AmCham YP - Millennial Management, a Two Way Street

Published: November 7, 2017

Amsterdam, November 1, 2017 – Talented young professionals around the world are starting up companies, disrupting whole industries, working on AI, cures for cancer and global warming, and running some of our biggest multinationals. Magazines like Forbes, Fortune, Inc., and Money regularly feature stories about these young leaders with snappy titles like ‘30 under 30’ or ‘40 under 40’.

Most talented young professionals, however, are still trying to figure it all out, looking for new challenges and learning experiences – in an inspiring, nurturing workplace culture. Either way, Millennials too often find that they still don’t get the respect or support they need. And older colleagues too often find Millennials a puzzle – and unnerving.

Together with AmCham Member Egon Zehnder and the Ivy Circle we organized a Young Professional Event around this topic. In keeping with the cross-generational theme, we encouraged all our YPs to bring along one ‘older generation’ professional.


Moderated by Hollis Kurman, Chairperson Ivy Circle, all attendees were involved into an interactive panel discussion to explore the thrills and spills, myths vs realities of leading Millennials – and Millennials in the lead. The panel consisted of Teun Hermsen, Chief of Staff Europe, McKinsey & Company, Chris van Steenbergen, CHRO, Heineken, Arielle Strem, Director Digital Operations, Nike and Renzo Taal, SVP Northern Europe and GM Netherlands, Salesforce

After a short warming up, all attendees were asked to join the panel into the main room. During the discussion YPs were given the opportunity to share their thoughts about how companies should deal with them being Millenials. Topics such as 'Recruiting and Retaining Talent', 'The Work Place', 'Flexibility of Managers', 'Future Career Opportunities witin the Company' and 'Climbing the Career Ladder' were discussed. Even Tattoos, Dress Codes and Facial Hair were discussed. The panelists admitted that they need to handle the millennial generation differently but that, in many ways, it's a two way street. AmCham Member XPLANE prepared a great visual summarizing the discussion.

Image removed.

After a great discussion, there was time for some cross- generation networking to share thoughts and ideas over drinks and dinner.

AmCham would like to thank Hollis Kurman, Teun Hermsen, Chris van Steenbergen, Arielle Strem and Renzo Taal for their participation in the panel. We are also very thankful for the generous support of Egon Zehnder for hosting this event.

Please click here for a photo impression.

 

 

AmCham YP - Millennial Management, a Two Way Street