An X-gen in every next gen

After building a highly successful chain of potato fries stands from one corner to the next, nationwide, and creeping internationally, there was more than enough room for his children to get involved in the business and build on that success. But he told his children, “You can’t work here.”

This was the disarming revelation of Jose Magsaysay, founder and CEO of Potato Corner during a survey interview done by PwC for the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP). He recalled his early days when he needed to work at a burger chain, cleaning toilets in the beginning. He felt that the lessons he learned when he was struggling were quite formative, and none could help his children more than to learn for themselves how to carve a destiny of their own.

Starting with very menial positions in a company, then working one’s way up through the ranks or to greener pastures is indeed the template for most of Generation X. It just seems to be the right process, the right ripening for a person to mature, career-wise. For millennials, who we call the next-generation leaders, a popular storyline seems to be to jump from A to Z, and even “success” for a next-gen is redefined.

I am still caught off-guard whenever a person in his 20s calls himself CEO, and I’m amazed to hear students nowadays focused on setting up their own companies when they graduate – not really looking forward to be an employee at all. Parents do have influence even on next-gens: like if they are businessmen, their children will most likely be entrepreneurs, too. To have them on the same wavelength though can be purely coincidental.

Take the case of MAP’s guest speaker Hendy Setiono, the multi-awarded Kebab entrepreneur from Indonesia. From a pushcart in Surabaya to being reputedly the world’s biggest Kebab chain, his business became successful when he was in his mid-20s. He said he borrowed small capital from his sister but he slipped during the interview that his father was in the oil business. He certainly wanted to carve his own destiny that he even dropped out from college, much to the horror of his successful father. His business is not even technology-enabled, and pushing carts is quite low-tech – so enough with the notion that only tech-savvy next-gens succeed in the jump from A to Z.

Just as important as the motivation to achieve independent success is working for a purpose. Ms. Marita Cheng of Australia, arguably the one who brought the loudest “wow” in the room during the MAP International CEO Conference, is a scientist in her mid-20s who builds robots and now is into creating a bionic arm to give quality of life to quadriplegics. True, she is a genius, with a heart, but she is also motivated by purpose – advocating for women empowerment in engineering, a profession largely dominated by men.

There is no dearth of young entrepreneurs in the country who are propelled by purpose. Many of our young CEOs are social entrepreneurs. This is how they redefined success – make solving society’s problem their business, and make that business sustainable. Like Charlene Tan, the young entrepreneur of Good Food Community who used an online business model to remove middlemen, augment farmer income, and bring the organic produce of farmers straight to the consumers’ homes. Like Josh Mahinay, CEO of (Be a Giver) BAG943, a manufacturer of bags that rival a leading imported brand in durability and functionality, and that gives one free bag to a public school student for every bag he sells. (Both were finalists in the 2016 Developmental Social Enterprise Awards of PwC and BCYF.)

Call it purpose, caring for communities, or maybe just love for country. Paulo Campos III, CEO of Zalora Philippines, said he learned the most important lesson from his grandfather who told him, “If you want to help the country, you should create jobs.” Simple and clear. Also, if you create opportunities even only for yourself, you are able to help the country by being here.

Dianne Eustaquio of IdeaSpace narrated the story of these two freelancers she met in Bohol who develop websites for small businesses around the world that do not have the skills to do so, while staying put in the country. What is so attractive to have this kind of opportunity is that the OFW predicament of separation and sadness can be avoided. One may not need to leave his home and family and he can be present during birthdays, graduations, and Christmas.

One of the common observations of Gen-X CEOs we interviewed is the lack of loyalty of these youngsters. We know now that it is not that they enjoy being disloyal, but it’s because their definition of success has changed. They will most likely stay in that place that challenges them, that can give them a sense of purpose, and where their aspirations as a leader can exhale.

A Gen-X CEO cautioned about following what the older leaders have done as those may not be right for today’s realities. I must admit the next-gens have problem-solving skills we all wish we have as Gen Xers. There are decades left in the life of a Gen Xer, and it can only do us good to emulate some next-gen thinking. We can’t help but let old practices, sometimes even old traditions, fade. But if there is one value that the Gen Xers wish will never fade, and one that the next-gens will wish the next ones after them will always have is this: respect.

Do everything, change everything, but always be respectful. It is a lesson for young leaders, and a lesson for the older leaders, whether of a corporation or a country, in any country, in any culture, transcending any generation. Francis Laurel, CEO of YKK, said in a heartfelt way, “Dapat marangal ka” (You should be honorable). There can be no honor without respect. If you want it, you have to give it.