Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 40

Grow Market Lead
38

Millennials
By Jennifer Kushell

Empowering Millennials

Y

How to build a “Next Gen” strategy

ou’ve heard the buzz. You
know they’re out there. But
are you still scratching your
head trying to figure out what
to do about Millennials?
Accept them or not, they are here
to stay. They’re entering the workforce
in record numbers, taking their first
jobs with your companies, rising up
through your leadership tracks, looking at your franchise opportunities as
investments, and becoming some of
the fastest-growing multi-unit owners
in franchising.
Truth be told, they’re even launching
competitive businesses—often because
they don’t feel like they can grow fast
enough in other companies. That should
make you wonder: What messages are
you sending them?
With a passive approach, you will
inevitably experience Millennials and
their impact. But if you see all of their
potential (and yes, challenges) and instead want to harness this enormous
pool of talent, nurture it, and lay a solid
groundwork for the future success of
your business, the time is now to start
building a strategy that speaks to them.
I’ve been building programs and
campaigns to reach Next Gen consumers and employees for some of the
biggest companies in the world for two
decades. Having also been raised in the
franchise business, I’ve been thinking
about the impact of this generation on
the industry for a long time. Here are a
few critical steps to start sketching out a
Millennials strategy for your franchise.
1. Assess the scope of impact.
Determine how the Next Gen most
significantly affects your business—in
segments (consumers, vendors, competitors, employees, industry influencers,
etc.). Is the standard messaging you’re
sending out to each segment as relevant
as it could be to this audience? Is it
connecting with them? Moving them?
Franchiseupdate Iss u e II, 2 0 1 3

Inspiring them to act and support you
and your business?
2. Identify the Next Gen leaders
in and around your company. Learn
about them, study them, meet them.
Try to understand what they’re doing
differently. What are the keys to their
success? Keep an open mind about
what you might find, or what norms
they might be challenging. Odds are,
they’re employing different tactics, tools,
and strategies than you are. If they’re
achieving different or better results,
it’s probably worth considering some
changes yourself.
3. Create a Next Gen council,
advisory, or affinity group in your
company. When surveyed throughout
the world, young leaders, more than
anything, want a voice, a seat at the
table, an opportunity to make an impact. Give them that chance and you’ll
be rewarded with greater loyalty, commitment, and fresh new ideas—and the
gatekeepers will help you find the keys
to reaching their peers.
4. Inspire and empower them. Give
your younger employees and leaders,
even franchisees, problems to solve.
Think about your biggest challenges
and ambitions and encourage them to
work on solutions and strategies. Acknowledge them when they do. Be careful to clearly articulate what you expect
them to achieve, but don’t force the how.
Coaching and mentoring are critical for
Millennials, but they need room to do
things their way, which is often different
than yours. Try to keep an open mind. If
you encounter any issues of entitlement
or arrogance, give them very ambitious
goals. If they fail, they’ll be humbled and
you can work closely to build them back
up, using your tried-and-true processes.
If they succeed, you’ve found your high
potentials.
5. Look to them for innovation.
Be open to the idea that your youngest

employees or franchisees or customers
might improve your processes. Millennials are multi-taskers who get bored
easily. One of the by-products, when
channeled, is that they find more efficient ways to get the same or better
results, often in less time—like getting
up-to-the minute sales reports or instore security camera images sent to
their iPhones for real-time reporting,
or text ordering products or services.
Strange as they may sound, give them
some room to play with new approaches. They could be the best R&D team
you’ve ever had.
6. Build a campaign. Long-term
strategies are important, but when you’re
still testing the waters with this generation, try to think in terms of short-term,
quick-burst, high-engagement initiatives
that speak directly to them. Consider a
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