Young people, especially children, implicitly understand digital technology in a way that the rest of us can only watch and admire. John Perry Barlow calls them the "natives" of cyberspace. MIT's Andy Lippman makes the point even more poignantly. Speaking to a large European industrial company struggling to understand how it could turn itself into a digital-ready company, and fast, Lippman said there was only one way: "Hire the children."
Tomorrow's customers, competitors, and business partners, born and raised on digital technology in their homes, schools, and toys, will not only expect but demand commercial relationships that are technology enabled. Children who grow up playing with 64-bit networked video games won't simply reject text-based interfaces and suboptimal communication speeds, they will find them incomprehensible, like some form of hieroglyphics. And their attention spans for new goods and services are themselves expressed in Internet years-that is, they are about one-seventh as patient as adults.
The good news, however, is that today's children will be the product designers, customer service providers, and business managers of tomorrow. One way to understand the needs of the next generation is by talking to them and creating an environment where they can build the structures that will take today's organization forward. You can succeed at digital strategy, quite simply, by putting them in charge.
Tomorrow's customers, competitors, and business partners, born and raised on digital technology in their homes, schools, and toys, will not only expect but demand commercial relationships that are technology enabled. Children who grow up playing with 64-bit networked video games won't simply reject text-based interfaces and suboptimal communication speeds, they will find them incomprehensible, like some form of hieroglyphics. And their attention spans for new goods and services are themselves expressed in Internet years-that is, they are about one-seventh as patient as adults.
The good news, however, is that today's children will be the product designers, customer service providers, and business managers of tomorrow. One way to understand the needs of the next generation is by talking to them and creating an environment where they can build the structures that will take today's organization forward. You can succeed at digital strategy, quite simply, by putting them in charge.
Inès and Barbara are having a little conversation about this subject. We both came to the conclusion that there is a change of roles in the families: kids are now teaching their parents something they had no idea about.
