Connected Customer

What qualifies as digital alienation for the CIO and the digital executive? Is it about “age” or is about being connected? I would suggest it is increasingly less and less about age. It is about being a part of the connected generation.

Is it about Generation Y or X? Or is it about “Generation C”, the connected generation that cuts across all age groups.

Generation C is an important new consumer segment in modern commerce. 65% are under 35, but they span all generational groupings. Empowered by technology, they search out authentic content that they consume across platforms and screens, whenever and wherever they can.

“Generation C” is the growing technology-led subset of the total population that is characterised by a constant demand for connectivity. Indeed, anecdotal research suggests that 91% of Gen C sleep next to their smartphone. While technically “a mindset defined by creation, curation, connection and community” (according to Google research) rather than a defined age range, the fact that 80% of Millennials sit in this category means the terms are occasionally used interchangeably.

Generation C will organically expand as global smartphone penetration increases and more children are born with connectivity as a way of life. The effect of this shift is currently most visible within consumer and technology sectors, but has an impact across the board, as broadly as healthcare, transport and energy.

It was one of those regular meetings with a CIO that turned out to be quite an eye opener. In his late 40’s, an engineering and MBA grad by qualification (both from premier institutes), he looks like an epitome of the man keeping good pace with today’s times. His phone and tablet are far from outdated, and have quite a few apps running on them. Being a CIO, I bet, he is much ahead of the technology curve than the likes of many regular non-techie people like me. Hence, it came as a surprise as he rued about how his 17 years old daughter calls him outdated.

This got me wondering whether that is what today’s CIOs feel at work too, as Millennials increasingly make way into the workforce at organizations? An average CIO would be in 40’s, though there will be those on the higher as well as lower side of this age, and at least a decade or two older than Gen Y.

via Is CIO Facing Digital Alienation by Gen Y? – DynamicCIO.com.

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