Why bridging generational divides is so important in business

Emma Davidson, director and CEO at Affinity Capital, discusses why meeting different generational needs is crucial in financial services.

It’s widely acknowledged that the social, economic and political environment that people are born into has a huge influence on how they view the world. Whether it’s world wars, recessions or the rise of social media, each generation has its own unique behavioural traits that can be linked to the defining events of the time.

At Affinity Capital, we strongly believe there are important lessons to be learned from generational divides, and it’s a topic we’re very passionate about. We feel our ability to harness our individual skills and outlooks, while understanding the motivations of our clients is a key part of the company’s success.

Emma Davidson, director and CEO at Affinity Capital, said the business is committed to bridging the divide between baby boomers and the subsequent generations of X, Y and Z.

“Affinity is a team of female Generation X and millennial entrepreneurs that work in a niche financial sector where these characteristics are few and far between,” she explained.

“We believe that the generational differences between the majority of our clients and ourselves ended up creating a space within our partnerships where opportunity and creativity has been allowed to thrive.

Playing the generation game

According to Emma, she hasn’t always embraced her millennial roots in the workplace. Earlier in her career, she emulated her role models and mentors, who were typically men from the baby boomer and X generations.

This approach was tried and tested in the financial services industry and it worked – up to a point. However, she feels change was needed to truly bring maximum value to clients.

“My light bulb moment came when I realised that the true success for my clients and their businesses was not me trying to be a male baby boomer,” she stated.

“Instead, being a female millennial had far more impact and would prove truly valuable to my partners as we built businesses together.”

Of course, Affinity’s ongoing success is also due to the fact that we’ve identified an opportunity to dramatically improve the services available to clients within the structured investments space.

Structures can offer a range of benefits to investors, and we’re keen to leverage our knowledge and experience of working with multiple generations of clients to build exciting, prosperous partnerships.

For additional information on Affinity Capital or structured investments, please watch more of our videos by clicking here. If you’d like to learn more about generational trends, visit our article library.