Young World Rising: How Youth Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the World from the Bottom Up

by Rob Salkowitz

Young World Rising gives you an exclusive glimpse into the new trend that's transforming global business and changing the dynamics of globalization The global Millennial generation is 4.1 billion strong, and the spread of data networks is empowering them to build radically new kinds of organizations adapted to a flat and crowded world. Young World Rising takes you on a panoramic tour of the new centers of enterpreneurial innovation on five continents. With more than a dozen unique and in-depth case studies, Young World Rising is essential reading for every organization coming to grips with the challenges of globalization and demographic change in the 21st century.

Genres: Business

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2010

About the author

ROB SALKOWITZ is a business analyst and futurist specializing in the disruptive effects of digital technology and the digital generation on work, business and culture. His latest book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture (McGraw-Hill, 2012), looks at the future of entertainment through the lens of the San Diego Comic-Con. His earlier books explore global entrepreneurship, the changing demographics of the workplace, and methods of exploring the future in business. His work has appeared at FastCompany.com, FastCoCreate, The New York Times, Internet Evolution, Businessweek and other publications. He is a partner in the Seattle-based firm MediaPlant, LLC and teaches in the MCDM Program at the University of Washington.

Reviews

[Glenn Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Young World Rising: How Youth, Technology, And Entrepreneurship Are Changing the World From the Bottom Up, author Rob Salkowitz takes a look at global trends in business and the forward-thinking approaches to economic and social problems from a new generation of doers (not just thinkers!) from Latin America, Africa and South Asia.

Salkowitz brings some great insights to the topic of how global markets are changing and the challenges this presents to organizations that want to forge productive business partnerships. Author of Generation Blend and Listening to the Future as well as having worked with Microsoft in developing market strategy, Salkowitz brings a considerable pedigree to his work.

In a book with less than 180 pages, this book packs a punch and literally provides any organization – commercial, not-for-profit or faith-based – with solid information on changing markets, social trends, and how an emerging generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs are grasping hold of opportunities where many traditional business models are redundant or at the very least, ineffective.

Some of his key insights include –

• There are three forces reshaping the world: youth, ICT (information and communications technology) and entrepreneurship
• The importance of the global knowledge economy
• The rich old world (old economy) and the poor young world (new economy)
• The digital divide between the rich old world and the poor young world is closing, albeit slowly. However, the young world is going mobile fueling the spread of the knowledge economy
• The technology age gap: whereas the old economy sees technology as problem to be solved and something to be integrated into existing frameworks, the new economy sees the possibilities of networks and data
• Innovation is increasingly occurring at the bottom of the pyramid

While Salkowitz provides numerous practical and innovative initiatives launched by these young entrepreneurs, underpinning them are six distinctive qualities. Young World entrepreneurship:

1. Blends social and commercial objectives
2. Creatively aligns public, private, and NGO resources
3. Leverages communities and collaboration
4. Is well-adapted and sustainable in Young World environments
5. Embraces the globalization of the knowledge workforce, and
6. Solves systemic problems while meeting market needs.

I recommend this book to any leader.

[Suzanne LaVenture · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book I read for work (wouldn't have picked it up on my own), but it did have some interesting ideas. It takes the rather optimistic view that the Youth Bulge is a positive thing because growing access to technology will produce an explosion of "base-of-the-pyramid" entrepreneurs. Another interesting idea is that China will NOT be a major player in the future because of its demographics (In a couple of decades it will have "the world's largest elderly population supported by a generation of embittered bachelors.") The U.S. is apparently not in as dire a place as most European countries BECAUSE OF IMMIGRANTS (!) I am still skeptical that business is the answer to all the world's problems and bristled a bit at passages that insinuated that NGOs are impeding growth. The book mentioned, but did not really address, the environmental strain of the exploding world population. However, it's nice to think that there could be positive aspects to the world's growing masses.

[Pete Welter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book about how millenial youth, far more prevalent in some developing nations and in developed nations (and also China, which is rapidly aging), are leveraging technology, knowledge of local problems, and a global reach to customers and knowledge to create change from the bottom up - that is, starting small businesses and growing them.

It's a perspective worth thinking about, especially when we see how little these young entrepreneurs need to make to create a life for themselves, compared to the very high overhead that we in developed nations have (and will continue to have, given the age of our populations).

He mentions the challenge of getting young people from extreme test-taking educational systems to think and act entrepreneurially, and it once again reinforces the odd idea that we are striving educational towards that model, when the rest of the world is trying to become more like us.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young World Rising fits neatly into the genre of Thomas Friedman-esque kool-aid. Salkowitz combines some good observations on global demographics, technology, and business to describe a scenario in which the Millennial generation in the 3rd World uses information technology to found a thousand new businesses catering to the 'bottom of the pyramid', bringing about a global transformation of wealth. On the one hand, he makes some good points, and the reporting of Asia and African business is very interesting. On the other hand, his model ascribes nearly saintly qualities to the Net Generation, and makes entrepreneurship seem far easier than it actually is. How much more room is there for more IT-enabled, socially savvy, networked business-cum-development agencies?

[Johnarthurmiller Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book discussing topics from BOP (bottom of the pyramid) to world-changing technologies. It delves into what transpired in the Middle East as the youth-generation toppled the Libyan and Egyption Governments, and shows how miniature revolts exactly like those "youth inspired revolutions" of the Middle East are happening on lesser scale around the world with real-world economic impact. This is a must-buy for "ANYONE" interested in business, ICT, computers, ezines/webzines, or publishing. Salkowitz shows what's happening to our world today, and thrusts us into the future at breakneck speeds. The future I'm talking about is already here; you just don't know it yet because you haven't read Salkowitz's book.