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Dec 2, 2011
When Geeks Rule
Changing Times
We'd been experiencing the dawn of a new era...an era unimaginable just 2 generations back. This is an era of empowerment brought on by people who perfect their game within the context of a connected world.
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...the establishment was scared of me...now they'll be scared of you. The VCs (venture capitalists) would say, "nice idea, kids! Now the grown-ups will take it from here". But not this time. This is our time! This time, you're gonna hand them a business card saying ,"Im CEO bitch!"
-- Sean Parker talking to Mark Zuckerberg in the movie Social Network
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White Shoe Establishment
In the old school, the establishment was ruled by white shoe guys in their fifties or sixties with traditional ways of running business - keeping wages as low as they can, jacking up prices as high as they can, dis-empowering workers to keep them compliant like a herd of sheep, delineating upper management from the rest in an elitist way of caste stratification, maximizing profit at the expense of everything else - the environment, the social equilibrium, stakeholders, the customers, the employees, etc. They've ruled high and mighty for as long as they have...until a spark ignited that's now crumbling their old edifice under its own divisive and self-destructive weight. That spark is the internet.
They're Heeeeere!
With the onset of information technology and the internet providing a conduit for free global information transfer, a new breed of young, exceptionally brilliant iconoclasts, have loomed out of the infinitely expanding horizon to establish their own world order effecting change not only in business, but in the very social fabric we all live in. These visionaries are idealists who are cognizant of the failures of the old model. They appreciate their emergent roles as catalysts for positive change in a world they never made...a world begging for the difference only they are willing to make.
Who are these harbinger of change?
They are frighteningly young - most were born in the early 80s. They are amazingly brilliant. As employees, they assertively talk to their bosses as equal partners working towards a common goal. As bosses, they treat their employees as the most treasured asset of the company. They empower their employees not just by pay and perks, but a high ceiling for growth and development. They are intimidatingly tech-savvy. They create and develop a social culture. A lot of them have an almost pathological indifference to money. Instead, they perfect their game. To the lucky ones who made a windfall, they redefine the monied-class - billionaires in their 20s!. There's an army of them out there, but here are my favs:
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Facebook founder
- TIME's Person of the Year 2010
- in 7 years, he connected 8.3% of humanity into his social network
- appeared in Palo Alto in 2004 with no car, no house, and no job
- current net worth US$17.5 billion, 27 years old!
- motto- "making the world more open and connected"
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin
- founded Google while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates
- motto - "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"
- Google processes over one billion search requests every day
- the work environment at Google is legendary (see below), and is the most visible new-thinking approach on how employees should be treated
- in just two years it has gained a reputation for uncanny speed and accuracy, delivering exactly what you're looking for in a fraction of a second
- combined worth, US$39 billion - and they're just in their late thirties!
- Julian Assange
- Wikileaks founder
- 39 years old
- latest coup - released over 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables to the public
- his team of 5 people (Wikileaks.com) has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, than the rest of the world press combined
- currently under siege by big governments
- Shawn Fanning
- Napster founder at 20 years old
- pioneered the first independent peer-to-peer file sharing service, otherwise known as downloading-free-music
- Napster peaked at 25 million users and 80 million songs
- the establishment was able to shut-down his operations through legal action
Perks?
When working for these people, your work environment is characterized by any or all of the following - these are on top of high pay and more importantly, being a part of a vision to make a difference. Let's use Googleplex as the best example:
- gourmet meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner - free!
- organic cafe with Google-grown produce - free!
- unlimited snacks with snackbars sprinkled all over the workplace - free!
- 4 fully-loaded gyms with personal trainers - free!
- birthday massage - free!
- sleeping pods to those who just had to doze-off - free!
- in-house doctor consultation and treatment without the bill!
- onsite laundry and dry cleaning - free!
- electric car use - free!
Ending Thoughts
I'm blown away by this new breed of intellectual zealots - ammunitioned by technology, obsessed by their quest for perfection, steadfast on their resolve to positively change society, balanced by their ethical tenets of right and wrong, they blaze the unbeaten path to possiblities unthought of. I'm rivetted to my seat awaiting how much more they can change the way we do things. As I pursue my own vision of a social enterprise, I keep their examples as jumpging-board templates in keeping this planet transparent, connected and green.
--- TheLoneRider
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