The recent launch of an innovation fund by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai is a strong signal towards young entrepreneurs in the region. Intended to support innovators by connecting them to funding, it symbolises the encounter of “old” and “new” powers.
Far from opposing generations, it sheds light on the new forces of innovation at work. Those who create new leadership models. More agile. More circular. Those who envisage their actions and projects regarding social impact. More sustainable. More responsible. So why is it so urgent for “old” and “new” powers to meet?
Opposing leadership styles?
By 2020, research suggests that 50 per cent of the workforce will have millennials as employees. To get clued into how this new generation of leaders think and work, IBM, the world’s largest information company, created the « Millenial Corps », a team of 4000 employees dedicated to this task. In the Arab world, where 70% of the population is under 25 years old, the need for employers and decision makers alike to understand this generation and bridge potential gaps with their elders is just as pressing.
But this collaboration between old and new can come with its set of challenges. Much (good and bad) has been said about the Millenials’ approach to work. But what makes these two generations so different in their leadership and work styles?
To sum it up, analysts agree that “old” leadership is enabled by what people or organisations own, know or control that nobody else does. “New” power models, on the contrary, are enabled by peer coordination and the agency of the group. It is in great part based on the individual’s capacity to engage and mobilise a crowd. More horizontal and collaborative, less top-down and control. In light of this shift, management that is built on a conventional chain of command is hence constantly questioned.
Supporting the entrepreneurial spirit
By involving youth in their governance, companies such as IBM are looking to benefit from their creativity, to hone their innovation skills and capacity to imagine and implement new solutions. In other words, to become entrepreneurs.
The entrepreneurial spirit is probably the single most important characteristic detected among millennials, recently renamed “millennipreneurs”. In Arab countries, global and regional reports and statistics demonstrate that Arab youth today are hugely enterprising. In the UAE for instance, SMEs represent 94 per cent of the total registered companies and contribute about 60 per cent of GDP. Most of these SMEs are run by young people, a reality that applies to most Arab countries.
Networks designed to strengthen relationships between established and emerging entrepreneurs thus continue to expand in the region. To name only a one, Patrick Chalhoub, Founder and CEO of the Chalhoub Group, the leading luxury group, recently spearheaded the launch of Dubai’s affiliate of Endeavour. A global non-profit NGO, Endeavour is one of the widest networks designed to select, mentor and accelerate the best high-impact entrepreneurs around the world, with the help of a network of 2,500+ local and global business leaders in 25 countries.
These leading figures have perfectly understood the crucial need to create bonds with youth as a mean to collectively build a stronger and more inclusive future. This belief is also what guides us at Thinkers & Doers. Our “Follow the Leaders” cycle of conferences, travelling through London, Paris, Tunis, Bahrain, UAE, Casablanca and Beirut is specifically designed to make synergies and collaborations happen and scale up.
The message is now clear: there is no quarrel between Ancient and Moderns. This time is long gone. We are in the era of connections where encounters need to be provoked. And actively engaged.
Amandine Lepoutre, Founder and CEO of Thinkers & Doers. For more information, visit thinkers-doers.com