The Net Generation, now coming of age, will shape the corporation for decades to come. Born between 1977 and 1997, these teenagers and young adults have grown up surrounded by digital devices and media. Around the world, this generation is flooding into the workplace, marketplace, and every niche of society. These youth are bringing their demographic muscle, media smarts, purchasing power, new models of collaborating and parenting, entrepreneurship, and political power into the world. Attracting sufficient numbers of Net Generation workers should be a top priority, since their talents will be critical to how companies adapt to future change.

It’s more than just how they use technology that makes today’s youth different. They seem to behave differently too. As a manager, you notice the new recruits’ spirit of collaboration. They seem to be motivated by a fresh concept of what makes a career. As a marketer, you notice that TV advertising is only marginally effective with these young people, who seem to have mature BS detectors. As a teacher or professor, you find that they seem to lack long attention spans, at least when it comes to listening to your lectures. In fact, they show signs of learning differently, and the best of them make yesterday’s cream of the crop look dull.

Typical Net Geners are, indeed, quite different from their baby boomer parents. They prize freedom and freedom of choice. They want to customize, make things their own. They’re natural collaborators who enjoy a conversation, not a lecture. They’ll scrutinize you and your organization. They insist on integrity—being open, honest, considerate, and living up to commitments. They want to have fun, even at work and at school. Speed is normal. Innovation is part of life.

The norms of the Net Generation have profound implications for corporations. They frame a whole new approach to marketing, branding, and even what constitutes value in the marketplace.

As this generation enters the workforce, they are a powerful catalyst for organizational change. To meet their demands for more learning opportunities and responsibility, instant feedback, greater work–life balance, and stronger workplace relationships, companies must alter their culture and management approaches. Companies that selectively and effectively embrace Net Gen norms perform better than those that don’t. The Net Gen culture is becoming the new culture of work, and its practices may turn out to be the key indicators of high-performing organizations in the 21st century.

It’s important to keep these young employees engaged. Despite the current economic turmoil, we’re on the brink of a major war for talent. Many companies that rely on knowledge workers already realize that the tables have turned. Twenty years ago, when college grads poured into the workforce, companies had their pick of the best and the brightest. Employees were grateful to get a job and did what they could to keep it, and the last thing on their minds was to suggest radical new ways of working and managing a company. But in the next ten years, as baby boomers retire, there won’t be enough Net Geners to fill up all the recently vacated management spots.

So now it is the employees’ turn, especially those who are most capable. They are poised to enjoy the role of being choosy about whom they work for. Companies that don’t offer opportunities to their young employees will see the finest of them walking out the door to join competitors. “Many companies come to the conclusion that the only real limitation on their growth is their ability to continue to attract, develop, and retain high-quality talent,” says Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte, one of the world’s largest accounting firms. “I don’t need to look out 25 years to say, ‘This is a business challenge.’ I can look out next year and say, ‘This is a business challenge.’”

If they don’t go to work for your competitors, many of today’s youth will set up their own businesses. Digital technologies offer small and medium-sized businesses unprecedented opportunity for creativity and entrepreneurism. New low-cost business infrastructures—from free Internet telephony to global outsourcing platforms—allow multitudes of smaller businesses to create products, access markets, and delight customers in ways that only large corporations could manage in the past. Naturally, nobody is more skilled at using these new technologies than the Net Geners.

Companies have two options. They can refuse to adapt to the Net Generation, stick to their old hierarchies, and reinforce the generational firewall that separates their managers from the newly hired minions. But in doing so, they will forfeit the chance to learn from the Net Gen—to absorb both their mind-set and their tools of collaboration. In this complex business environment, that’s a bad choice. Instead, the winners will be the companies that embrace the Net Geners’ ways. They know that the Net Generation way of working is the 21st-century way—and it can help them succeed.

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