%) and monitoring online conversation about their business or industry (44%). Other benefits were competitive intelligence (43%), improving customer experience (41%), finding vendors/suppliers (38%), resolving problems (33%), new employee recruiting (27%) and background checks of employees and suppliers (27%).

For more see: http://www.ad-ology.com/smallbizrpt.cfm

Economics: Biology and Business

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - December 2009

By Chris Reddin

On the last Friday of each month at Coffee Muggers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and folks with ideas meet to talk about growing their businesses. It is a light, casual, open conversation, but there’s also some evident concern, even anxiety, about the future and whether their ideas will work.

It’s not easy to predict how a business will grow in a changing market. Anyone who’s fought through creating forecasted financial statements or next year’s budget knows this. Business projections are a guess. They can’t accurately predict the future, because the world is complex and unpredictable.

There’s a new twist on economic theory called “complexity economics” that embraces this uncertain reality and uses biology to understand our economy. The business world has historically thought of business functions as mechanical: Apply force and something will happen. Run a weekly ad in the Daily Sentinel and grow the customer base. Drop your prices by 10 percent and sales will increase. We see every day that this doesn’t usually work as we had expected. Growing a business is not as simple as pulling a lever. The economy is a complex adaptive system, and it is not as simple as Adam Smith’s theory that the “invisible hand” allocates resources through the balancing forces of supply and demand. Can you explain Twitter and Facebook using conventional linear supply and demand curves? The traditional model works only in an “ideal world.” Try to find one.

Instead, let’s try to look at companies as species that evolve. Field mice, for one example, are constantly adapting to the environment by getting lighter or darker coats, longer or shorter tails, bigger or smaller ears, and so on. Nature is constantly adapting by making many small bets and then — when something works well — doubling up on the adaptation that works. If darker mice are avoiding more coyotes, nature quickly doubles up on that adaptation, and mice evolve with darker coats. If large ears are also succeeding, nature will cross-breed these two adaptations, and mice evolve with darker coats and larger ears.

Now let’s apply this to business. Your company operates in a complex world, so it must always be testing its adaptations, new products, and innovative services to see what works. We cannot always rely on the mechanical expectation that the market demands lower prices. Instead, try small bets: Seek new ideas for existing customers, sample a different form of delivery, or launch a trial in a new market. Get out there and test the waters — constantly. When something works, double up on it. Go in that direction. If you have two new twists on a product line that work, cross-breed them. As an example, look at the evolution of the Mountain Sprouts product line (a children’s clothing company in Grand Junction). They started with just fleece outerwear for children. Then they tried dresses and recycled dog beds. Hmmm … maybe focus on the cold … yes, hats and more jackets. How about jackets for the parents? Yes, well, sort of. Actually, how about a summer line? Yes, and sun protection as well. How about dresses again? Who knows? Try it. In Mountain Sprouts’ case, they sew up some samples and see who likes them. This approach means that the company stays fresh and new, and they know exactly what the customer wants.

Does that sound easy? Well, I’m afraid it’s not. Complexity economics means that entrepreneurs, companies, product managers, and salespeople must fail more than they succeed. This means putting your ideas out there knowing full well that most of them will fail. It means having to give up on the genius business plan with the singular brilliant paradigm-shifting, world-altering idea that makes us all rich. It won’t be easy, but we must get comfortable with failure. We must learn to fail fast and frequently.

Of course we won’t throw the business plan and budget out the window. We still need to communicate expectations, set goals, and research the market. But we can think biologically. Lions, tigers, and bears survive by constantly watching the competition and adapting to their environment. In the business world we expect the mechanical; we expect a response that works on paper. But in the real world, customers are drawn to the unexpected: to new ideas, to an advantage over competition. Business leaders must focus on creating new stuff that meets a need in the economic environment. It isn’t easy, but it is better — because this is how the world really works. And by embracing this theory, we’ll be better able to adapt to the changes that the world, the economy, and our customers throw at us.

For more information on complexity economics, I recommend Eric D. Beinhocker’s, The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

Chris Reddin
creddin@gjincubator.org
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Do you really need a business plan?

Neil Patel recently wrote a blog post on “Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn’t Write Business Plans” that Wes Scripps from Forlio Designs tweeted about on twitter (@forlio). It is a good post, you should read it.

Wes asked me, "do you think you need to write a business plan?" My reply is "Yes!" But, I do not think you need to write a profound tome explaining in detail how the future of your business will unfold. The shorter the better. If your business does not make sense within a simple, short description, then you probably don’t have a very strong business proposition.

In this case, it is the journey that is of value, not the destination. A business plan is important because it requires a you to go through a process of looking at exactly what you what to do, for whom and for how much. A business plan demonstrates that you have thought through the market, your customers, your products and services and exactly how you want to execute this concept. You know that the market demands what you want to offer and that you know how to supply the need. Most importantly, you know that you’ve written it all down, made it a firm goal and a real commitment.

Many of Neil’s points in the above blog post are accurate. Sometimes all you need is a good PowerPoint presentation and an executive summary to get funding (although not for the SBA). Your business will constantly evolve and change. You MUST react and be proactive. I think this means going back through the fundamental questions you’ve addressed in your business plan and make sure your new ideas are still relevant. Is your new product valuable to your target customer or are you drifting towards other markets? Are you improving or just doing more of the same? Be strategic. Be conscious in your choices. Don’t re-write your business plan every time you try something new, but use the business planning process as a template for reviewing every new initiative:

• What is happening in the market?
• What are my competitors’ doing?
• Who is my target customer and how many do I hope to reach?
• What are my product(s) / service(s)?
  - How does my company serve our customers?
  - How is our new offering better? Different?
• What kind of sales numbers do I think I can generate?
• How exactly are we going to deliver on our objectives?
• When I do a quick crunch of the numbers, do they make sense? Am I missing anything?
• How much cash do I need to do this?

If you have never written a business plan, you must write one to understand the process. It is not a simple straight forward endeavor. The process will make you enthusiastic one moment, and then overwhelmed the next. In the end, you feel that you have looked comprehensively at what you want to do and believe in your vision for how it will work. That is powerful! And a tool you will use over and over again as you adapt, change, grow and evolve your business.