Growthdebate
Life Stage is Just Smoke and Mirrors
The generational gurus tell us that life-stage
descriptions provide market intelligence that no
business manager can live without. The evidence
however tells us otherwise.
Every day we are assaulted by reductions of our
rich social landscape through the use of terms
such as ‘baby boomer’ and ‘generation X’ or
‘generation Y’.
These crude life-stage descriptors, so loved
by demographers and social commentators, are
however, all part of a smoke and mirrors hoax.
Lifestage labels like Gen Y are based on only
one factor — age. So, what does that make
them good for? They’re great at telling us how
old someone is.
How can anyone seriously imagine however,
that age alone determines our values, attitudes,
behaviour and work choices?
Take ‘Generation Y’ — all Australians in the
14-to-28 age group.
This group includes priests, alcoholics,
politicians, police officers, musicians,
unemployed labourers, doctors, lovers,
haters, lesbians, liberals, believers, heretics,
scientologists, rich, poor, spenders, savers,
technophiles, technophobes…
Yet Gen Y is simplistically described as teens
and twenty-somethings who are techno savvy,
in control of their lives, demanding of work/life
balance, upwardly mobile and time poor. Sound
familiar?
This is, the story goes, what makes them
a force to be reckoned with; a generation to
be attracted by employers, and a rich vein of
consumers to be mined by marketers.
But what about the poorly educated 26-year-
old single mother with two children who’s trying
to find casual work just to pay the rent?
She is a Gen Y, and is certainly time poor
— but she has no money, or energy to learn
about new technology, and she lives a life
completely out of her control.
What age alone fails to provide is any insight
into why or how choices will be made, or who
within the particular age range is most likely to
behave one way or the other.
Something miraculous happens however
when we combine NEOs, with Gen Y.
NEO, an acronym for new economic order, is
that band of four million Australians who direct
their own lives, dominate the Internet, spend
more, earn more and demand more from just
about everyone.
Identified using the Roy Morgan Single
Source database that collects data from
120,000 respondents each year around the
world, NEOs add an ingredient to Gen Y that
both explains and explodes the myth.
In partnership with Gen Y authority Peter
12 | GrowthBusiness
Sheahan, we found there are more than one
million Gen Ys who are also NEOs, and this
is who the demographers have had in their
observational sights all along. This is who they
mean when they talk about Gen Y.
For example, almost 90 per cent of the
Gen Y NEOs are in the top third of spenders
in the economy (known as Big Spenders). But
demographers talk about all Gen Ys, so what
does the evidence tell us about them? The
answer is that only a quarter of Gen Ys as a
whole are in this Big Spender category.
Despite all the hype, only one in twenty-
five Gen Ys are actually in a managerial or
professional occupation. But this jumps to one
in four when we take NEOs who are in the Gen
Y age range. And Y NEOs are 50 per cent more
likely than the population as a whole to be in
executive jobs.
“Lifestage labels like Gen Y
are based on only one factor
— age. So, what does that
make them good for? They’re
great at telling us how old
someone is.”
Terms like Gen Y and Baby Boomer
are undoubtedly useful when they help
demographers predict how much health care
will be needed over the next decade, or what
the work force age profile will look like as the
population matures.
It’s only when those demographers stray into
the realms of behaviour and attitudes that we
see the guesswork, the smoke and mirrors for
what they are.
Age is useful, but it’s just one demographic
factor, and it’s not until age is combined with
something more sophisticated that it gets very
sexy.
Team it up with the 194 factors that define
NEOs and it becomes a talisman, a bellwether;
evidence-based rather than just the product of
an overhyped imagination.
Age on its own might be fascinating to some,
but it really is just how old we are.
Ross Honeywill is executive director of the privately
funded consumer think-tank, the Centre for Customer
Strategy and is co-author with Verity Byth of NEO
Power: how the new economic order is changing the
way we live, work and play
(www.scribepublications.com.au)
e: ross.honeywill@neogroup.net
www.neogroup.net
Why is age alone misleading?
Let’s compare Y NEOs with Gen Y:
• Y NEOs are six times more likely to earn in
excess of $70,000pa
• More than half (53%) YNEOs have a degree (a
third of Gen Y)
• More than half (52%) YNEOs are in full-time
employment (a quarter of Gen Ys)
• A third of Y NEOs are in the AB socio-
economic quintile (8% of Gen Y)
• Y NEOs are five times more likely to buy a
Toyota Prius (Gen Ys are 60 per cent less likely
than the average Australian to buy Toyota’s
climate-friendly hybrid)
• Two-thirds of Y NEOs live apart from their
parents (two-thirds of Gen Ys live at home with
their parents)
• Y NEOs are three times more likely to own a
Lexus
• Y NEOs are 80% more likely to use the Internet
frequently
• Y NEOs are four times more likely to read the
Australian Financial Review
• Y NEOs are twice as likely to read The Age or
the Sydney Morning Herald
Issue 4 | Oct/Nov 2007
Dispelling the Negative
Myths About Generation Y
The differences between generations are more than
distinct ways of looking at things or new solutions for
problems. They are gut-level differences in values that
involve a person’s beliefs, emotions, and preferences.
Unfortunately, when there is inadequate
understanding and a lack of tolerance for
difference, we make assumptions about people
who are from different generations. Both Baby
Boomers and Gen Xers see Gen Y as overly
self confident, impatient, restless, irresponsible
and wanting “everything now” and on their
terms. As a huge fan of Gen Y, I’d like to dispel
some of the common misconceptions about
Gen Y.
• Gen Y are overly self confident and
outspoken. Gen Y is self confident and
outspoken, but they don’t see themselves
this way. They see themselves simply
as “telling it like it is”, whether they are
dealing with their parents, friends, peers
or managers. It is ironic that Gen Y are
self confident, have good self esteem and
challenge the status quo as a result of
how they were brought up by their Baby
Boomer parents. Boomers encouraged
them to challenge the status quo. Then
Gen Y entered the workforce and was told:
“…but not at work!” Their reaction was
simply: “What do you mean. I just have one
life, not two separate lives, at home and at
work.”
• Gen Y constantly challenge authority
by asking “Why?” all the time. Gen
Y constantly ask: “Why?” However, it
is misconstrued by their managers as
challenging their authority, when that is
not Gen Y’s intent at all. They are simply
asking “Why?” because they want to
understand how what they are doing at
work fits into the bigger picture. They want
to be sure that the work they are doing adds
value and is meaningful.
• Gen Y are impatient and don’t want
to “do their time” at work. Gen Y are
impatient, as they are the “stimuli junkie
generation”, having been stimulated
through TV, the Internet, Playstations, iPods
and DVDs. Then there were the constant
after-school activities every day of the week
that they were sent to by their ambitious,
competitive Baby Boomer parents. Gen Y
have never had time to just do nothing. The
whole stimuli junkie thing is not a bad thing
at all. It means Gen Ys are great multi-
taskers.
• Gen Y don’t care about anything
except themselves. Gen Y does care
about a lot of things – their family, friends,
the environment and those who are
www.kenzipublishing.com.au
disadvantaged. They are one of the most
socially conscious generations since the
1960s. They want to make a difference,
and believe they can, and are exhibiting
a refreshing altruism that embraces
environmental, socio-economic and
community problems.
• Gen Y have no loyalty. What Boomer
managers normally mean when they say
this about Gen Y is that they have no
loyalty to the organisation, and that is
correct. However, they are loyal, but to
something else – the team and a good
manager. A “sense of belonging” is
crucially important to Gen Y’s motivation
and wellbeing at work. They want to be
part of a team where they feel they belong
and are valued. Their other loyalty is to a
good manager.
• Gen Y are far more interested in things
other than their jobs. While this is true to
some extent, it is important to understand
that the catch cry for Gen Y is “I have a
life!” and for them work is just one aspect
of their holistic approach to how they
manage their lives. Work is NOT the most
important thing. Another distinguishing
feature is that they do not define
themselves by what it is that they do. Gen
Y believe the key will be to work smarter
not harder, using technology and their
multi-tasking skills to do jobs in a shorter
space of time.
• Gen Y wants everything, and they
want it NOW! While this is true, it is more
important to understand why they think this
way, as Gen Y don’t understand why this
is a problem with the older generations,
especially at work. They believe this is just
how things are. Veterans and boomers
have always believed that patience is
a virtue. Gen Y don’t, they believe that
people who spend their life waiting will get
run over by people who are doing.
• Gen Y have no respect for older people.
This is not necessarily true. However, Gen
Y is the first generation in the workplace
who will demand mutual respect, i.e.
you do not get respect at work because
you are more senior, bald, older or more
experienced. They WILL give you respect
as a manager and leader, but only if you
lead by example.
The key motivator for Gen Y is Inspiring
Leadership. I asked Gen Y: “What does
Growthdebate
Avril Henry, Managing Director, Avril Henry Pty Ltd,
is a keynote speaker, leadership consultant and
author. Avril Henry dispels myths in her new book
Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders Today: Breaking Down
Generational Barriers at Work.
www.avrilhenry.com.au
The Henry Report
The purpose of the Henry Report was to review
existing recruitment and retention practices in
the light of the skills shortage in Australia, and
the growing realisation that young people were
no longer joining the Army, Air Force or Navy in
large numbers, as some 20 – 30 years ago.
The Henry Report made 59 recommendations,
with the majority of these recommendations
accepted and approved by Cabinet in December
2006. Two key recommendations which are
already paying dividends, were reviewing
branding and advertising across all three services
and the introduction of the “Gap Year”, which
meant young people could join for a year and have
a “taste” of life in Defence.
The new Army TV ads show army personnel
helping people both domestically and
internationally in times of need, e.g.: army
doctors and nurses helping people in third world
countries; and army personnel helping victims
in Northern Queensland following last year’s
cyclone. The response to both these advertising
g campaigns has been overwhelmingly positive.
Why? Because they were designed for, and
appealed to the very people we were targeting
– young people who want to do meaningful work
and make a difference.
inspiring leadership mean to you?” They
responded in general with: “I want to work for
someone who loves what they do, and loves it
so much that they want to teach you what they
know.”
The more we understand about what
motivates generations which are different to
our own, the less likely we are to be judgmental
and misconstrue their intentions. The more
we understand the less likely we are to react
adversely, overreact or react inappropriately.
Understanding, and subsequently acceptance,
is crucial to healthy, effective relationships both
at work and in society.
GrowthBusiness | 13