The most important driver behind GENERATION G is a wide variety of consumers and citizens being more generous. We’re talking the collaborative / free / creation / crowdsourced / gift / sharing movement that—especially online—has unlocked in entirely new ways the perennial need of individuals to be appreciated, to be loved, to feel part of the greater good, to contribute, to help… To basically find status and gratification in something other than consuming the most or the best.
Don’t think this a passing phenomenon: younger generations practically live online, while over the last dozen or so years, virtually every prediction of how the web would infiltrate the ‘offline’ world has proven too conservative. As our favorite online guru, Kevin Kelly, rightly stated a few years ago: ‘online culture is the culture’.
So… Everything seems to have aligned to make generosity (“liberality in giving or willingness to give”) a leading theme in the business arena this year. As always, companies can learn from consumers, though it’s not a ‘want’ but a ‘need’: companies need to mirror this societal shift if they want to regain their relevancy. We’re talking truly becoming a caring brand—one that is generous to customers, generous to employees, generous to the environment, generous to social causes, and so on. We know you know this: GENERATION G is more about context and timing than out-of-the-blue insights. (italics added)
Health care is in a unique situation to become a significant part of this movement. Obviously, keeping the doors open is priority one. But generosity is something needed now, much more so than in times of abundance. Has your organization’s generosity risen, fallen, or remained the same during the economic slide? What level of generosity existed in 2007?
Hi, I'm Drew Weilage. 