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Why Age Is Important in Business
Guestpert
Joanna Dodd Massey Ph.D., MBA
Category
career and workplace
Tags
With over 25 years of experience in the media industry at companies, such as Conde Nast, Lionsgate, CBS, Viacom, Discovery and Hasbro, Joanna Dodd Massey, Ph.D., MBA is a C-level communications executive and Board Director. She has managed brand reputation, corporate turnaround, crisis communications and culture transformation. Currently, Dr. Massey is a communications consultant, as well as Founder & CEO of The Marketing Communications Think Tank. She is a corporate speaker and trainer, as well as author of the books, "Communicating During a Crisis," and "Culture Shock: Surviving Five Generations in One Workplace" (TVG Publishing, 2020).
If you look online and on LinkedIn, you will find a lot of Millennials and Gen Zers who serve as generational experts. They most certainly are. They know their cohorts well and they are masters at communicating with each other, especially Gen Z, the world’s first digitally native generation. However, experience is part of expertise.
According to Merriam-Webster, experience means knowledge that is derived from direct participation in events.
Part of being an expert on younger generations includes having the breadth of experience that comes from—dare I say it—age. Yes, veteran business executives have valuable experience, institutional knowledge, historical perspective and wisdom from watching business and society evolve over the decades.
It is not enough to be a member of the next generation. You must also have the perspective of history to help your business navigate the present and the future. This is why there is no I in team. This is also why businesses do not succeed because of one person alone. It takes a village.
I might add, it takes a village of people with diverse experiences.
