In her recent TEDx talk, Morton Capital COO Stacey Mckinnon riffed on the concept that a lot of cultural problems arise from blaming others, specifically Millennials.
The talk itself is worth checking out, and is interesting as it comes from a Millennial that, contrary to the stereotype, very much has it together. In fact, a lot of the leading-edge innovation is coming from industry participants who are not rich in years.
As we covered in the New Frontiers in Wealth Management report, a lot of the challenges of taking wealth management to the next level will depend on the older generation’s ability to let go, not just of ownership, but of ‘creative control’.
How to use technology, how to communicate with the next generation of clients, and how to design an offering that has a competitive edge in a post-internet world, are not problems that you can solve by reaching for past experience.
This is not a fun process (initially)
I noticed something odd when I moved from being a young employee to managing younger employees.
An intern or new graduate was able to sit down with a problem for which there was no established solution, and use tools that took me years to learn, to produce answers I would (to this day) be unable to create by myself.
This obviously was not the most ego-boosting experience. But even after I had gotten over the emotional trauma, I still couldn’t figure out what had happened.
When I had just entered the workforce, my lack of experience was a distinct disadvantage in approaching problems. I genuinely did ‘know nothing’ and it was many years before I could make a contribution above the level of grunt work.
So what changed in the intervening decade (in my case 2006 – 2015)?
Possibly, it is something to do with the accelerating pace of change, and in particular the step change that occurred with the introduction of broadband and digitization of the economy.
This really got going after my own ‘geriatric millennial’ cohort – who first experienced the internet using dial-up – had finished our secondary education.
When the pace of change accelerates, experience can become a hindrance, and youth becomes an advantage.
So what are you saying?
Wealth managers who look back on a successful career, largely in the pre-digital age, are naturally inclined to look with affectionate condescension upon younger employees who ‘haven’t been in the game for more than five minutes’.
Applying the logic above reverses this point of view.
Not only are fresh graduates better placed to solve the problems you may not even be aware that your business is facing, but they are also less likely to require compensation levels that a more experienced hire would demand.
In other words, younger employees are (for now at least) the arbitrage opportunity of the century. Better labor at cheaper rates!
It doesn’t matter to the client who in your team is responsible for a solution or how old they are, and it shouldn’t matter to you as the owner either.
Empowering younger employees – though culturally and psychologically difficult – is a no-brainer from a financial and strategic perspective. In fact, the psychological hurdle only increases the opportunity, as competitors who are more set-in-their-ways are likely to find it hard to follow.
The kids are more than alright. How are you doing?