Demographics and the Millenial Generation

It's hard to ignore the massive influence that demographics are going to have on changing patterns of market demand and the way business will get done. With developed and developing nations fighting for talent and many countries unable to attract and absorb immigrants at a high enough rate to make up for the shortfall in young people for their economies, business is going to have to have to come up with some creative solutions about how to source and organize talent.

As if simple demographics weren't making it hard enough, there are also the changing expectations of the 'millenial generation' to deal with. Work patterns, career planning and development, reward strategies, modes of communication, organizational structures and workplace environments are all going to be radically different within the next decade. The combination of macro-economic forces at the global demographic level, plus leaders in most companies that don't even have the millenial generation as an agenda item, points to us heading for a set of clumsy and haphazard responses to these issues. The answer won't be to copy companies like Google, who have the money to recruit the cream from around the world and create work environments that companies with normal earnings can't afford. Instead, maybe we should be looking for answers in countries like Singapore who have made a head start in thinking about how to make up for population shortfalls and new businesses established by millenial generation entrepreneurs.

David Foot at the University of Toronto is a good source on demographics, if you want facts, figures and thinking on the subject.

Millenialgeneration.org keeps track of insights on the millenial generation debate.