The Next Major Market Transition

2005 marked a defining point in Internet cultural history. That's when the social impact of Web 2.0 really hit critical mass - when there became more user generated content posted than published content. Seems so long ago. Another interesting statistic I came across amplifies this trend. It stated that, if you are an internet user aged 25 or under, more than 60% of the content you access is created by someone you know. Not sure where I read or heard it but it's makes for interesting discussion none-the-less as this is representative of the next generation of workforce.

Generation Y (GenY), Millennials, the Internet Generation (iGen) are all terms for describing the next generation of workers entering the corporate world. GenY is loosely defined as anyone in born as early as 1980 and late as 1995. That would put current age ranges from 13 - 28. It should be noted that within that generation the real "Echo Boom" took place from 1989 - 1993 in which the number of live births in the US exceeded 4 million (the first time since 1964, the end of the post-war "baby boom" years). So what's the significance of all of this sociological data as it relates and the relevance to Web 2.0 in the Enterprise?

Well, Feb. 12th, 2008 also marked a defining point in modern cultural history. It also represents the next major "Market Transition" and the beginning of a shift in corporate power. The very first baby boomer (defined as anyone born between 1946 and 1964) received her first social security retirement benefit. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, 62, was born at 00:00:01 on 01/01/1946. To put this in perspective - 80 million baby boomers are becoming eligible for Social Security...at a rate of about 10,000 per day!

In corporate context this means that a huge percentage of the workforce is heading towards retirement. So here's my take on both the good news and the challenges for IT and LoB leaders:

GOOD NEWS
The good news is that there are plenty of Generation Y workers to backfill the vacancies that will be created as Gen X employees are promoted to management. As cited on Wikipedia:

"A notable demographic shift should begin to occur in 2011 when the oldest Baby Boomers hit the United States' legal retirement age of 65. As Boomers retire, more members of Generation X will be expected to take roles in middle and upper management and the large membership of Generation Y should take up positions in the lower half of the workforce, a process which may have possibly begun, since some definitions have members of Gen Y in their early 30s."

THE CHALLENGE
The challenge is that the current gap between internet user and knowledge worker is growing. With the emergence of a GenY workforce, coupled with their reliance on Web 2.0 technologies that gap will continue to grow exponentially. There will be more pronounced generational gaps in communications styles within the enterprise. For example - current workers (i.e. baby boomers and GenX'ers) are more accustomed to face-to-face and voice-/emial-based communications. The GenY employee is more technology centric and expects a much richer suite of communication tools to be available including voice, video, IM/chat, and social networking, blogs, etc...

Enterprise Web 2.0 Lesson #3: A disruptive storm is coming over the next 2.5 years as the percentage of Gen Y/Milennial workers increases and Baby Boomer numbers decrease.