Baggy Pants

What are the disruptive Information Technologies that scare you the most? The IT icebergs that will hit your organization in the near future.

Is it BYOD?  Social?  The Internet of Things?  Cloud?  Big Data?  Smart Everything?

If you picked any of these or other technologies, you may be looking for the cause of your worries in the wrong place. The root causes of our problems are the Shareholders and the Baggy Pants.

Shareholders demand quarterly growth. They expect Information Technologies to provide the critical edge over the competition and satisfy the ever growing need for efficiency. This is easy, because we are used to such requirements.

But the Baggy Pants are challenging because they have different habits than the IT decision makers in charge. If you think you are hip because you have a few followers and likes, read these facts:

• Gartner found that 46 percent of people 18 to 24 would choose access to the Internet over access to their own car.

• The typical text messaging teen sends and receives 50 texts a day, or 1500 text messages a month.

• The sum of all forms of video will be approximately 90% of global consumer internet traffic by 2015.

• Half of young professionals value Facebook access, smartphone options over salary.

The Baggy Pants are driving the change. They do not go online, they are always connected. They work, socialize and having fun 24X7, all mixed up. They expect smart everything, augmented reality, and humanized technology reacting to gestures and making good guesses about their intentions and needs.

If you are the typical IT decision maker, you are facing a generation gap. In other words, headlights.

Do you think, that your company is quickly adapting to the Baggy Pants? Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are changing faster.

On Monday when you go to the office, try to find Generation Y. They may be some of your employees or customers. Think about ways to tap into their innovative ideas. They are likely to be on the bottom of the corporate food chain, so it is hard for them to speak up unless you create open communication channels. Make innovation a process and include them in it.