A millennials confession letter
By: Basel Qabouq
Tags: Leadership, Millennials, Management, Hotel, Marketing

A millennials confession letter

Wyndham Grand Manama

When it comes to the success of a business model in the year 2017, your formula is as complex as it gets. The margin for error is just so small, if you take half a step too late or too early your not really going to make it, an employee too shy or too talkative and you lost a customer, the timing required in every decision is so critical. and for the first time in history, you actually don’t get a second chance! what the hell is happening?

So many things have happened in the past 10 years, oh wait 10 days probably, hell no there was a product launch 10 minutes ago, but I’m not boring you or myself with a history lesson because the moment I get into that I understand that I will lose another reader! Millennials are here, that’s what happened.

Millennials have exceeded Baby Boomers as the largest target market audience, as a customer and indeed as your employee! according to population estimates released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau.Millennials; a segment of the population that were born between 1977 and 2000, now number 75.4 million in the united states, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51–69).

So Who are Millennials? what do they want?

Millennials will actually be 75% of the global workplace by 2025, still, think 2025 is too far, it’s actually in 8 years. they are a population half of which considers themselves politically unaffiliated and they have the highest number of friends on facebook 60% of them have posted a selfie or more on social media sites , and most of them receive about 60+ texts a day but you have read just too many statistics and you want to hear it from an actual perennial, well here it goes

Travel and new experiences peak my interest above anything else, Uber and Airbnb have replaced my Cab and Hotel, yet I’m still very loyal to that trending hotel on 5th Avenue in New York just because it’s the place to be, my personal life will be more bothered by losing the PC or my phone than maybe my car! I love to try new brands and have finally settled down on a favorite drink, which I’m sure will change in the coming year or two, 30% of my day will go on a combination of WhatsApp, emails, and social media , yet I’m eager to dedicate a similar amount of time to learn a new skill, Instead of reading my books I listen to them on a mobile application called audiable and instead of grocery shopping I use a mobile application that delivers my groceries at the time I need them. If a brand doesn’t adjust to my needs I find another one, and if there is no brand that caters to my needs I start convincing investors to fund one, I don’t bother to type my “i” in capital because I know my PC is smart enough to do that for me, my father’s generation will call this lazy and I will call this smart, I value honesty and I respect my superiors but I do not hesitate to point them wrong when they are! I voice out my opinion to the brand I use because I want to belong, and because I know my opinion will help shape it, and if the brand doesn’t listen I speak to another one.

as an Employee I’m inspired by greatness, I grow up watching success of brands like google and apple and I am hungry for greatness, if you want to capture my attention you better be good at it, and there has to be something in it for me, I don’t mind making a mistake but I do mind coming in second.

After spending almost 5 years of my career with one brand I decided that my learning curve has ended and it’s time to experience something new, at the time of my job hunt I had a difficult choice between 3 employers and I really think if you’re planning to hire or cater to a millennial one day you’ll be interested in the reasons behind my choice.

My interview was casual, after the regular screening from Human Resources I had a cup of coffee with my new boss to be, after your typical Q&A session he explained to me his understanding of the trends of this market and verbally confirmed that he believes I’m the right man for the job, after finalising the details of the package and benefits, it was one sentence that made me chose this job,it was his quest for greatness rather than ordinary, his words were crystal clear: “I’m looking for a team to do something great or not do it at all Basel!”

sounds simple, and basic, but as a marketing professional that was one of the essential messages that I try to live by every day, not every video you post on youtube goes viral, and not every advert you create will have your expected return on investment, unless you aim for greatness, you will fail! and there it was, knowing that I would have the support of someone that wants to achieve greatness is all it took, next thing you know I was the new Director of Marketing at the Wyndham Grand Manama. (hotel picture above)

That greatness attitude was applied from day 1, the hotel building I entered was constructed with the objective of greatness in mind, our first brainstorming session was held to discuss suite room benefits, and after a heavy session we crossed all our ideas and started over, although every idea that has been applied and succeeded was interesting, we wanted every detail of our guest experience to be something that people will talk about, we want every single choice we make to be your next Instagram post, or your inspired tweet, and that’s why this hotel will succeed, in attracting the best talent, and later on the best customer there is in town! it speaking the language of Millennials before it was even built

on a promotional folder of the building, there was a quote, I’ll end with it!

“There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?”― Zaha Hadid