If the Shoe Fits: is it Age or Attitude?
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
Everyone is talking about Steve Ballmer’s words in a WSJ interview, “Maybe I’m an emblem of an old era, and I have to move on,” and the agreement it drew from Salesforce.com’s CEO Marc Benioff.
Benioff doesn’t care about age, born in 1964 he’s no spring chicken, but he does care about attitude.
“The world has changed. The companies that are struggling in the market today have not gone cloud. They have not gone social. They have not gone mobile. They are still trying to sell the same old stuff.”
Consider all the folks you didn’t hire because they “didn’t fit in,” which was a nice way of saying they were older than you/your friends.
Now consider that in 2009 80% of “total entrepreneurial activity” was over 35 and that hasn’t changed.
No one accuses Salesforce.com of lagging behind or slacking on innovation.
Larry Page turned 40 this year, but Google isn’t exactly sitting back on its laurels or ignoring whatever part of the changing landscape they aren’t changing themselves.
If someone said they knew a great 46 year old design guy how interested would you be?
Is 46 a turnoff?
Oops; you just missed out on Jony Ive.
Image credit: HikingArtist
