I have read a number of books and skimmed a handful of journals and articles about generation gap in companies and the strategies employed to mitigate the risks brought about by the lack of business skills as a result of this gap. It’s interesting to note and observe a shift of factors causing such gaps. Just over a decade and a half ago when I first stepped into the corporate environment, the most generation gap imminent at the time was purely that of age in relation to the gab between the skills by the top brass in companies and the middle management. Simply put, the average age of a CEO was 60 years and that of the middle management about 40 years, thus creating a gab of about 20 years. So, this 20-year gap, mirrored the time period that the middle management needed to catch up in order to match the skills required of potentially becoming the next senior executives in a company. The only challenge for companies and mangers running them was to train and develop future leaders and managers on business skills. It was through this practice that, then, it was more appropriate to work in a company for 20 years before one became a manager.
The converse of this generational gap development was that, these senior managers were foreign to the use of technology. You wouldn’t be surprised if most senior managers in a company would find it hard and difficult, if not possible, to operate a computer. The governance of most companies was administered manually, with the exception of companies in the IT environment and some service industries. Meaning that operationally, there were no sophisticated technological tools available like it is the case today. So, this meant, while the generation of 40 year olds, then, had to catch up with business skills, the older generations in the 60’s had to catch up with technology.
Whereas I cut my teeth in a campus/ community radio, but my first corporate job was in a newspaper publishing company. I was a sales representative with no laptop, let alone a desktop computer. My boss had a desktop but for writing memos and other admin work. I was a techie though. My four years at university orientated me to technology. In a way I was part of this converse generational gap of technology and business skills.
Observing the current corporate environment, the generation gap has shifted. Generation X has to cope with the proliferation of technology in every aspect of life. In companies Generation Y is “taking over”. Technology defines how companies should be run. The advancement of telecommunications and cheaper access thereof is changing the traditional ways of business operations. Now as opposed to just training and development in business skills, the challenge is TECHNOLOGY! This, not only shifts the nature of training and development, but also compounds the focus of how companies operate in the midst of technological advancement. I guess it would be a daunting task to strike a balance of this reversal generational gap. Even the age gab has shifted. The average age of a CEO is now about 50 years and middle management is about 35 years. While three decades ago an average tenure of a CEO in a company was 10-15 years, now it is merely 7 years. It begs the questions; will the future industries demand technology orientated business managers and leaders? Wouldn’t this technological advancement impact on the core development of business skills required to run companies? Are the future leaders currently consumed by technology compromising their quality time to learn and develop themselves about business skills? What about information overload? Managing companies is getting complicated by the day. But the fact remains, the more consumers are technologically advanced and orientated, the more companies need to up their technology game. Where is technology taking us?
