Gen Y Graduates to Change Business Culture

Young graduates have been challenged to pay greater attention to global poverty rather than simply focus on turning a profit for their company.

The Chief Executive of World Vision, Tim Costello, last night said that business graduates have moral responsibilities as corporate citizens, responsibilities which are under threat.

“Businesses and employees can’t be ignorant of the issues that are confronting the communities around us,” he said. “And in our region – the Asia Pacific – poverty is a major issue.”

Mr Costello, delivering the keynote address at the Monash University Marketing Awards, said that Corporate Social Responsibility has revolutionised the way companies operate and invest in Australia but that these notions were under attack from some quarters.

“There was unprecedented generosity displayed by Australian corporations in the wake of the Boxing Day Asian Tsunami,” Mr Costello said.

“But this corporate generosity was criticised by the Australian Shareholders’ Association that argued it was up to shareholders to be generous – not companies.”

However, he saw pressure on businesses to take a global perspective emerging from a new source – from the graduates themselves.

“We are finding today that the best and brightest of Generation Y are increasingly interviewing prospective companies rather than the other way around,” Mr Costello said.

“They are asking ‘what is this company doing to tackling the big issues of the world. In Australia and across the globe the campaign to Make Poverty History is resonating deeply with young people and they are demanding that action is taken.

“This is a generation that has grown up in prosperity, that hasn’t experienced recession and it is outraged that amid our wealth and consumerism we allow the big issues of the world to remain unsolved.

“To them there are no greater issues than poverty and climate change – they loom as the two greatest moral challenges of our time. The reality is this generation can make poverty history – it is a cold-hard, economic reality, but it will take everybody’s involvement,” he said.

The Marketing Awards are an annual event run by the Department of Marketing at Monash University to acknowledge outstanding students graduating this year. It brings together students with industry, peak professional bodies, not for profit organizations, senior member of the community and the university for this prestigious event.