18 Mar
2013

The Connected Generation

The ten commandments of Generation Z

 

Last week I was chairing Travel Technology Initiative’s Spring conference, Let’s Get Personal. It was about social media, personalisation and customer relationship management; all those good things that are so important to be doing well.

There were some great presenters. They talked about how to do social media better, working with bloggers, the enormity of the mobile opportunity and so on. You can view the presentations on my website.

The last speaker was William Beckler, Head of Innovation at lastminute.com. He made an interesting throw-away comment. To paraphrase, if you have a Head of Mobile or Social Media Department, you are doing it wrong. What did he mean?

The thing is, here we are sitting in our businesses. We are trying to ride the latest trends, profit from them whilst not being at the bleeding edge. Meanwhile, Generation Y has grown-up. The first of Generation Z are now teenagers.

Gen Y and Z consumers, born from the late 1990s onwards, are the people who have never known what it is like not to be online, not to have information, products and services at their fingertips. They are the Connected Generation and they are the consumers of the future.
To the Connected Generation, the interchange of information via electronic devices is nothing special – it’s just life. Sharing thoughts on Twitter, posting pictures on Facebook, reading peer reviews, shopping online is just what one does as part of every day routine. It is no more special than switching on a light or turning on a tap.

If you are one of the Connected Generation, you couldn’t imagine that a business would need a “social media executive” or a “mobile development” department. It’s just business. If you are one of the Connected Generation you would be thinking, “What is social media? I just connect with my friends? What is e-commerce? I just shop on any device that I am holding in my hand.”

This is the technological and organisational challenge facing the travel industry right now. With travel’s enduring need to pass electronic information between industry players and consumers, we should be at the forefront of seamless connectivity. We are not. Many travel companies put up a good face with a slick online presence but we are the ducks that are calm on the surface whilst paddling like mad under water. We are hamstrung by legacy systems. They have served the industry so well in the past but are now threatening to hold us back. We need to win the battle to move on.

Organisationally, we don’t need the online marketing department, we don’t need the social media executives, we don’t need the mobile development team. Siloed departments such as these are from the last Millenium. We need to completely re-configure our businesses to embrace all these disciplines and areas of expertise as part of all our activities across all departments. Gen Z will be expecting nothing less.