At a recent off-the-record recruitment networking event, the mood got lively when the subject turned to current graduates. “Unemployable,” chimed one. “Hopeless,” chipped in another.
For a while now, mutterings in such circles have hinted at the growing frustration felt by some traditional employers towards the “Generation Y” age group – defined here as being those born from around 1990 on – who are often portrayed as being overdemanding and fickle workers.
“We’ve really started to notice how graduates coming through now are of a different generation,” says Georgina Kvassay, senior recruitment manager at “big four” accountant KPMG. “They don’t have this expectation of staying as long with an employer, of climbing this big long ladder. They want lots of different opportunities.”
Worryingly for large employers, a 2010 survey by recruiter Marks Sattin shows the suspicion is mutual, with only two in every five graduate accountants thinking it is still important to work for a traditional big employer. Why is this happening?
“The credit crunch has convinced Generation Y that being involved in big business is not necessarily something to be proud of,” believes Laura Wilson, Marks Sattin’s associate director of professional services. Another factor is what many employers now accept as the failure of traditional academic qualifications to reveal the aptitudes and characteristics that Generation Y can bring to the table.
Kvassay thinks it’s high time big employers started forcing themselves to engage with Generation Y much sooner. “No one has been doing much thinking about how we can manage them differently,” she admits.
But for many, that will not come naturally. Young voices tend not to be part of the decision-making processes of such organisations – in 2010, the average age of the 3,302 directors who sat on the FTSE 350′s boards was 58.
To redress the balance, we asked some of the UK’s brightest young business minds how they would run FTSE-listed companies differently if they could. Here’s what they had to say.
Harris Aslam 16
Studying for a BA in law at the University of Abertay, Dundee and a BQ youth board member
There are over 1 billion people using Facebook today and technology is becoming a necessity in the everyday life of today’s youth. By not taking simple steps in rethinking their interactions with the next generation of shoppers, businesses can lose out on massive potential for new sales and profits. It’s extremely important to keep in sync with the youth of today.
Aaron Booth 17
A-level student at Liverpool Community College; also runs cake company The Cake Booth
There is a huge gap between big business and the young generation and it’s one that needs to be bridged for the benefit of both. Businesses need to better harness the energy and creativity young people have and give them opportunities they need. It’s often degree-educated students from affluent backgrounds who get the opportunities to pursue a career with the big firms. This is very unfair to young people who have the skills and talent but don’t have a degree. Some of the UK’s most successful business leaders, including Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, are non-graduates and I think firms are missing a trick, ignoring a large portion of young people with huge potential. If I was running a big company I’d work to be more inclusive and offer alternative career routes for young people from a range of social and academic backgrounds.
Adam Bradford 19
Runs IT agency Unitecomputing.com and is an ambassador for Peter Jones Enterprise Academies
The enterprising spirit is all about demonstrating a sheer competitive edge, being different and standing out from the crowd to innovate and succeed. It’s my belief, based on my work experience in corporate environments, that such companies are not flexible and creative enough to embrace an enterprising spirit. It is a case of following orders and operating within a set of given parameters.
Walking into a boardroom of a large global business, I would be ensuring that every day is more profitable than the last and that an enterprising, collaborative and innovative atmosphere is developed, breaking out from traditional corporate hierarchical structures of management.
Philip Bradonjic 22
Studying for a BSc in management at Warwick Business School
The most important aspect about a company, in fact about any organisation, is its culture. It influences employee actions, which in turn permeates into strategy and internal processes as well as supplier and customer relationships. So it also impacts ultimately on how a firm is perceived in public.
A strong culture has two positive effects. First, if employees identify with it, they are much more motivated, which translates directly into the quality of their work. Culture can also be a powerful tool in governing people’s decisions. For example, it provides a way to overcome people’s bias towards small short-term gains over larger long-term profits.
Abigail Brown 22
Studying for a BBA in management at Lancaster University Management School
The main challenge for any multinational corporation is not logistics, cultural differences or national regulations. It’s the issue of not logistics, cultural differences or national regulations. It’s how decisions made in the present will affect the marketplace of the future.
We can be so fixed on the here and now” that issues are overlooked, under-researched and deemed insignificant. In light of this, my advice would be to prioritise accountability.
Faced with growing pressure for short-term success, companies can lose sight of their impact on individuals, communities and nations.
When sustainability is mentioned in an organisational context, many would criticise its significance. However, as with any global issue, as with any global issue, it won’t be going anywhere any time soon.
So, what are you going to do about it?
Scale brings power, for the good and the bad. It can outplay laws and governments. Yes, the strategy is always to be profitable, but I would say to global companies: as role models and policy makers, what effect will the decisions you make have, and what response is the world going to throw back at you?
Lewis Cairns 21
Studying for a BA in management studies at Nottingham Business School
Most businesses haven’t realised one of the great skills of younger generations – managing information and communicating through technology. My generation is constantly connected to information and communicating with peers. Our brains have been trained to ingest, filter and process information from many sources quickly.
I believe accessibility of information will be vital for business in the future; they need to be preparing for employees who expect the same degree of connectivity within the workplace as they have outside.
From talking to managers, I think they see new graduates as different to themselves; they’re starting out with more self-confidence, stronger beliefs and, arguably, weaker organisational commitment than their managers.
Younger generations relish opportunities to learn, collaborate and share knowledge. We want the opportunity to learn and develop skills with older, experienced managers, but equally, older employees can learn about the social and technological changes that young people have matured with.
Darren Cope 21
Studying for a BA in management and leadership at Nottingham Business School
It is easy for organisations to sometimes forget that success is a by-product of meeting customer needs. It can be difficult to engage with a population desensitised by intensive, highly targeted advertising via social media. To connect more effectively, companies should emphasise the value-added benefits of their products, be it status, economy, performance or durability.
I would take a proactive approach to changes in the economic climate. At the moment, certainly, concentrate less on huge profits and more on investing in staff and serving customers more effectively. Taking a longer-term view should lead to a stronger position.
Jude Dedzo 21
Studying for a BA in business economics at Lancaster University Management School
Growth is at a low point in the UK and one of the underlying causes is the lack of small businesses’ access to credit. By restoring credit to these businesses, we can expect to restore some confidence to the economy.
One way large businesses could help is through helping businesses with their cashflow problems. Some large businesses are using their smaller counterparts to create artificial credit – failing to pay their suppliers on time and thus artificially extending their obligation to meet their contractual terms on their invoices, which creates a huge burden on small businesses.
To alleviate this problem, I would introduce a scheme called supply chain finance. The aim would be to inject additional funds and working capital into the external supply chain. At Rolls-Royce, this scheme is an entirely voluntary facility that allows suppliers to receive cash early for invoices, while Rolls-Royce continues to pay for the existing term.
Romy Fawehinmi 22
Intrapreneur with market research firm MBA Company
Given the financial climate, I would urge large businesses to err on the side of caution. I’d adopt a strategy focusing on maintaining competitive advantage in key markets. Diversification not aligned with core business should be put on hold or abandoned.
It’s also clear to me that all large corporates now have to address the issue of executive pay. This must be the elephant in the room at most board meetings and I think it is critical they address it sooner rather than later. Most attention has focused on the Square Mile but just to target the financial sector is wrong.
All firms are guilty of a lack of transparency about pay; they need to reveal the methodologies used to calculate these sums to the public and to their shareholders. It will be the only way to stop the public outcry.
Musa Ismail 20
Studying for a BSc in accounting and finance at Warwick Business School
Considering recent turmoil, basic principles of corporate strategy need to be revisited and re-evaluated. I’d suggest a shift from solely profit maximisation objectives to long-term, responsible and value-adding activities.
I’d want to evaluate the corporate infrastructure to make it more transparent; a structure that minimises individual greed and instead encourages a culture of loyalty may be beneficial.
And I’d want to put more emphasis on corporate social responsibility. Steps to encourage this go beyond simply improving a firm’s image. It can strengthen relationships between the business and society, which increases confidence. In a time of low consumer faith, this is essential.
James Gill 20
Chief executive of web analytics company GoSquared
We’re living in a world where consumers have more power than ever, and can share their bad experiences just as easily as their positive ones with millions of people. But it’s also the perfect opportunity for large companies to share their message organically, via word of mouth.
Engaging with customers and their wider reach is critical. Technology should be used to personalise and assist, to keep up with and stay ahead of the competition. Tracking metrics on social engagement is also critical to ensure actions taken are effective and resources are not spent unnecessarily.
Most successful small and medium-sized businesses are motivated by making their customers happy. It’s no longer enough to just build a product and then sell it. Success comes from doing that, then continuing the relationship with the customer to ensure they return.
James Hill 22
Studying for a BSc in management science (industry) at Lancaster University Management School
The potential of consumer data for the majority of businesses is huge. Through exploring the vast data records, companies can improve targeted marketing and understand who their customers are. Although technology is more familiar to the younger generation, we don’t have high disposable incomes – which raises the question of who companies should target with innovating technology products. Improving the use of business intelligence processes within organisations will answer these questions.
Connecting business processes with customers, understanding how they think and what they desire, puts companies in a strong position when new technology surfaces to deliver products that meet their needs and desires of their customers.
Carys Jones-Williams 18
Currently on a gap year working for UK Youth; BQ Youth Board member
Later this year I’m going to be starting university, something I hope will benefit my future career as without a degree it’s unlikely I’ll be able to start the path to a top-level job.
Businesses need to start rethinking how to attract the best candidates from what’s likely to be a dwindling graduate pool. When we were appointed to the Youth Board, BQ was interested in our creativity. Businesses need to rethink the way they hire people, so it is not just down to qualifications.
Marc Kidson 23
British Youth Council trustee; also representation and democracy co-ordinator at York University Students’ Union
It’s all about adapting to where we are going to be, not where we are now. Young people have a sense of the future in a way that those who are currently at the top, in business as well as politics, often struggle with. For us, the response to the financial crisis and the looming environmental crisis cannot be about reclaiming a lost golden age of effortless growth and carefree consumption; we recognise that the future will definitely be different but we can still be hopeful.
The companies that increasingly mobilise young people are the ones that can convince us they have values other than profit – and these values must be authentic. Despite being a generation brought up with unprecedented commercial and media pressures (or perhaps because of it), many young people are looking beyond cynical PR to the substance of brands to which they align themselves, asking if they are making a fast buck or making an investment in the future.
As government undergoes a severe retrenchment, I would encourage businesses to see social responsibility as a core strategy, not an insincere add-on. Young people can tell the difference.
Ditte Ylva Lisesdatter 25
Runs II International, a coaching agency for young female entrepreneurs
Although the media usually cover scam stories of corporate culture, the people on the floor notice business integrity. I would ensure a fair-minded moral code for all employees including loyalty, support and a focus on individual wellbeing. Employees, in turn, will be more likely to stay in the organisation, maintaining valuable organisational knowledge. Employees will feel noticed and supported, and return the favour by being loyal to the organisation and working better. It’s a simple idea with a predictable outcome.
Becca Lutwyche 20
Studying for a BA in management and entrepreneurship at Lancaster University Management School
In this economic climate, the most important thing for a big business is to stay true to your values and focus on what you do best. Diversification can stretch limited resources too far and reduce the quality of your core offering.
In terms of values, it’s important to stay loyal to your people. If I were in charge I would alter the generic triangle view of organisations, which depicts the individual in charge as being supported by the management layers below. I believe this should be an inverted triangle, whereby the individual in charge acts as the support structure holding up the organisation, supporting all the individuals within it.
People are an organisation’s most important asset. Without capital or strategy people will find a way to complete a project, but without human resources an organisation ceases to exist.
Joshua Moore 23
Studying for a BBA in management at Lancaster University Management School
The graduate view of social mobility, norms and expectations is different. We’ve known great freedoms but also great pressures during our lives.
Our expectations of a business’s responsiveness and the legitimacy given to our inputs are high. A good metaphor for the influence graduates can have is of a shoal of fish. The capability of the collective to react decisively depends upon those on the periphery, and their ability to learn, develop and influence others.
As graduates, we’re cheap, fresh, productive and efficient. Our approach to work is flexible, and I would urge organisations to operate in a way that leverages this potential. The value of social media as a customer engagement tool is clear, but its use as a platform for crowdsourcing employee innovation and feedback will be key in making efficient use of time and resources within organisations.
The rest will follow, so long as the fish learn from the fry like the fry learn from the fish.
Bhavni Morjaria 21
Studying for an MSc in marketing at Nottingham Business School
Larger corporations should concentrate more on solving our environmental problems and not contributing to them. Companies should be more energy efficient through green technology; for example, they could focus on producing less waste by investing more time and resources on energy-efficient means of production, such as installation of solar panels and wind turbines.
Find cost-saving, eco-friendly measures, then communicate this idea throughout the organisation and implement this as part of the strategy.
I would focus on delivering the highest quality of product at the lowest cost through the power of renewable energy. My main focus would be on the customers.
Fauzan Naushahi 24
Studying for an MSc in marketing at Nottingham Business School
Large corporations in which senior employees are paid extremely high salaries and bonuses should use some of that money to create jobs for graduates. There’s immense talent produced on a yearly basis in colleges and universities, yet many graduates are unemployed or work in call centres and supermarkets to make ends meet.
Instead of paying an individual almost their salary again as a bonus, it wouldn’t hurt to put maybe £18,000 aside for a graduate’s annual salary.
In any classroom you’ll find people with ideas nobody else could have thought of.
Why not hire more people? It could lead to ideas being uncovered that would boost the company’s sales and reputation. It’s not just about the old, tried-and-tested methods any more.
Liam Patterson 24
Founder of eco-friendly products marketplace EthicalCommunity.
In the UK tech scene there is a lot of buzz around “lean startups” – which strip down products and services offered to the core essentials that really matter to customers, ship the products fast without doing months of testing and iterate the products rapidly.
This means the product or service is shaped by real consumer demand (or lack of it) before resources have been committed.
A lot of large corporations still delay launching, and underestimate the value of launching early (even if the product isn’t quite there yet) in order to test consumer demand.
Many employers still believe that if a team member isn’t in the office at their desk, they aren’t working – despite countless studies showing the productivity benefits of a motivated and empowered workforce who have the option to work from anywhere, as long as they get the job done.
In running my own business I have seen first-hand the productivity increase of having a remote team, all committed to achieving results.
The tools now exist to provide a virtual office at no or low cost and the results I’ve experienced have been amazing. This is still one of the biggest barriers large corporations have to overcome in terms of company culture.
Joshua Rafferty 22
Studying for an MSc in management at Lancaster University Management School
If studying management has taught me one thing, it’s that the standard rules of business strategy and corporate logic are becoming less applicable with time. The success of global businesses will be determined by a willingness to leave conventional wisdom at the door. Emphasising adaptability is nothing new (and it is certainly not prophetic). But I do believe that the ability of global companies to respond to change will be determined by their approach to the recruitment and development of young graduates. It is this next generation of men and women that will navigate an increasingly unpredictable landscape, one that will see the western-centric practices of contemporary business become outdated and perhaps redundant.
Big corporates must abandon the cynicism that is currently pervading graduate recruitment and embrace the idea that, while we can’t predict the future, we can still invest in it.
Matthew Roberts 21
Studying for BA in management studies at Nottingham Business School
I’d return to a long-term focus rather than trying to look good to shareholders in the short term. I think a high level of consumer-based research is important – it may cost more but results are of greater benefit if the company can react quickly enough. In this economic climate, companies need to be proactive, not reactive. Strong companies are the ones that lead industry, not follow it.
Training should be of more importance in a recession, not less as big companies tend to assume. Honesty is also very important; companies need to be fairer with their shareholders and not mislead them.
Companies can be too report-focused and they can easily mislead – results are not just seen on a piece of paper.
Adam Stephenson 17
Studying A-level business studies, maths and chemistry at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington
So many large companies forget the importance of their customers and fail to satisfy their needs in terms of service, quality, value and experience. They need to build all their actions around the consumer and differentiate themselves, which will also improve competitiveness. This is when real innovation occurs and markets can grow.
A consumer-focused company will invest in training its staff, won’t skip corners with quality, and will endeavour to deliver a memorable experience for its customers. Put customers before sales, and sales will increase – it’s so simple, yet the majority of large companies just don’t bother.
Kirt Tabberer 21
Job ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, helping jobless youngsters to find work
At a time of high youth unemployment, we need to make sure that we are doing all we can to give young people the support and opportunities to move forward with their lives. I know first-hand how tough it can be when you are struggling to find a job. I ended up feeling hopeless and as if I didn’t have a future. I got the support I needed to find a job through the Prince’s Trust – so I would like to see businesses working with charities and the government to provide more support for young people.
Many companies already do this – like Balfour Beatty, Waitrose and Starbucks, which all work with the Prince’s Trust to support young people into jobs. But we need more companies to do the same. Not only will this help combat rising youth unemployment, but businesses will also have work-ready people when vacancies arise.
Jack Tang 20
Founder of thestudentjob.com and second-year business management student at King’s College London
My business is a social network recruitment platform to help young people find casual work while in education. Traditional business practices are uninspiring and disengaging to our tech-savvy generation.
We make students aware of opportunities via social media, integrated with social feeds – students specify the jobs they want to hear about and how far they can travel with travel cost and time in mind. They can apply within clicks using LinkedIn-style profiles, replacing conventional long cover letters and CVs. Replacing face-to-face interviews with online video interviews and bite-size chat dialogues give flexibility and convenience to both parties to engage at the same level.
The world has changed, but to me, many corporations seem idle; strong-armed from innovation due to bureaucracy and red tape. Large corporations have this perception that young people are inexperienced. While admittedly this is sometimes true, failing to engage this growing segment of the population is the biggest fault of all. Innovation is key; if those in the corporate world want to stay afloat for the generations to come, they need young minds in their environments.
Jack Townsend 19
Trained with Ability Media Centre owned by Leonard Cheshire Disability; works full-time with the charity Media for All
I would ask companies to think more about their responsibility to employees and also to their employee’s children, and to the areas that they are based in.
Big companies are in an ideal position to mentor young people in their job searches and in improving their skills, via such things as work experience programmes and business start-up programmes. I would also like companies to back financially small-scale good ideas from young people.
Media for All is using the government creative apprenticeship scheme to give six young media entrepreneurs an opportunity to make programmes; for instance on our very first day we started working actively on our first production, as opposed to being given menial office or runner-type tasks.
This has given us the best possible chance to become media entrepreneurs quickly. It’s a model that should be used by other big companies and applied to their own industries.
Carly Ward 20
Founder of the Young Entrepreneur Society
Big companies need to address customer service, which starts with how good your staff are. Happy staff give excellent customer service. Examine the staff management; bad managers can kill a company.
Companies should imagine they are the customer and deliver what the customer wants, and not what the company wants to give the customer. People buy what they want, not what they need a lot of the time. So give the customer what they want, at a price they are prepared to pay and deliver on time.
Jaideep Wasu 17
Studying A-levels in geography, economics and maths at St Olave’s Grammar School, Orpington, and chief executive of BQ’s Youth Board
Big businesses need to reconsider their current models. Rethinking is certainly not easy, but with a future of uncertain energy and material prices, business models need to adapt to be successful in the future. I’ve recently been studying the idea of the circular economy, as promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and how closed-loop thinking could be the future. A recent report showed how a circular economy would save EU manufacturing $630bn (£396bn) by 2025.
David Zöchling 24
Studying for an MSc in accounting financial management, Lancaster University Management School
Even though the main repercussions of the financial crisis are abating, people still lack trust in corporations because of the misconduct that has been revealed in the course of the past few years. It is now past time that companies build that trust again.
In my opinion, public resentment stems from many customers feeling they are not being paid enough attention, particularly when they have to deal with larger corporations.
At a time when those should convince people they are willing to act genuinely again, this perceived negligence is probably worsening everything.
Business literature tries to inculcate us with ranking shareholders on top of all the other stakeholders. But especially now, it is time to shift the focus more towards the customer again. New developments in the technological landscape could certainly aid in making this transition. As a case in point, a growing number of businesses are heading in the right direction by offering after-sales services through social media platforms, where people can post queries and even criticise.
By openly allowing negative word-of-mouth, companies can make themselves accountable to society again.
Dmitry Vasichev 22
Studying for an MSc in financial analysis at Lancaster University Management School
Over the past few years the social business landscape has changed dramatically. Social media has a great potential for development of business. And these have to be company-wide initiatives coming from executives. Small companies have already recognised the importance of monitoring the social media landscape.
If I were in charge I would focus more on exploring opportunities that arise. Social media departments would be established to build up presence. This task could be outsourced, minimising risk. Millions of people participate in social media each day. And if we want to become a forward-looking company we need to use this source of communication with potential clients extensively. For example, targeting special groups of professionals on LinkedIn is a good way of doing business. Equally, Google+ for Business would do a similar job.
Elizabeth Yambem 22
Studying for a BSc accounting and finance at Warwick Business School
Most businesses (including today’s biggest brand, Apple) have been criticised for their poor factory working conditions, sending billion of dollars down the drain. The world has changed, people are more conscious; companies need to sincerely account for environmental and social effects that their businesses have. Big companies should be doing better in reporting these issues.
If I were in charge, I would focus on improving research and development to stay ahead of the game by taking stock of competition, best working practices and the global market trends.
Better Business
David Cameron calls it a question of “responsible capitalism”. Nick Clegg wants Britain to move towards a more mutual, “John Lewis-style economy”. For Ed Miliband, it’s about putting an end to “fast-buck capitalism”.
When politicians of all factions suddenly start jumping on a bandwagon, you can be pretty sure it is one that has wheels.
From popular contempt for boardroom intransigence, to protest camps outside business districts, to the animated discussions taking place within respected business schools, a consensus is forming that when it comes to the way companies organise and provide social purpose in these challenging economic times, something needs to change.
The question suddenly confronting many businesses is how to respond to these dilemmas.
The Guardian’s new Better Business site aims to identify, unpick and find positive solutions to the social and ethical issues companies should be addressing in the 21st century. To find out more and register your interest, visit guardian.co.uk/better-business or follow us on Twitter @gdnbetterbiz
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/mar/30/next-generation-business-views
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