Why Colgate's Embrace of Gen Z Reveals a New Workplace Leverage
Corporate stereotypes peg Gen Z workers as lazy or overly woke, yet Colgate-Palmolive, a $62 billion consumer products giant, sees a different reality. Colgate is revamping its leadership flow to tap into the ambitious, tech-savvy perspectives this generation brings. But this isn’t about managing generational divides—it’s about unlocking a system where fresh insights create compounding organizational advantage. “They’re pushing us to get better and to do things differently,” says Sally Massey, Colgate’s CHRO.
Gen Z isn’t lazy—they’re systemic catalysts, not anomalies
Conventional wisdom brands Gen Z as entitled or unmotivated, an expensive workforce risk that must be tolerated rather than embraced. Tech layoffs in 2024 often blamed younger employees' perceived attitude problems. But Colgate challenges this by shifting the organizational constraint from controlling behavior to harnessing innovation flow. They flattened the chain of command to cut the noise between senior leaders and entry-level staffers. This leverages generational diversity rather than bottlenecking ideas in traditional hierarchies.
For evidence, contrast Colgate with companies stuck in rigid command structures that isolate ideation to top executives, or firms that outsource innovation to consultants. Those systems waste the frontline know-how Gen Z naturally wields. This approach aligns with how dynamic work charts unlock faster organizational growth by decomposing hierarchical barriers. Instead of ignoring Gen Z's quirks, Colgate positions their tech fluency and curiosity as key levers of modern competitiveness.
Fresh tech skills are a strategic lever, not just a hiring trend
Meanwhile, financial powerhouse Stripe aggressively recruits Gen Z PhDs for their cutting-edge AI skills. Emily Glassberg Sands, Stripe’s head of data and AI, calls these entrants critical because they “know how to use the latest tools.” This surpasses traditional experience-based hiring, tapping the unfolding AI ecosystem as leverage infrastructure in talent acquisition.
Unlike older hire strategies that leaned on years of tenure, Stripe and Colgate both reorient hiring around adaptability and systems thinking. This matches emerging best practices in the tech sector, especially against competitors that cling to legacy recruitment methods. For operators, this signals a constraint shift from labor input to cognitive systems output—emphasizing workforce freshness and tooling mastery.
Tech-forward culture requires rewiring leadership’s relationship with talent
The leap isn’t only in hiring but in internal communication. Colgate’s CHRO Massey notes senior leaders seek direct input from juniors to stay connected and avoid hierarchical drift. This reduces the risk of “senior leadership isolation,” a well-known constraint weakening strategy execution. Paradigm crypto’s story echoes this: ranking executives found via Gen Z-centric channels like Discord reveal that unlocking talent requires accepting chaos as the cost of asymmetric insight.
Companies that treat Gen Z as risks miss the leverage of cross-generational idea flow. This connects with insights from how CEOs scale culture during pivots—leadership agility depends on removing positional bottlenecks and institutionalizing open feedback beyond tenure lines.
Hiring Gen Z signals deeper shifts in labor leverage and resilience
Colgate and Stripe’s embrace of Gen Z marks a strategic pivot from workforce stability to workforce system leverage. The constraint moves from monitoring output to distributing influence—generation by generation, role by role. This enables a scale of adaptive advantage built on technology fluency and fresh perspectives rather than rigid experience hierarchies.
Operators ignoring this face costly productivity drag and innovation drought. Businesses that harness Gen Z’s digital native skills and embed them in leadership loops gain a self-reinforcing system that compounds over time. “Buy audiences, not just products—the asset compounds,” applies equally to talent.
Related Tools & Resources
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is Colgate-Palmolive leveraging Gen Z workers?
Colgate is revamping its leadership flow to embrace Gen Z’s tech-savvy perspectives by flattening the chain of command and enabling direct input from junior staff, fostering innovation and organizational advantage.
Why does Colgate challenge stereotypes about Gen Z being lazy?
Colgate rejects the stereotype of Gen Z as entitled or unmotivated by viewing them as systemic catalysts who push for better practices and fresh ideas, leveraging their digital fluency to gain competitive edge.
What changes has Colgate implemented to improve communication with Gen Z employees?
Colgate flattened its leadership structure to reduce noise between senior leaders and entry-level employees, enabling direct feedback and reducing senior leadership isolation to stay connected and agile.
How does Stripe incorporate Gen Z talent into its workforce?
Stripe recruits Gen Z PhDs for their cutting-edge AI and systems thinking skills, focusing on adaptability and mastery of new tools instead of traditional experience, to maintain technological leadership.
What is the strategic significance of hiring Gen Z according to the article?
Hiring Gen Z signals a shift from workforce stability to system leverage, where influence is distributed across generations and roles, enabling adaptive advantage through technology fluency and fresh perspectives.
What risks do companies face by ignoring Gen Z talent?
Ignoring Gen Z’s digital native skills and innovative potential leads to productivity drag and innovation drought, while embracing them creates a self-reinforcing system that compounds organizational advantages.
How do Colgate and Stripe’s hiring strategies differ from traditional methods?
Both companies focus on cognitive systems output and adaptability rather than tenure or years of experience, leveraging fresh tech skills and open innovation flows to stay competitive.
What role does technology play in scaling leadership and culture?
Technology enables companies like Colgate to bypass traditional hierarchies, encouraging open feedback and unlocking asymmetric insights from younger employees through modern digital channels like Discord.