I’ve never played the game but I know many friends and colleagues who swear by it and sometimes use it to consummate business relationships and deals.
I can see the logic. Being one on one with a business associate for 4 hours whilst enjoying a joint pleasure is the perfect recipe for business harmony.
For the Generation Y’s this is ancient history. Remember the eldest Gen Y is around aged 34 now so are taking up increasingly important managerial positions.
Gen Y’s golf course is Xbox.
Or any kind of interactive online experience.
Yes, I have heard a number of occasions where two business people, usually men, who would have met on the golf course in olden days, prefer to hook up on Xbox whilst multi playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood or any other computer game that’s trending. It’s all done online for this generation.
And I have the proof, having 3 teenagers at home; they stay at home and connect with their friends online whereas I would have gone out to meet them in pubs and clubs. Almost a third of marriages evolve from online date sites than the old fashioned way of meeting face to face.
If you have employees and managers who are Generation Y, have you planned for this?
- Have you educated your senior management team so they understand how the younger generation managers like to interact? Most just don’t “get it”
- Do you actively use online meeting software throughout the company?
- Do you have internal social forums or LinkedIn type facilities for people to network?
- Do you frown on this way of interacting with clients? If you currently do, then stop frowning and embrace it.
- If you run a company, do you allow access to online gaming for relationship building? Do your account managers have access to this? Do you have an official Xbox account?
- Do you have a Bring Your Own Device – BYOD – policy? You should.
- Do you give your account managers access to all the social media that they would want to use to “hook” up with clients. I know countless firms who lock down these sites declaring security concerns. Come on IT departments get with the future and sort it out.
- Do you have your Customer Relationship Management – CRM – linked to social media and firmly in the cloud? If not, then you should.
The next generation, known as Generation Z – born since 2000 – now if you think Gen Y’s are scary, just wait for Gen Z’s – they’re 24/7 online because that’s the way we’ve weaned them.
