Adam Salamon: A Connection Made

Technology is changing the world with amazing speed, and the more technology advances, the more we come to expect from it. This has a broad impact for the people, politics and businesses of the future, especially as Generation Y enters the workforce. Generation Y is a generation of inflection as far as generations go, as we are a generation that has grown up with the so-called technologies of the future. We are the first generation to have been brought up with Internet, social connectivity, and instant information. Our generation is essentially defining the pace of information, and as we enter the workforce, we expect the rest of the working world to be in-step.

Speed and Connections

Older generations call us impatient, but our eagerness and expectation for immediacy is really only a product of the technologies that raised us. Simply put, we are a broadband generation.  We are accustomed to fast connections, where web pages load without delay and communication is virtually instantaneous.  And outside our web browsers, we expect a similar pace.  We want replies now.  We want prices now.  We want our grades and purchases – now.  Any hiccup in this feedback loop frustrates us.  So, these older generations are dubbing our progress as impatience, making no concessions for perspective.  Metaphorically, we process the world with T1 connections, while everyone else is still stuck with dial-up.

Our connections have given us confidence and belief in our ideas.  In the connected age, ideas are so free-flowing that the intern in the mail room could have the idea that changes the world.  In the past, that intern was mostly powerless, but now that intern lives in a world of collaboration.  In our generation, a person with an excellent idea can get people from around the world to contribute, rebuttal, and help implement that idea from one minute to the next.  For those without the connections, it means an idea is not actionable.  But our generation has the connections. And as we come into the workforce in full force, we have the expectations that the workforce will move just as fast as the world we’ve been brought up in.  There has been a convergence between space and time with the advancement of information, technology, and connectivity. The implications these technologies create spread far and wide.

The Future of Connections for Business

When access to information increases, we can expect things to become more efficient.  My parents owned a fabric and textile store on the Mexican border during the 80’s and 90’s.  The majority of their business came from Mexican day-shoppers who came to the US for products they couldn’t find in Mexico.  For years they made great money.  However, once NAFTA was instituted, Mexican shoppers could get these same products in Mexico directly from the people my parents bought from.  Now, there was no reason for Mexican shoppers to come to the US side.  They had access to the source.   

This trend will continue in the future and will affect many businesses.  Retailers will have a harder time doing business as middlemen between consumers and products. Consumers will want and demand access to manufacturers.  Consumers will bypass the dealers and get straight to the source, so as a retailer who sells a broad selection of items, it means you will have to be in the business of selling experience and convenience over merchandise.  CompUSA going out of business is a good example of this trend.  Consumers of the future will naturally make connections with manufacturers, giving direct feedback, and expecting to have retailer-like experiences.  As this continues, retailers will cannibalize each other as margins become thinner and consumers demand transparency.   

Global Connections

This transparency will spill into politics as well.  In the past, territory and space separated cultures, but people from all over the world are now connecting and finding out that we have more in common than we could have imagined. We are creating real relationships with real people, and the effect this will have on geopolitics in the future will be profound.  Interests are no longer aligned based on an area or territory, but on the human interests that connect us.  Those in power will need to be cognizant of these grassroots connections, as any decision that ignores these connections has the opportunity to ostracize.   

In all aspects of the world, time and space are converging and changing the way people create connections and make decisions.  Businesses and employers will have to evolve with the changes in the way people are connecting and the way they seek information—that is, straight from the source rather than going through intermediaries.  Younger generations are coming to expect a transparent world where access to information and connections are instantaneous.  Future generations will only come to expect more.  Even our generation will have trouble adapting and keeping up with those new speeds.  We are at an inflection point, but this is only the beginning.  Ultimately, technology is enabling us to transcend boundaries and connect information with people.  Through these connections, the future will empower individual decision makers, giving them the ability to implement their own ideas, whether they are business, political, or personal.

Adam Salamon writes for Creating Your Name Brand and is a Senior Market Developer at Bazaarvoice. 

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Adam,

Excellent post! I think you assume older generations call you impatient: I am 60-something and was and still am impatient, as are most I know. But forget that--it's but a small point. As an entrepreneur, business consultant and one who thinks both in the moment and in the future, please keep sharing your point of view. We need to hear it often.

[Adam Salamon]

Lewis,

Thanks for the comments. Another word I often hear about our generation is our blatant sense of entitlement. Entitlement and impatience can be seen as one and the same, but that's not to say others don't have that same chip on their shoulder.

Great to meet and glad you enjoyed the article.

[Kare Anderson]

As part of that older generation to which you refer I LOVE the net for enabling me to discover bright, quick minds like yours. Methinks you would have b e quick, pre-Internet.

Just consider the power in
• going slow to go fast,
• not multi-tasking all the time, and
• collaborating with people who are extremely unlike you
.... in this flattening world dedicated to the power of us.

- another fan
Kare, movingfrommetowe.com
In a civilization when love is
gone we turn to justice and when
justice is gone we turn to power
and when power is gone we
turn to violence.

Opportunity is often inconvenient.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Kare:

In Italian there's even a saying, or maybe it's in my family -- when you are in a hurry, slow down. It works, it takes less time to do something well as it does to correct what is not so good many times over.

We underestimate the power of concentration. More sometimes is less. When it is more, it may be more things of less import.

Teams made up of different people are indeed stronger in my experience as well.

[Jarrod]

I love this post. I used it in my high school English class yesterday to spark a discussion about the postive impacts/negative impacts of technology on our culture, relationships, education, and politics. Your ideas really got these teenagers thinking about the way their culture has embraced technology and how it affects their world view.

What I found interesting was their acknowledgement that technology often made them too lazy and too impatient. They felt that as information and connections have become so easy, that they actually do less with those. They often ignore the power of these connections that are so easily accessible. Many admitted that they actually spend less time face-to-face with friends and family now.

My question now is this: will we ever be able to harness the power of our technology to create deep and rich relationships (whether business or social), or will our technology become nothing more than a way to trick ourselves into feeling connected?

[Valeria Maltoni]

That is really great news. I love it when conversations leap off the page into life and are tried on in other forums. I think it important to teach younger generations about the power of face to face, in person conversations, too.

I grew up on those and I make the effort to keep them in the mix. It is indeed tempting to think that emails and online messages are sufficient -- there comes a time when depth is required. Feeling connected also takes time. Technology serves people, not the other way around ;-)

[Adam Salamon]

Jarrod,

I'm glad you had that conversation with your teenagers.

To address your question, as technology advances, we are further separated from in-person relationships. However, that's not to say that it's ruining the way relationships are formed, kept, and evolved.

People said telephones were going to ruin interpersonal relationships, but we now know that it's a great tool to keep in touch. It doesn't replace in person interaction, but it does a good job for pinging. Email and SMS ruined the art of phone calls, but it hasn't ruined our connections

In the end though, in order for relationships to evolve past a certain point, we must meet in person and share experiences together, because that is what truly creates a deep relationship in the first place.

For example, if you've met the love of your life on a dating site, at some point you have to meet that person in real life :)