Foreword by Marshall Goldsmith

Baby boomers are great, but if they're the only people leading your company, you'll lack leadership talents crucial for tomorrow. It's a premise I hear over and over: The most important job of the CEO and the Board is to pick the next CEO. Succession is critical. Picking the next CEO and future leaders is about the future. So, why do most companies go about picking their next generation mired in the past?

In The Life of Y: Engaging Millennials as Employees and Customers, Dr. Debashish Sengupta describes the typical Millennial, how leaders can engage and develop this important and abundant group, and what the future will look like when nearly 75% of the workforce will be composed of this interesting and unique generation.

In 2028, says Dr. Sengupta, “the last of the boomers will be at retirement age, Millennials will make up three-quarters of the workforce and the oldest millennials… will be entering leadership positions.” It’s crucial that leaders today know the criteria by which they can select, develop, and engage these future leaders to ensure they are well suited to lead us into tomorrow.

Think about it. What are the chances that the typical current CEO, likely a baby boomer, is well positioned to identify all the crucial characteristics of the organizations' future leaders? And, should that CEO be joined in picking those CEO characteristics with a board filled with people in his or her age demographic?

This is where you will find The Life of Y: Engaging Millennials as Employees and Customers absolutely invaluable. Based on years of research, Dr. Sengupta takes us on a journey through the depiction and many narratives about Millennials, helping us understand them, their hopes and dreams, quirks and challenges. And, if you are a Millennial and read this book it may help you understand yourself and your own generation in ways you had never contemplated.

Read this book, expand your horizons, look to the future, and enjoy the experience you will have when you let Dr. Debashish Sengupta take you on this journey into Generation Y.

Life is good.

Marshall Goldsmith