Accenture Global Convergence Forum 2008 -- Talent 2.0: Wikinomics and the Net Generation

Talent 2.0: Wikinomics and the Net Generation

Don Tapscott
Founder and Chairman
New Paradigm

There is a crisis for talent around the world today. The workforce of tomorrow – the generation today in their teens and 20s, is dramatically different from prior generations in the way they live, work, play and build relationships. As such, established practices related the way companies recruit, train, compensate, motivate and manage talent need to change. Companies who recognize this and adapt their organizations accordingly will be on the path to win the war for talent. Social networking and web 2.0 have changed the rules of the game, and this new “Net Generation” is in the driver’s seat. These were the main messages put forth by Don Tapscott, the founder and chairman of international think tank New Paradigm, at the Accenture Global Convergence Forum.

To better understand this claim, Tapscott presented a few drivers for the way we are thinking about talent.

Web 2.0: The New Global Computational Platform which Enables Global Collaboration
This isn’t your father’s internet. Till recently, people accessed the web through a traditional desktop. Today, access comes through smart communicating devices, enabled by broadband mobility. In the past, the web was about browsing websites; the new web is about browsing reality. The web is no longer a platform for presentation but instead a platform for computation, thanks to new platforms and technologies such as XML.

Let’s Name the Generation
What should this generation be called – the generation that grew up with the web. Tapscott proposes “Net Generation.” Kids today don’t fear technology because it’s transparent – it is in the air. This is an important point when you think about talent.

Kids are bathed in bits. Time online is not taking away from homework, piano, and other extracurricular activities. Time online is taking away from television! The Net Generation watches much less TV. They go home, turn on their computer, and start multitasking: homework, chatting with friends online, and playing games. In this new environment, TV is “muzac” playing in the background.

The net generation processes information differently. And this is the first time ever where children are the authority on technology. This is a “generation lap” where kids are surpassing their parents in knowledge.

The Social Revolution
The rise of collaborative communities in recent years has surpassed popular television channels. For example, when looking at number of visitors: YouTube beats MTV; Facebook beats Match.com; Wikipedia beats Britanica online. What’s going on? And what does it have to do with talent?

These communities are placing demands on organizations, demands companies need to meet to attract young talent. Self-organization has been around forever—language was developed based on self-organization. But what used to take forever now can been done in a day in an online community.

Considering these drivers, Tapscott recently interviewed 1100 young people, to better understand how kids are different from their parents. The following conclusions emerged about the net generation:

1. They want freedom of mobility – they want choices.
   
   
2. They want to customize everything. Tapscott believes that industries don’t understand this point. The net generation wants to customize so that they can add more value—for example: let’s change my job description to make it more suitable to me, so that I can add more value for you.
   
   
3. They are the scrutinizers—corporations are naked, you need to be good employers to attract today’s youth.
   
   
4. They are the entertainment generation—they are multitasking; work, learning, collaboration, entertainment are all the same activity to them and they are having fun, or want to have fun, doing everything.
   
   
5. They want speed they want to make things happen quickly.
   
   
6. They are the innovators—they want things to do more because it’s “cool.”
   
   

Eighty million of these kids around the world will be entering the workforce in the coming years. How are businesses you going to attract them?

Tapscott believes that advertising is not effective, social networking is the entry point, and he cited three levels of “nFluence” networks: best friends, a larger group of several hundred, and then vast groups – these are the primary influencers today.

Tapscott urged the audience to think about these differences when formulating strategies around recruiting, training, compensating, motivating and managing talent. Consider reaching them when they are in their early teens and nurture them into productive, talented employees.

Biography of Don Tapscott

Don Tapscott, the founder and chairman of international think tank New Paradigm, produces ground-breaking research on the role of technology in innovation, competitiveness and society. Currently, four multi-million dollar efforts—The Enterprise 2.0, Talent 2.0, Marketing 2.0 and Government 2.0—investigate strategies for winning through next generation enterprises. Mr. Tapscott is the author of 11 widely read books about information technology in business and society, including Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy, Growing Up Digital, The Naked Corporation and his most recent, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. He is also adjunct professor of management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He holds a master's degree in Research Methodology and two honorary Doctor of Laws.