Take millennials and zoomers more seriously

WHAT do North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg have in common?

They are all captains in their fields. And they are all millennials.

Widely defined as those born between 1981 and 1996, the collective term "millennials" has long been a byword for the younger generation and is often loaded with derision. Australian property tycoon Tim Gurner famously said millennials could afford homes if they gave up their $19 avocado toast (a mistaken assertion, if Mr Gurner actually did the math).

Yet, millennials are now grown up; the oldest turns 40 this year. The youngest age group in the workforce is Gen Z, or zoomers.

And millennials' top priorities, such as climate change and rising inequality, are also becoming those of the world.

Controlling the climate change conversation

On global warming and climate change issues, millennials have less vested interest in the status quo than the generations before, and more impetus to steer the conversation.

Most millennials, however, are still in middle management. From 2005 to 2019, the average age of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 chief executives rose by 14 years to reach 57. As of 2020, just 6 per cent were under 50.

People are living and working longer. Those aged between 75 and 80 move faster, are stronger and have higher cognitive abilities than those in the same age bracket 30 years ago, according to a Finnish study. This is good news for humanity. But for millennials not yet in charge of the power levers, directing events has meant getting creative.

They invest differently: with environment, social and governance issues a major concern. A 2019 Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing survey of high-net-worth investors found 95 per cent of millennials were interested in sustainable investing.

Some are using litigation. In 2018, Australian Mark McVeigh, then 23, sued his pension fund for allegedly failing to adequately manage climate change risks in its investments. Mr McVeigh's suit was settled last year in his favour. At least 1,587 climate-related lawsuits have been filed worldwide - a trend likely to accelerate.

Singapore has also witnessed the changing tides. In April, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, a team of Singapore lawyers led by Jeffrey Chan, SC, launched a legal opinion on directors' responsibilities on climate change. Earlier this year, lawmakers filed Singapore's first motion on climate change. They proposed regular reviews on carbon tax, more public electric vehicle charging points, expanding climate education curriculum and adding climate defence as a seventh pillar of total defence.

Taking concrete steps to mitigate climate change obviate the kind of intergenerational injustice pointed out by the First Senate of the German Constitutional Court, which ruled that future generations' fundamental rights were violated because a piece of legislation was not specific enough about how Germany was going to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2050.

It said: "One generation must not be allowed to consume large portions of the CO2 budget... if this would involve leaving subsequent generations with a drastic reduction burden and expose their lives to comprehensive losses of freedom."

Inequality - an intergenerational injustice

Another kind of intergenerational injustice is that millennials are the first generation in decades earning less and having less wealth than their parents had at the same age (although the gap is closing).

Also, passed-down privilege may widen wealth gaps and ossify social classes.

According to the 2021 Deloitte Global Millennial Survey, two-thirds of millennials and zoomers see wealth and income as unequally distributed. This opinion is more extreme in Latin America (84 per cent) and Central and Eastern Europe (80 per cent).

Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has spoken about the potential for wealth inequality to undermine meritocracy.

He said: "Because the accumulation of wealth can far exceed the differences in income from differences in abilities and performance, because of the way prices of financial assets and real estate move, with little effort, one becomes extraordinarily rich... And so, wealth inequality creates a sense of unfairness."

Mr Menon also warned about the risk of hereditary meritocracy: when society's elites pass their privileges to their children.

According to Deloitte, millennials and zoomers contribute on a personal level. They may make donations or volunteer to improve literacy among younger people. But they are aware such actions hardly move the inequality needle. So, about a third of respondents vote for politicians working to reduce income inequality.

It remains to be seen, though, whether millennials will continue to be concerned about inequality when the greatest wealth transfer in modern history arrives: their US$30 trillion inheritance from baby boomers and Gen X. Unless millennials maintain the moral fibre to do the right thing - or governments intervene - wealth inequality will skyrocket.

Whistleblowing on wrongdoers

According to law firm Freshfields' Whistleblowing Survey 2020, millennials are more likely to speak up than other age groups: 52 per cent of those surveyed aged 25 to 34 had outed wrongdoers. The ratios for other age groups were: 40 per cent (35-44 years), 28 per cent (45-54 years) and 20 per cent (55 years and above).

It was the 38-year-old Singaporean Pav Gill who exposed the Wirecard scandal, where 1.9 billion euros (S$3.1 billion) went missing. According to Freshfields, millennials were willing to whistleblow even though almost a quarter of those surveyed felt senior management would retaliate by cutting bonuses or hindering promotion prospects. Over a fifth thought they would be terminated.

That was certainly Mr Gill's experience. He was not just effectively fired, but bad references were allegedly given to his potential employers. It appears then that millennials are willing to speak out against wrongdoing even at great personal and professional costs. That is an encouraging sign for better corporate governance as the biggest cohort in the workforce moves up the corporate ladder.

Gen Z and beyond

The continued and growing concerns of millennials on what were once fringe issues are a reminder to take future generations more seriously. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg may be dismissed as a naive teenager. But she and 24-year-old Pakistani female education activist Malala Yousafzai, who is also the youngest Nobel laureate, are the top two role models for teenage girls.

Activism is no longer a fringe activity among zoomers. As with millennials, zoomers may not outgrow their passion and ideals even after the reality of adulting hits.

Changing tastes and attitudes mean digital natives are comfortable with creating and spending on digital assets and entertainment, spanning AI art to TikTok videos. While we do not all have to buy NFTs of memes and tweets, we do have to listen a bit more carefully to the young. One way businesses can do so is to set up shadow boards consisting of millennials. Gucci did so in 2015, and was rewarded with sales growth of more than 100 per cent over four years.

Kids are often told to listen to their elders. We would do well to listen to our youths.

• The writer is a dispute resolution partner at TSMP Law Corporation.