The Sunday Mail
Mark Zuckerberg
ECONOMIC trends have been changing rapidly over the last decade. Innovation has become the talk of the decade and business is evolving faster than before.
Slow thinking and poor decision making is now fatal as it may have catastrophic results in some economies.
The world over policy makers are now fashioning out programmes that look at innovative ways to reach the younger generation and encourage them to engage in areas where they may not have been given a voice in the past.
Youth have a lot of energy and enthusiasm that can be leveraged for the good of the local economy.
Well, in Zimbabwe it is arguable that the youth are not being afforded the right platform to express their views and participate in the economic life of the nation. But engaging the youth as partners should be a priority.
By giving youth the power and knowledge to make their own life decisions, it is possible to help benefit communities in a variety of ways, from boosting the local economy to pushing for accountability and transparent governance.
Notwithstanding the fact that those that have been in the trenches for a long time have the wisdom and experience acquired over the years, the youth can provide energy and innovative ideas that can turnaround companies or even the economy of any country in the world.
Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, the founder of Facebook, is the youngest CEO at a Fortune 1 000 company, according to an analysis conducted for The Wall Street Journal.
At the tender age of 30, the youthful businessman has been able to make a huge impact in the world. The social networking site has more than a billion users around the world. Crucially, the success of Zuckerberg is helping to revive the tradition of the young chief executive in the technology industry.
Only four executives under the age of 40 took command of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies between 2004 and 2008, according to a study by recruiters Spencer Stuart.
In 2010, the average age of incoming CEOs at S&P 500 companies was 52,9, down from 54,7 in 2006, the Conference Board, a business-research group, says.
The technology business has ushered a number of young executives into their company’s top job in recent years, including 38-year-old Google Inc. CEO Larry Page.
Also, eight of the 42 technology and Internet companies that held initial public offerings in the US in 2011 were led by CEOs who were under 40 at the time, according to a review of data from capital-markets data firm Dealogic.
Vivek Wadhwa, a management theorist, found that the average age of the founders of those successful companies was 39, and that twice as many founders were older than 50 as were younger than 25.
Experience, he concluded, trumps youth more often than many believe.
“Age provides a distinct advantage,” he wrote. Ben Horowitz of the venture firm Andreessen & Horowitz laid out the counterargument in a long post in 2010 on his firm’s website. In it, he explained that he would prefer to bet on companies led by young founders because they are better at finding innovative products.
They are worse than experienced CEOs at squeezing money out of those products, he conceded, but he argued that skill is easier to teach.
James W. Breyer, a director of Facebook who works closely with Zuckerberg, said age matters less and less.
“Skills, passion, intense curiosity and extremely high IQ are more important,” he added. Zimbabwe has some of the most educated and intelligent youth who have made a significant impact in other economies.
However, it is sad to note that some youth are exposed to corruption at the tender age of 16 when they are trying to get their driver’s licence. Many youth in Zimbabwe may now view corrupt tendencies as the way business is supposed to be run. It has often been proven that paying bribes and kickbacks in order to get certain favours is not the way to conduct business.
A lost generation may be in the making. Our elders should instil ethics and proper values in the youth. Integrity is key. It is really unfortunate when elders impart some corrupt tendencies to the youth.
What will become of the future if business is conducted in that manner? Of course there will be total moral decay and the economy will suffer.
Zimbabwe needs to start trusting its capable youth by giving them more responsible roles in the economy.
To give more international examples, Northern Oil, which has a fairly youthful executive, recently hired its first employee over 40 — Thomas W. Stoelk (56), who started on December 12 as chief financial officer. It is Mr Stoelk’s first time reporting to a boss 20 years his junior, but he said that didn’t weigh on his decision to sign up. There are worries that other older executives may not want to join a company where everyone on the management team except the CFO is in his or her 30s.
“That could be a challenge for us,” he said.
Young CEOs can also find themselves feeling their way through tough situations that more experienced executives might know how to handle. At age 32, Matthew McCauley became the youngest-ever CEO at Gymboree Corp. when he took the top job in 2006, less than five years after the specialty retailer had hired him as director of allocation.
Not having the experience “of having tried things and had them fail” freed him to think differently about the children’s apparel chain, he said.
But it also left him unprepared when he was confronted with having to shut down Janeville, an unprofitable women’s brand, just six months after he took the job.
“I had never run an entire business, nor had I ever shut down an entire business,” he said. “If I had seen it before, I would have known what to expect and it would have been easier.”
With the above international examples, it is clear that with the right mentorship and guidance, the youth can excel to greater heights. Companies and the economy can grow because of the youth. Give them a chance when they knock on big doors.
The current world trend is not always about experience, but about innovation and speed to market. The youth can make an amazing contribution.
Invest in the youth.
Taurai Changwa is an Articled Accountant and ACCA finalist. He is managing director of SAFIC Consultancy. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted at [email protected] or visit our facebook page SAFIC Consultancy or whatsapp on 0772374784.
