Facebook vs. the Fortune 500
By Steve Tobak
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Do you think your company will need to transform its management practices in order to attract and motivate the Facebook Generation? Management expert Gary Hamel thinks so, and while he presents an interesting argument, I wouldn’t overhaul your entire corporate structure just yet.
Here’s the premise, the experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of [Generation F]. If your company hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly.
With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These features of Web-based life are written into the social DNA of Generation F - and mostly missing from the managerial DNA of the average Fortune 500 company.
Having “grown up” in the tech industry, I’ve seen many aspects (but not all, mind you) of the “coming changes” Hamel refers to already in practice. They’re entrepreneurial characteristics that have been part of high-tech America for some time, brought to us by the likes of Cisco, Dell, Google, Intel, and Microsoft.
hese companies and they’re innovative entrepreneurs and managers have already been transforming the Fortune 500 for at least one generation, if not two. Moreover, the change has been and will continue to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. As such, I don’t see Gen F making or necessitating transformational changes to management practices; they’re already in progress.
Anyway, that’s what I think. Take a look at Hamel’s 12 characteristics and let us know what you think. Here’s a list, but the entire post is here: The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500.
- All ideas compete on an equal footing.
- Contribution counts for more than credentials.
- Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
- Leaders serve rather than preside.
- Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
- Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
- Resources get attracted, not allocated.
- Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
- Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
- Users can veto most policy decisions.
- Intrinsic rewards matter most.
- Hackers are heroes.
Is Hamel right? Will the Facebook Generation transform corporate America, or is that work already in progress courtesy of the technology industry? And what do you think of these characteristics? While I believe some (1, 2, 8, 11) are positive and in progress, others (6, 9, 10, 12) are pretty radical.