Sociologists agree: generations are made during the so-called “formative years” between the ages of 10 and 25. Today’s children develop in two ways. Physically, but now also digitally. This is the first generation to come of age with this dual identity. What young people do online is a reflection of the uncertain and changing world in which this generation is growing up. Besides being leaders of this apparent dual life, they are the first generation to try to create a new order from this mix of realities. For them, the internet is both a meta-modernist amusement park where every reality can be created, and a place that is covered with a moral fog and where new rules of conduct arise. Generations do not get caught in a specific piece of technology. The character of a generation is never the technology itself. The education, the zeitgeist and everything they consciously experience in their youth play an important role.
Volume, value and influence
A new generation is coming to the fore. Substantial in size (32 percent of the world population), it has different values than its predecessors, and is already influential thanks to its use of influencer practices and technologies.
The synthetic generation
The task of making something of the world rests on the shoulders of every new generation. They must set their course in this rapidly changing and confusing world. Their mission and expertise are the synthesis. This is not a punk rock generation that wants to destroy things. It is a generation that introduces new values: post-materialistic, focused on self-expression and self-actualization.
Born influencers
The first generation of young people already has a business impact before they start their career. With their ambivalent identity they grow up as “influencers”. On TikTok or Boomoji the little ones learn to exert digital influence. They are experimenting with new forms of influencing like mukbang and ASMR. This generation pays attention to everything that is (or seems to be) authentic and real and turns away from the old world.
The synthetic future
Fake personalities on Instagram become so real that the distinction between reality and virtuality is no longer possible. Authentic images of political leaders are manipulated with synthetic media and forged into new truths. What is real and what is fake is increasingly difficult to determine.
Michiel Boreel is working in the IT Industry for over 30 years. Now in the role of CTO contributing to the innovation in Sogeti, one of Capgemini’s strategic business units.
Educated as an Industrial Engineer, Michiel started his working career in 1986 as a junior consultant with a highly regarded management consultancy firm in Amsterdam. After two years of advisory work on large scale restructuring of both public and private firms, he made the transition towards the information technology industry in 1988 by joining one of the companies that are now united in Sogeti. Performing several assignments in systems programming and security he learned about the more technical side of the profession.
Combining both technical skills and organizational experience, Michiel started advising about the reverse engineering of legacy information systems and migration estimation methods. Adding commercial responsibilities he worked for a couple of years as an account manager for clients in the financial and telecom industry.
In 1994 Sogeti asked Michiel to lead a new initiative, Vision, Inspiration, Navigation Trends (VINT), a small think tank with the goal of inspiring customers to apply new technology in business processes. Constant theme in all of the VINT research is the question what role IT will play in the future society and how technology can be applied to create meaningful business innovation. Since the start of the institute it has published over 15 books and reports (see labs.sogeti.com). Some of the latest publications are “Digital Happiness”, “Machine Intelligence”, “Design to Disrupt”, “Internet of Things”, “Big Data”, “The App Effect”, “Don’t be Evil”, “Seize the Cloud – A Manager’s Guide to Success with Cloud Computing”, “Collaboration in the cloud – How cross boundary collaboration is changing business”, “Virtual Concept - Real Profit with Digital Manufacturing and Simulation”, “Me the Media – The rise of the conversation society”, “Open for Business – Open source inspired innovation” and “SOA for Profit – A Manager’s Guide to Success with Service Oriented Architecture”.
In his IoT research, Michiel explains the huge opportunities that an intelligent, instrumented and interconnected world creates, not only for optimising operational processes but also for delivering exceptional customer experiences and creating new business models and services. On the flip side he also addresses the increased security risks of an expanded attack surface, the complexity of sensitising existing processes and equipment and the challenge of closing the loop from data acquisition, aggregation, analysis, assignment, action to the direct capture of the results.
Based on his research and books, Michiel Boreel is often asked for his engaging and visionary speeches or in the role of Master of Ceremony at national and international events. Additionally he works with many clients to create in-house innovation workshops where, through a strategic dialogue, emerging technologies are translated into specific business innovation opportunities.
Michiel Boreel is, as Chief Technology Officer, part of the Executive Management Committee of Sogeti and is Corporate Vice President of Capgemini.