Here’s a question worthy of keeping a couple of college students up all night for a bull session about their futures: Can they do good and also do well? Must they choose between the two? Or can they tend to their own careers while also addressing conscience-tugging issues like income inequality or racism, not to mention the frightening panoply of global threats facing their generation?
Though they might not know it, they would not be the only ones pondering this double bind. The dilemma resonates around the planet these days, in organization forums, corporate boardrooms and universities. It’s a transformative cultural trend — call it “the compassion effect” — reverberating across society at the box office, at the polls and in the marketplace. And it’s being driven in large part by the influence of the values and attitudes of the nation’s largest and arguably most influential demographic group, the millennials.
The “compassion effect” is one of the main ingredients in corporate America’s formula for increasing its appeal to the elusive Millennial consumer. Also called Generation Y, Millennials were born in the last two decades or so of the 20th century, making them at this point in time anywhere from their mid-teens to early 30s — in other words, prime consumers.
At roughly 80 million or so strong, the Millennial demographic is now larger than that of the Baby Boomers. Naturally, companies are turning their attention to what these young people care about and value. A key finding from those efforts: While Millennials love their high-end gadgets and brands, they also want to admire and patronize companies that share their values. According to a Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends report, about one-third of Millennials — more than those in the same age group in previous generations — said they bought a certain product or service because they liked the social or political values of the company that provided the product or service.
