By : Hermawan Kartajaya
(Founder & CEO of MarkPlus, Inc.)


Marketeers February 2010

The Senior vs The Youth
Seniors feel that they have a wisdom based on their live experience. They feel as if they have found righteousness during their life-long journey, something that is not taught in religious or moral books. Seniors appreciate their own personal findings.

Wise words would summarize it as, learning cannot be fast-forwarded, but it has to be experienced on its own to be able to find something meaningful. It is often said that you must fall first to be able to find the real meaning of righteousness. This is the reason why many seniors feel that they have the right to decide what is right and what is wrong.

Seniors also feel that they have the right to be the Mind of the World. This is not wrong and is still valid, but what has become a problem is that the world is rapidly changing and this is what many seniors fail to realize. Everyone, including the seniors has now realized that "The World is Flat" has become the new bible, where New Wave technology has take the role of the old Legacy technology.

Unfortunately, many seniors are still trying to maintain their position as the one to decide what is right and wrong. The habit of providing "vertical advice" to younger people is difficult to change. New Wave technology that is characterized as horizontal, on the other hand, is already able to become the drivers in finding new wisdoms. Especially when the seniors are unwilling to accept the new reality, anxieties within and between groups begins to increasingly appear.

 

The Men vs The Women
The difference from men and women has been the topic of many conversations. Let’s say the book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," an on-demand book that is easy to read and understand. It can be said that many have sided on the men’s side when it comes to being the leader of the world. With this pretext rationality, the world should be lead by a man.

Women, who are often categorized as 'emotional’, are less fortunate in corporate, government or even public positions. Men also hold an advantage because they are regarded to be more visionary, while women are more "short-term oriented." This is why men are holding higher positions than women.

Traditionally, men are a referenced for 'leadership’, while women are referenced for 'management.’ In other words, men are able to see more clearly to the future, while women are only focused at the current situation.

But don’t leave out men’s weaknesses and women’s strengths. Men are not detailed, while women work in detail and is able to spread its attention 360 degrees as a whole. Men only see in partial, while women always sees things as a whole or comprehensive…

The Citizen vs The Netizen
A citizen of an area always has rights and responsibilities that are non-citizen. They feel that they have the right to make their own game rules in their own area. Therefore, they govern as executives, keep a watch as a legislative and judge as a judiciary. This is not only for countrywide, but could also apply to a town or even village.

That is also the reason why Citizens feel that they are more dominant than Non-Citizens. Citizens organize their area because they feel that they own it. Citizens are proud of their locality. They even create identity symbols, such as language, flags, national anthem, etc.

They put an effort to differentiate themselves and maintain a distance with other Citizens of other areas. Wars between areas are easily initiated because they have each created differentiations. However, this paradigm falls apart with the entrance of New Wave Technology. In this new and horizontal world, there is a sudden exchange of game rules. Suddenly, Netizens no longer care about vertical differences that comes in the form of status, age, rank, nationality, ethnic race or even religion!...

A full version of the interview in Bahasa Indonesia can be read in our Nov-Dec 2009 edition of Marketeers.