Small Business United Blog

The Unsinkable GenY Entrepreneur

by Carolyn Ockels - November 6, 2009

Looking for a bright spot in today’s doom-and-gloom world?  Take note of the GenY entrepreneurs around you.  They’re building a future unlike those of generations past.  GenYers, according to Jeff Cornwall, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University, make up the most entrepreneurial generation ever.

Even in a downturn, GenY entrepreneurs are shaking things up, and mostly in a good way.  Using teamwork, leveraging social media, and bootstrapping their start-up efforts, these teens-to-young-adults make things happen in ways that we haven’t seen in the past.

What’s unique about GenY?   Entrepreneurship expert and author Donna Fenn sees 8 key attributes that separate GenY entrepreneurship from generations past.   Researching over 150 GenY start-ups through surveys, interviews and social media experiments, Fenn pinpoints the elements of this important entrepreneurial movement in her recently released book, UPSTARTS!.  According to Fenn, GenYers:

• Collaborate in both vision-building and problem-solving.  They are team players and see information transparency a team-building tool not a risk.
• Innovate without even trying.  GenY learns through trial and error.  They’re tinkers of ideas, platforms, business models and products.  Their spin creates new products and market niches that no other generation has dared to dream of.
• Have the inside story on a huge market:  the echo boomers.  As part of that generation, they understand the sentiments of this demand bubble and know how to turn them around into marketable products.
• Build brands from the inside out.  Their personality precedes product, making both memorable and unique
• Live and breathe social entrepreneurship.  They have a strong sense of social justice, expect transparency, and want to change things for the better….for others, not just themselves.
• Understand technology intuitively.  They don’t think it; they just do it.
• Believe in work-life balance.  They work hard and play hard, on their own time. Personal accountability is the expected work ethic, with freedom to decide how and when you work the reward.
• Set clear business goals but are very flexible in mapping the path to reach them.  They “do” rather than plan, placing their bets on experimentation, adaptation, and learning from failure to attain success.

Others concur.  In their new book FUSE: Igniting the Full Power of the Creative Economy, Jim Finkelstein and Mary Gavin argue that even if GenYers haven’t chosen the entrepreneurial path, they have entrepreneurial qualities that make them strong innovative intrapreneurs within established ventures.  The key is creating an environment that allows GenYers to thrive. 

The drawbacks of GenY determination?  The same skills that make them valuable to a firm make them itchy to move on and do something meaningful — such as starting their own business.  In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Bruce Tulgan, founder of research firm Rainmaker Thinking, says of GenYers:

“This is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world…The good news is they’re also going to be the most high-performing workforce in the history of the world. They walk in with more information in their heads, more information at their fingertips – and, sure, they have high expectations — but they have the highest expectations first and foremost for themselves.”

Collaborating with GenY entrepreneurs – and intrapreneurs— can lead to new ways of thinking about your business.  But more importantly, it can also stimulate innovation, growth and increased profitability.  Learn how to work with this generation effectively, and you’ll see that there’s no box in out-of-the-box thinking. 

If you liked reading this you may also enjoy:

1. Entrepreneurship with a Twist
2. Today’s Young Entrepreneur
3. Calling All Bold Entrepreneurs