Executives like David Solomon of Goldman Sachs say experience trumps everything in business, including brains. But Ricardo Amper, founder and CEO of the $1.25 billion software company Incode Technologies, believes Gen Z’s naivety is a professional blessing rather than a career curse.
“My belief [is] that it is important to come out with a fresh mind and first principles. This is why young people are particularly useful in the technology field, because they are less biased,” he explains. Fortune. “I think too much knowledge is actually bad in technology: you’re biased.”
The Gen X entrepreneur knows exactly what talent he needs after spending more than two decades founding and leading companies to unicorn status. In 2000, Amper founded the social media company La Burbuja Networks.
And a few years later, he had a success: the businessman from Mexico launched the functional beverage company Amco Foods in 2003 and grew it into one of the main competitors in the market. The largest bread company in the world, $263 billion titan Grupo Bimbo, acquired AMCO in 2004.
Ampers marked his third stint as a founder in 2015 when he launched Incode, an AI-powered identity verification company. For the past 25 years, he has had a front-row seat to testing the qualities of employees that contribute to success.
“Character is more important than experience… Now, with [generative] AI and ChatGPT are more real,” Amper continues. “What I’m looking for is courage… People who have proven their ability to demonstrate integrity and character are something that I really care about, because entrepreneurship is mostly about perseverance, character and adversity, and so you need people like that around you.”
Balancing dispassionate Gen Z with older, emotionally mature employees
While Amper is a big supporter of younger workers in tech, he’s not completely blind to the downsides of this generation. Tech-savvy Gen Zers can benefit from being new to the job market: they’re fresh-faced and completely oblivious to the intricacies of the industry, allowing them to focus on the task at hand. But the CEO of Incode specifies that the naivety of young employees must be counterbalanced in a well-oiled company.
“It’s easier to find unbiased people as young people, but you have to balance that, because you’re also going to find people who are less emotionally competent. These abilities develop through experiences,” says Amper. “So it’s a combination. You hire young people, but you also have to hire older people. [employees].”
“You can find people who have experienced difficult things and who bring it to the company, but also young people who may not have experienced that, but who have this other side,” he continues.
CEOs who see young workers as the next lucky charm
Amper’s assertion that young, inexperienced Gen Zers are the secret sauce of tech companies is playing out in real time. Last year, a Gen Z-based AI company entered the scene and energized the war rooms of America’s tech billionaires: DeepSeek. The Chinese powerhouse, led by CEO Liang Wenfeng, attributes its success to its young talents.
“If you’re pursuing short-term goals, it’s best to find people with immediate experience,” Liang said in a statement. 2023 interview with Chinese media 36 Kr. “But if you look at the long term, experience is not so important. Basic skills, creativity and passion are much more important.”
Unlike his computer-hungry competitors, DeepSeek’s millennial founder is looking to Gen Z and social scientists to lead his revolutionary AI. Liang even added, unconventionally, that work experience was not at the top of his list when it came to who to hire at the unicorn company.
“Having done similar work before doesn’t mean you can do that job,” the CEO insisted, adding that young, inexperienced workers are more innovative than seasoned AI experts who can get bogged down in their own knowledge. “When you do something, experienced people will tell you without hesitation that you have to do it one way. But inexperienced people will repeatedly explore and seriously think about how to do it, and then find a solution that fits the current situation.”
Even Fortune 500 companies making their fortunes outside of tech are welcoming Gen Z workers, instead of pushing them aside. $62 billion retail giant Colgate-Palmolive is leaning on young digital natives to help its heritage brand grow; Sally Massey, director of human resources at Colgate, said Fortune that Generation Z has in-demand skills and new perspectives on the future of work.
“[Gen Z] have grown up with technology. They grew up in a very different way than some of the other generations in the organization,” Massey said recently. said. “They bring with them new ideas, new perspectives, curiosity… They push us to improve and do things differently – I think that’s great. »
