Net Impact Blog | Net Impact

News You Can Use: How millennials are reshaping business | Net Impact

Written by Paula Luu | Feb 20, 2015 5:00:00 AM

Young leaders are shaping markets as employees, entrepreneurs, and consumers. 

News You Can Use is our monthly update featuring key coverage of impact trends, leadership tips, sustainable business, and Net Impact.…stay educated.

Research and Trends

How millennials are changing product development for good
Innovation Insights, February 9, 2015

  • Millennials are the first generation to truly live by its own set of consumer and business rules. As consumers, they expect the brands they follow to share their principles. But as entrepreneurs, they’re also able to deliver on it.

Business needs to engage millennials on values to attract talent
Deloitte, January 14, 2015

  • Millennials want business and academia to better collaborate to equip talent for the workplace according to Deloitte’s annual survey.
  • Today’s Millennials place less value on visible, well-networked, and technically-skilled leaders. Instead, they define true leaders as strategic thinkers, inspirational, personable, and visionary.

Why 2015 will be a sustainability job seeker’s market
Guardian Sustainable Business, January 4, 2015

  • Good news for job seekers! The sustainability job market is growing, with candidates getting multiple offers while employers struggle to fill positions.

Innovation Station

20 Lessons of Innovation for 2015
Fast Company, February 2015

  •  Here are a few of the 20 lessons Fast Company gleaned putting together their annual Most Innovative Companies list: B corporations can scale; bold ideas are global; and design is a strategic weapon.

Unleashing the inner inventor: How businesses are striving to give old smartphones a new lease on life
Huffington Post, February 13

  • Sprint, Brightstar, HOBI, and Net Impact are inviting student teams to brainstorm how we could collectively provide resources and business support to innovators who can develop ways to upcycle mobile phones. The winner will receive $5,000, which can be used toward attending a Startup Weekend to help take their business idea to the next level.

Ideas with impact
SAP Community Network, February 13

  • At the seventh event in SAP’s global “Impactathon” series, over 60 students from nearly 15 universities gathered at the University of Mannheim, Germany to brainstorm and pitch ideas to better support young people to pursue entrepreneurship that improves their lives and the rest of the world. Find out which idea won over the judges!

Impact Leadership

How millennials and baby-boomers can (and should) work together
UrbanBound, February 10

  • Baby-Boomers and millennials are less different than you think. Baby-Boomers have a history of being agents of social change, innovation, and revolution.
  • To maximize our ability to tackle social issues, we need to provide each age group with the right tools to communicate and innovate with each other.

Program helps students turn altruistic ideas into social enterprises
Michigan Radio, January 14

  • Two University of Michigan students started a program to help students with new ideas and a passion for working on social issues to try their hand at turning their ideas into action.
  • The program has grown to include 400+ students and is highlighted by a competition with real seed money for the best ideas, mini-courses on key social issues in Michigan, and a growing network of mentors to help the young entrepreneurs.

Leadership in any role: Be a changemaker in your organization 
Net Impact Boston Blog, January 8

  • Effective leaders cultivate their personal style of leadership and truly understand themselves, others, and the context of what’s around them before they make real impact.
  • To make lasting organizational change, start small, focus on one problem at a time, map the stakeholders, make an action plan and communicate the impact.