ATREVIA and Deusto Business School presented today the report on Generation Z: The latest generational gap, where they revealed the key data to define and analyze those called Generation Z. These are young people born between 1994 and 2009 and who conform to a new archetype of consumer, worker and citizen.
The presentation of the report Generation Z: The latest generational gap took place in the headquarters of the Deusto Business School in Madrid and it was directed by the authors of the report, Núria Vilanova, founder and president of ATREVIA and Iñaki Ortega, director of Deusto Business School in Madrid. Both agreed on the importance of investigating these areas which are leading the fields of innovation and knowledge.
Núria Vilanova highlighted that “young people from Generation Z are self-educated, creative, overexposed to information, innovators and entrepreneurs. Their consumption dynamics and their behavior are absolutely different to the previous generations. The digital environment in which has forged their personality assumes that real time interaction with them is essential. We should be able to adapt resources and systems to these new needs: job positions, communication channels, learning models and dialogues should be enforced so that Generation Z feels more integrated in society”.
Iñaki Ortega added in respect to the Youth Z that “those that think that with the millennials we have already covered this sense of wonder, they are wrong and we will have to once again begin to learn from the members of Generation Z”. The doctor in economics stated that “what define them is that there was never a generation before that was more educated and socialized with the internet in their bags. This makes asking their parents, teachers, bosses questions irrelevant but they also have more capacity to empathize, make friends, be young entrepreneurs and be more socially involved than ever before. The world will be better with them if the rest of the generations are capable of introducing the new changes that this generation demands”.
Generation Z, motor for education and labor change
From the conclusion of the report, we can highlight that the members of Generation Z are characterized by being self-taught and creative who belong to the first generation that has incorporated Internet in the early stages of their learning and socialization. In addition, their personality has been shaped into a liquid, diverse and in crisis society.
Generation Z is defined by the high capacity of working on the web, who have different cultures and are in positions that are related to creativity and innovation. Another conclusion that is extracted from the report is that the the most valuable professions in the future will not be those that are ultraspecialized in a particular field, but those who are knowledgeable in many different fields.
Are companies prepared for this new consumer and worker? From the worries of the Youth Z, they find that they are not able to find a job according to their personality; they don’t have professional growth opportunities or achieving goal careers. In addition, their preference for autonomy within the work environment has led many millennials to become entrepreneurs even before having a first job; it remains to those called to pick their witness: 55% of the 50,000 adolescents surveyed by Universum in 45 countries showed their interest in launching a startup. In Spain the percentage is much lower at 39% but it is still very relevant.
Youth Z as consumers and autonomous workers
The report Generation z: the latest generational gap discovered the essential characteristics of this new generation that brands need to take into account: Youth Z are already are consumers of some of the initiatives born in the framework of the collaborative economy, a phenomenon that this generation understands, supports and accepts as something natural. Many of its members will join this emerging reality, both as users, as well as entrepreneurs and service providers.
Very related with the opportunities that the digital collaborative environment delivers is the gig economy, where the new generations will be main players. This demonstration reflects the step in the economy where the work is stable, for others and for one employer to another which it tends to be temporary, autonomous and for various employers throughout the career. Generation Z is more linked to projects, so that in the future it will generate a large network of autonomous work that linked together will undertake powerful initiatives.
The report that was elaborated by Iñaki Ortega Cachón, Iván Soto San Andrés and Cecilio Cerdán Carbonero for ATREVIA and Deusto Business School. It also held the collaborations of instititions like Fundación Ashoka, Fundación Créate, Fundación Promete, Telefónica Open Future, Junior Achievement and personalities like the philosopher José Antonio Marina. In ATREVIA, apart from Núria Vilanova, coauthor of the report, Asun Soriano, Isabel Lara and Gema Román also participated in the reports development.
